Table of Contents
An approved expense is not finished until it becomes an accounting entry. The employee uploads the receipt and the manager approves it, but at month end someone still has to post that line to the accounting system with the right account code, the right VAT split and the right cost centre. This article walks step by step through how expense data is transferred to an accounting system or ERP such as Logo, Mikro, Netsis or SAP: which fields move, how a manual Excel import differs from an accounting system integration, how to handle the hardest part (determining the account code), and a go-live checklist. The account codes and KKEG rules described here follow Turkish practice: the Turkish Uniform Chart of Accounts (Tekdüzen Hesap Planı) and Turkish tax law.
What has to move when expense data goes to the accounting system?
When an expense line moves to the accounting system, it must carry VAT, the counterparty, the cost centre and the document details alongside the amount. Transferring only the total leaves the accounting team with an incomplete entry and pushes the matching work to month end.
Each transferred line usually contains:
- Expense line: date, description, amount excluding VAT and expense category (meals, accommodation, transport, stationery and so on).
- VAT: rate and amount, separately. The amount that goes to input VAT must be separated from the expense amount.
- Counterparty or employee: the employee who spent the money (for a payable to staff or for settling a business advance) or the supplier who issued the invoice.
- Cost centre: the department, branch or unit the expense is charged to. Teams using SAP usually call this field the "cost center" (in Turkish, "masraf yeri").
- Project: the project code, if costs are tracked by project.
- Document details: document type (receipt, invoice, e-Fatura, e-Arşiv), document number, document date and the seller's tax number.
- Currency and exchange rate: for spending abroad, the foreign-currency amount and the rate used.
When one of these fields is missing, the entry either lands in the wrong account or the accounting team completes the line by hand. The quality of the transfer depends on the quality of the data at the moment the expense is first entered.
Manual Excel import or accounting system integration?
For a small number of expenses an Excel import may be enough; as volume and the number of companies grow, an accounting system integration reduces the cost of errors and time. The difference between the two methods usually shows not in the first month but a few months later. The integration column in the table summarises what you should expect from a well-built integration.
| Topic | Manual Excel import | Accounting system integration |
|---|---|---|
| Data preparation | Expenses are exported and columns are rearranged by hand to fit the system's template | Approved expenses are prepared for transfer by defined rules |
| Account code | The accountant picks it for every line or fills it with a formula | Determined from mapping rules |
| Error handling | Usually noticed during import or at reconciliation | Failed lines collect in a separate queue and are corrected and resent |
| Risk of double transfer | The same file can be uploaded twice | A transferred line is marked and not sent a second time |
| Best suited to | Low volume, a single company, a simple chart of accounts | Multi-branch structures, subsidiaries, high expense volume |
The Excel method is not bad; the problem is repeating the same conversion by hand every month. Most teams searching for a Logo integration, a Mikro integration or a Netsis integration are teams that have realised this repetition has become unsustainable.
How is the account code determined in an accounting integration?
The account code is determined from details such as the expense category, cost centre and company, either through a rule table or by combining the codes of those details. The hardest part of an accounting integration is not moving the data but making sure every line lands in the right account.
There are two common methods.
1. Rule table. Each row links a combination of conditions to an account code. The account codes below are examples only and will differ in your own chart of accounts:
| Subsidiary | Category | Cost centre | Tag | Account code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Trading | Meals | Sales | — | 760.01.001 |
| A Trading | Meals | Head Office | — | 770.01.001 |
| A Trading | Accommodation | Sales | Customer visit | 760.02.004 |
| B Logistics | Fuel | Operations | — | 740.03.002 |
A rule table is transparent and auditable: anyone can see why a line landed in a given account. The downside is that the number of rows grows quickly as categories and cost centres multiply.
2. Code composition. The account code is built from parts; for example, the cost centre's GL code and the category's GL code are placed side by side. If the sales cost centre's code is 760 and the meals category's code is 01.001, the result is 760.01.001. If your chart of accounts is built on this logic, you manage two short lists instead of a table with hundreds of rows.
In Masraff, the expense account is determined by two methods: table-based account determination (Tablodan Hesap Belirleme) and detailed account determination (Detaylı Hesap Belirleme). The VAT account comes from VAT account determination (KDV Hesap Belirlemesi), and the employee account (195/320) comes from the user's current account code settings.
Think about VAT separately: input VAT is usually collected in a single account (191 in the Turkish Uniform Chart of Accounts), while the other side is a payable to staff, a business advance or the supplier's account.
How are KKEG items separated during the transfer?
Items that qualify as KKEG (in Turkish tax law, expenses that are not deductible and are added back to the tax base) should be flagged separately during the transfer, so the amount to add back at period end is easy to find. Administrative fines and undocumented spending are typical examples.
In practice, two points matter:
- Set the KKEG flag when the expense is entered. Sorting through hundreds of lines at year end is both difficult and error-prone.
- Only part of a line may be KKEG. In that case the line is split into an expense part and a KKEG part during the transfer.
Which account or memorandum account is used to track KKEG varies from company to company. The legal framework is Turkish Corporate Tax Law No. 5520 and Income Tax Law No. 193; always confirm the tax classification with your mali müşavir (certified public accountant).
What should be checked before go-live?
Before an accounting system integration goes live, the chart-of-accounts mapping, a test transfer, the error queue and the period-close flow should each be verified. The list below gathers the minimum steps for a first month without surprises:
- Chart-of-accounts mapping: Does every combination of category and cost centre land in an account code? No combination should remain unmapped.
- Counterparty and employee records: Do the employee and supplier codes match the records in the accounting system?
- Test transfer: Transfer a representative batch of expenses from a past month to a test environment and compare the amount, VAT, cost centre and document number line by line.
- Error queue: Where does a rejected line show up, who corrects it and how is it resent?
- KKEG and VAT split: Are lines flagged as KKEG, and lines that are partly KKEG, split correctly?
- Period close: How will an expense that arrives late for a closed period be handled? After which date does the transfer move to the next period?
- Ownership: Who starts the transfer, who approves it and who follows up on errors?
Conclusion
Transferring expense data to an accounting system is not a matter of moving files; it is a matter of setting rules. If the fields are collected completely, the account code is set by a clear rule, and KKEG and VAT are separated at entry, the transfer works the same way every month. Masraff offers integrations with more than 20 ERP and accounting systems; details are on the integrations page. To look at the expense process as a whole, see Masraff expense management.