Receipts for expenses
Overview
Brex makes it easy to track receipts with automated receipt-matching technology. Most receipts are auto-generated and attached to your expense. You can also manually add receipts via the methods below. Brex also auto-verifies receipts by comparing them with the expense within minutes. The matching process takes the date, amount, and merchant fields into account, and will consider the receipt verified as long as it matches two out of the three. To save even more time, you can set up automatic email forwarding for your email inbox to send receipts to Brex. This is especially helpful for recurring expenses. You can upload receipts as a .pdf, .jpg, .png, or .xml file. Note: Employees located in Mexico may need to use an .xml as a CFDI file to meet local tax authority requirements.
Auto-generated receipts
When you transact with a number of common vendors (including Amazon, major airlines, etc.), a virtual receipt will be automatically attached to the expense in the Brex dashboard. We’ll send an alert that the receipt was added and no further action is needed. You can enable or disable this feature in Company settings > Expenses > Compliance > Enable auto-generated receipts orTurn off. We can’t auto-generate receipts for all merchants, only those that share certain expense details through the card network — like items purchased. We then gather this information to reconstruct detailed receipts that meet IRS and audit requirements. Receipts can also be automatically generated on expenses with less common vendors, either at the time the expense is made or 1-3 days afterward. In most cases, the data collected on these auto-generated receipts will include merchant details, items purchased, and amount spent. After the expense clears, the itemized receipt will be available for review on the Brex mobile app and dashboard, and can be found using the steps below. Step 1: Go to either Expenses or Wallet in your dashboard, then select the expense. Step 2: Under Details you’ll see the spend limit, receipt, and memo fields with Added by Brex Assistant.
For Brex travel
When you book with Brex travel, we’ll automatically generate a receipt for you and attach it to the associated expense, so long as you have auto-receipts turned on. Learn more in this help article. Note: Post-paid and partial-paid bookings will not generate a receipt.
Auto-validate receipts
PremiumEnterpriseSmart card
We can automatically validate receipts to confirm information. If a receipt isn’t validated, it’ll be flagged for review. If there’s a mismatch, you may get the error message Receipt failed verification. Receipts are considered validated if at least 2 out of the 3 fields (merchant, amount, purchase date) match the expense. To enable this feature admins can follow these steps: Step 1: Go to Company settings. Step 2: Click Expenses. Step 3: Under the Compliance section, toggle on Auto-validate receipts.
Attaching receipts to a specific expense
In the dashboard
Step 1: Go to Tasks > Expenses. Step 2: Click on the expense you want to attach the receipt to. Step 3: Scroll to the Receipt section in the menu on the right, then click the + to add a file or drag the receipt to attach it to the expense.
In the app
Step 1: Tap Wallet to get to the Expenses page. Step 2: Tap the + symbol to attach a photo or PDF of the receipt so Brex can match it to the correct expense.
Via your mobile phone
After selecting the specific expense in your dashboard on the Expenses page, you can choose Upload receipt from mobile. This sends a push notification to your phone that prompts you to take a photo of your receipt and automatically attachs to your expense. Note: You’ll need to have the Brex app installed in order to use this feature.
Via SMS notification
If you've enabled SMS notifications, each time you transact with your Brex card, you'll receive a text message prompting you to take a photo of the receipt and respond via SMS with the photo. The photo of this receipt is then automatically matched to the relevant expense and stored in your Brex dashboard.
Via slack
If you have the Brex app on Slack, your whole team will receive Slack messages about all expenses that violate your company’s expense policy — particularly regarding missing receipts or memos. To resolve the alert, please follow the steps below. Step 1: Reply directly to the Slack message in a thread with the missing information. Send a receipt image as an attachment or memo as a message. Step 2: When doing this for the first time, grant Slack permission to access your Brex account by signing into Brex. Step 3: Wait for a Slack message confirming that the information has been uploaded to Brex.
