How Accounting Mappings Work in Slash

Overview

Once you've connected your accounting software and set up your basic settings, the next step is setting up mappings. Mappings automatically fill in the right account, class, department, location, project, vendor, customer, subsidiary, or custom field on your incoming transactions, based on rules you set.

You set a rule once, and Slash applies it to future transactions. You can still change any mapped value on a single transaction during review.

How Mappings Work

A mapping is a rule that links something in Slash, like a card, merchant, or payment recipient, to a value in your accounting software, like an account or class. When a transaction matches the rule, Slash fills in that value for you.

In Mapping Settings, you can create rules based on:

• Customer: The customer on an invoice (e.g., "Acme Corp").
• Recipient: The recipient of an outgoing payment (e.g., "Adobe Inc.").
• Payer: The payer on an incoming transfer (e.g., "Ticketmaster Revenue").
• Merchant: The merchant on a card purchase (e.g., always map "Starbucks" to "Coffee Expense").
• Merchant category: A spending category (e.g., all "Restaurants" transactions to "Employee Meals").
• Card: A specific Slash card (e.g., a Facebook Ads card to "Marketing Expenses").
• Card group: All cards in a group (e.g., all Engineering Team cards to "Engineering Expenses").
• Cardholder department: All cardholders in a department (e.g., "Marketing").
• Cardholder location: All cardholders in a location (e.g., "New York").
• Virtual account: A specific virtual account (e.g., "Primary account").

For each rule, you choose which field in your accounting software to fill in, like QuickBooks Account or QuickBooks Class.

Custom Fields and Dimensions

If your accounting software supports custom fields and dimensions, you can manage them from the Fields tab in accounting settings. These fields can appear as columns in your accounting tables and can be used in mapping rules.

If your team updates many dimension values at once, use the bulk update tools where available. Disabled values are hidden from selectors, so reviewers only see active options.

Rule Priority

When more than one rule sets the same field, Slash uses the highest-priority match. From highest to lowest:

1. Customer
2. Recipient
3. Payer
4. Merchant
5. Merchant category
6. Card
7. Card group
8. Cardholder department
9. Cardholder location
10. Virtual account

For example, say a card is mapped to a "Marketing" account, and you've also mapped Starbucks to "Coffee Expense." If that card is used at Starbucks, the Starbucks rule applies, since merchant rules rank higher than card rules.

How to Set Up Mapping Rules

Step 1: Open Mapping Settings

Click Accounting in the left sidebar, then click Settings in the top-right corner. Select the Mapping Settings tab.

Step 2: Pick What You Want to Map

The Mapping rules page lists each rule type, such as Card and Card Group. Next to each one is a list of fields you can map to, like QuickBooks Account, Class, Department, Location, Project, Vendor, and Customer. Each field shows how many active mappings it has.

Click the field you want to map to.

Step 3: Create the Rule

1. Select one or more items on the left. For example, you can pick several cards at once.
2. Select the value to map them to on the right, like "6000 · Advertising & Marketing."
3. Click Save.

To remove a rule, click the trash icon next to it. Click Back to return to the full list.

What Happens After You Set Up Mappings

When a transaction settles or is refunded, Slash creates an accounting entry and applies your mapping rules. The entry appears in the In Review tab with its fields already filled in. You can edit any field before approving it for sync with you accounting software.

Pending transactions don't get accounting entries or mappings until they settle or are refunded.

Need More Help?

If your mapping rules aren't applying as expected, check that the accounts, classes, and other values exist in your accounting software. Slash pulls these values directly from your software, so changes need to be made there first.

For ongoing issues, contact support through in-app chat.