Vendors, shares and recurring costs

An initiative's costs are what you pay to run it. When those costs arrive as bills or card charges in a connected finance system (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Brex or Ramp), the initiative's vendors decide which of them book to it. When they're a fixed amount every period, a recurring cost records them for you.

The Vendors tab

Open the initiative's Costs → Vendors. Each row is a vendor named somewhere for this initiative:

Suggestions — From template if the initiative's template names it, Added here if someone on the initiative did. A vendor named only here finds matching bills for suggestions, and books nothing by itself.
New Bills — what books the vendor's new bills here: an allocation rule or a vendor mapping, with the platform and this initiative's share. Its chip says whether it does:
- Books here — new bills book to this initiative at the share shown.
- Awaiting approval — a draft allocation rule, which books nothing until an Owner, Admin or finance reviewer approves it.
- Not in effect — an active rule whose dates don't include today.
- Replaced by rules — your account books this platform through allocation rules, so this vendor mapping books nothing. See Allocation rules and accounting periods.
Booked — what the initiative's cost entries from this vendor add up to, and Last Cost, the latest one.

Anyone in the account can open the tab. Removing a vendor, or changing its share or matching, is in the ⋯ menu at the end of its row.

Adding a vendor and suggestions from your books

Find Vendors in Your Books opens the initiative's Overview at its suggestions panel. With a finance system connected, name a vendor at the bottom of that panel (under Missing a vendor? once the initiative has one): a Vendor name, how to Match it, and a Cost type, then Add vendor. Roiva looks for that vendor's bills and card charges from the last 180 days. The panel is also on the Costs tab while the initiative has no costs.

What it finds shows under Suggested from your books. Tick the rows this initiative pays for and choose Add selected costs:

The bills become cost entries on the initiative, at the initiative's share of the vendor where it has one.
For an Owner, Admin or finance reviewer, accepting also creates an allocation rule, so the vendor's bills dated from today book here as they sync. For anyone else, accepting adds the past bills only.
If a rule already routes that vendor to another initiative, whoever can create the rule sees Configure vendor routes, which asks how this initiative joins it: Even split, Custom % (up to 100% in all; what's left books to no initiative), or Skip (backfill only). Then choose Apply with these routes.

Suggestions are only as fresh as the last sync. An Owner or Admin can choose Sync now on the panel.

Exact name or contains

A vendor matches bills one of two ways:

Exact name — the vendor's whole name, ignoring case, punctuation and endings like Inc or LLC. "Google" matches "Google LLC" but not "Google Cloud EMEA" or "Google Ads". A vendor you add matches this way unless you pick otherwise.
Contains — any vendor name containing it. A template's vendors, and any vendor added before there was a choice, match this way.

To switch, use Match exact name only or Match names containing … in the row's menu. The initiative's own vendor and its vendor mappings change right away and apply from their next sync. Changing an allocation rule's matching takes an Owner, Admin or finance reviewer, and changes the rule for every initiative on it. A template's vendor keeps matching the way the template does.

A vendor's bills can pay for more than one thing: a Google Workspace bill that's a fifth this initiative's, say. Leave out the rest, because it serves other work. Choose Set share in the row's menu and give this initiative's percentage for each rule or mapping that books the vendor. What's left books to no initiative.

This matters when two initiatives both book one vendor. Two vendor mappings that match the same bill each book the whole bill, so it counts twice across your portfolio. Give each mapping a share, adding up to 100% or less, and each books its part. The connection's Initiatives tab warns when a bill has been booked in full for more than one initiative. An allocation rule's shares can't add up to more than 100%, so it never counts a bill twice.

Anyone can set a vendor mapping's share. Setting an allocation rule's share takes an Owner, Admin or finance reviewer.

Apply this split to bills dated from decides what happens to bills already booked:

Today (the default) leaves every bill already booked as it is.
An earlier date books the bills from then again at the new shares. Before anything changes, Roiva shows what moves between initiatives, and you confirm with Re-split past bills. Bills in a locked accounting period, or whose journal has been posted, stay as booked.

A mapping's new share applies at its connection's next sync.

Removing a vendor

Remove vendor stops the vendor suggesting bills here and, for an Owner, Admin or finance reviewer, takes the initiative off the vendor's allocation rule. A vendor mapping belongs to its connection, so the menu's Edit mapping on … is where you change it, and a template's vendor can't be removed. Costs already booked stay either way.

Card spend counted once

Brex and Ramp post their card charges into QuickBooks or Xero, so with both connected the same charge could arrive twice. Roiva counts a charge paid from the card platform's account in your books from Brex or Ramp and leaves the books' copy out. Other cards, checks, cash and bills still count from the books. A QuickBooks bill paid by Brex or Ramp card books only the part the card didn't pay. The suggestions panel says when charges it found are counted under the card platform.

Recurring costs

A cost that's the same every period, such as a license or a support contract, doesn't need typing in each time. Open Costs → Recurring Costs and choose New Recurring Cost:

Cost type, Cost category (CapEx or OpEx) and Amount per period
Repeats — monthly, quarterly or annually
First period and, for a cost that ends, Last period
Notes, copied onto every cost entry it records

Periods are calendar months, quarters or years, charged in full: a monthly cost starting mid-month records that whole month. Saving records every period from the first one up to the current one straight away, and Roiva adds each new period as it begins. Generate now in the row's menu catches up without waiting.

Editing the schedule leaves the entries it already recorded alone. A new amount applies to periods not yet recorded. Turn off Active to stop new periods without deleting anything, or Delete the schedule; the cost entries it recorded stay on the initiative either way. Anyone in the account can set up a recurring cost.

Locked accounting periods

Once your finance team locks an accounting period, the cost entries in it can't be changed or deleted. A recurring cost skips a period in a locked month and says so when it runs, and a re-split leaves those bills as booked. See Allocation rules and accounting periods.

Adding costs and value entries — recording a cost by hand, and importing a spreadsheet
Linking connections to initiatives — vendor mappings on a finance connection