Via push notification
If you have push notifications enabled for card expenses, you’ll receive an alert when one comes through that needs a receipt attached to maintain compliance. You can upload the receipt as follows: Step 1: In the alert, tap Add receipt. Step 2: When your Brex app opens, take a photo of the receipt. You can also tap Select in the lower left corner to choose an existing photo or screenshot from your gallery. Step 3: If you’re satisfied with the photo, tap Keep to upload it. Note: You can only upload a receipt via a push notification if you’re using an IOS operating system.
Attaching receipts to any expense
In the app
Step 1: Tap the Inbox icon and then tap Add receipts.
Step 2: Tap the + symbol to attach a photo or PDF of the receipt for our system to match.
Via the Brex browser extension
Step 1: Download the browser extension for Chrome or Safari. (Firefox support is coming soon.)
Step 2: Click the extension icon at the top of your browser. Under the Receipts tab, upload an image or click Screenshot current tab to automatically attach the receipt to the expense.
Via email forwarding
For online expenses, you'll likely receive receipts by email. To match these receipts to expenses in your Brex account, forward the email receipt to receipts@brex.com. The receipt can be part of the email body or an attachment.
Note: We accept typo addresses (receipt@brex.com, reciepts@brex.com, reciept@brex.com), and the email receipt must be forwarded from an email address associated with your Brex account/your account copilot.
You can find a copy of a receipt by clicking on the expense on the Expenses page and looking under Attached receipts on the right. You will only see a receipt if it was successfully matched with an expense.
Only receipts less than two months old will match automatically.
If you're having trouble matching receipts to expenses via email forwarding, please try manually attaching your email receipt by following these steps:
Step 1: On your email browser, select the option to print.
Step 2: On the printer options page, select Save as PDF.
Step 3: Manually embed the expense receipt into the email body or upload it as an attachment.
Attaching receipts to multiple expenses
In the dashboard
If you have numerous expenses that need to have receipts attached, you can upload up to 10 receipts all at once via your Brex dashboard. Step 1: In your Brex dashboard, go to Tasks > Expenses. Step 2: Click Add missing receipts > Select files and choose your receipt files. Step 3: Our system will automatically match your chosen files with the corresponding expense. If any of the files can’t be matched, you’ll see an alert that [X] receipts could not be matched. Here, you can click View details for more information on why the error occurred. If it cannot be resolved, you can upload your receipt to the expense(s) manually.
Downloading receipts
Download single receipt
Any user can download a copy of a receipt they’ve already submitted. Step 1: In your dashboard, go to Expenses or Wallet. Step 2: Click on the expense that you’d like to download the receipt of. Step 3: Under Receipt, you’ll see a tile with an image of that expense’s receipt. Click the download icon to the right of the tile. Your receipt will download automatically as a PNG.
Download receipts in bulk
Account admins, card admins, and bookkeepers can download receipts in bulk by following the steps to download a transaction report, and filtering by Receipt. This will narrow your expenses down to only those that have attached receipts, which you can then narrow further.
Lyft integration for receipt matching
As part of our efforts to provide a more seamless employee experience, we’re partnering with Lyft as an expense management provider in their app. This allows you to configure your Brex account information in the Lyft app and have all receipts sent directly to Brex without any action required. Receipts from Lyft will be automatically matched to the expense on your Brex account in the same way they would be if you’d sent the email yourself. You can set up a business profile on Lyft and select Brex as your expense management system by following the steps below. Step 1: Open the Lyft app and tap the three lines in the top left of your screen to open the menu. Step 2: Tap View profile under your name. Step 3: Open Business profiles under Account settings. Step 4: Create or update your business profile using the same email address as your Brex account for Work email. Select Brex under Receipt forwarding.
After the setup, you and your employees can select a business profile when taking a ride for work, and everything else will be taken care of. When the ride is completed, Lyft will send a receipt to the email address in your business profile and to Brex. We’ll then automatically match the receipt to the corresponding expense. Once we’ve processed the receipt, you’ll receive an email notification that the receipt was successfully matched. You can also add a note in the Lyft app which will populate the Memo field in Brex.
Google Workspace add-on for receipt matching
The Google Workspace add-on identifies potential expense receipts by checking emails for these keywords: payment, receipt, invoice, Mastercard, and order. Emails containing these terms are sent to Brex. Receipts are matched when included as attachments or directly within the email body.
Your organization’s Google Workspace admin can set up receipt forwarding for your entire Gmail organization by installing our official Google Workspace add-on. Note: If you’re already using Gmail forwarding rules, you don’t need to set up the Google Workspace add-on. Step 1: Go to our add-on listing. Step 2a: If you’re installing the add-on for your own Google account, Click Install > Continue. Review and grant permissions for the add-on to run in your Google Workspace. You can review how your email data is collected and secured in our Privacy Policy. Step 2b: If you’re an admin of the organization's Google Workspace, Click Admin install > Continue. Choose to install the add-on for everyone in your Google Workspace organization or certain groups. You can install this add-on for gmail accounts not associated with Brex accounts, but the receipts won’t be delivered to Brex. Step 3: Click Finish. The add-on may take up to a day to finish installing for your organization. When installed, the Brex Workspace icon will be visible on the Gmail side panel of members of your organization. Note: You may need to click the arrow to expand the toolbar, first.
Step 4: Users can turn on automatic receipt collection by clicking on the Brex Workspace icon to open the side panel, then toggling the switch on. Toggling this switch causes emails with the Receipt to be sent to Brex label to be forwarded to Brex within the next hour. It will send receipts from relevant emails on a once-hourly basis. We recommend not modifying your labels and filters to make sure the app runs correctly.
Full Google Marketplace app install instructions can be found here. To turn off your individual automatic receipt collection, you can toggle off the switch. This clears the labels and filters and disables daily receipt collection. If the Workspace app is uninstalled without toggling off the switch, receipt collection will still continue for your Gmail account. Admins can find full Google Workspace app uninstallation instructions here. However, we strongly encourage you to have your users turn off receipt collection first.
Gmail forwarding rules
Note: If you’re already using the Google Workspace add-on, you don’t need to set up Gmail forwarding rules, too. Step 1: Go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP and add receipts+forwarding@brex.com as a forwarding address in Gmail. Step 2: Download this file with suggested forwarding rules. Step 3: Go to Filters and Blocked Addresses and click Import Filters > Choose File. Choose the file you downloaded and click Open File. Note: You might receive an error message when importing the filters if Step 1 wasn’t completed. Double-check that the forwarding address is added and there are no typos.
Step 4: If you’d prefer to only send certain emails to Brex, click on an example of an email you want to forward and select Filter messages like these. Create a filter and select Forward it to: receipts+forwarding@brex.com. You’ll receive an email confirmation from Brex when we have confirmed your email forwarding request.
Full Gmail instructions can be found here.
Outlook forwarding rules
Filter emails to send to Brex: Step 1: In Mail View, select Rules > Create rule > Advanced Options. Step 2: Choose the conditions of the emails you want forwarded. Your options will be based on the email you have selected. Click Next when you’re done. Step 3: Mark the checkbox for forward it to people or public group, select people or public group, and add receipts+forwarding@brex.com. Click OK and then Finish.
Lost receipts
If you don’t have a receipt for a specific expense, the expense’s owner can click Lost or missing receipt? in the expense’s details window to generate an affidavit. This option is only selectable if the expense’s policy requires a receipt and there isn’t already one attached. Some expense categories, such as transactions with airlines, hotels, and car rentals cannot have an affidavit generated due to IRS requirements. For those expenses, the Lost or missing receipt? option will be grayed out.
Troubleshooting
If you have trouble uploading a receipt, we recommend saving the document as a different file type and trying again. For example, if your receipt is in .jpeg form, try saving it as a .pdf before re-attempting to upload. If you're still having problems, please contact Brex Support.