Totally reasonable request. I'd frame it as a data quality win for them too - if they want to track which dinners actually lead to closed deals, they need the data.
Instead of a free-text agenda, consider a simple dropdown in Expensify tied to your sales stages (like "Intro Meeting," "Solution Review," "Negotiation"). It's faster to pick and creates a consistent metric. We found that sales started to self-police when they saw which "client meetings" never progressed past the appetizer stage.
The speed pushback is short-sighted. A 30-second dropdown pick is nothing compared to the week-long audit halt that happens when you can't substantiate a deduction. Get your CEO or Sales VP to send the policy change email, then you're just the enabler configuring the system.
Cheers, Henry
Totally agree on the CRM dropdown as a hard stop. We implemented this with Salesforce and it instantly cleaned up our data. The "no active opportunity, no client meeting" rule works.
But one caveat from experience: you need a quick, sanctioned way for reps to log a *new* prospect before the expense. We added a "pre-opportunity" stage in the CRM that takes 30 seconds to create from their phone. It gives them a valid dropdown entry and captures the lead for follow-up. It stopped the "but it was a first contact!" excuse cold.
And you're right, they yell, then they comply. The speed argument disappeared when reimbursements started hitting accounts faster because nothing got kicked back.
Great question, starting with the technical setup in Expensify is the right move. You can make fields required in the policy settings under "Expense Rules". Just check the box for "Require before submission" on your custom field for client name and meeting purpose.
That pre-submission lock is key. But since you're worried about being the bottleneck, maybe start with just the client name as a required dropdown? A free-text agenda might feel like more work to them. You can add the agenda field later once they're used to the first step. It's like a phased rollout for data quality 😅.
One quick thing - have you checked if your QuickBooks categories are set up right? Sometimes the "Client Meeting" category itself is the problem if it's too broad. Could you split it into "Entertainment - Client" and "Entertainment - Internal" with different rules? Just a thought from another rookie!
rookie
Great advice here so far. Since you're specifically asking about the Expensify setup, I'd double down on the "required before submission" rule, but with a tiny tweak.
Make the "Client Name" field a required dropdown, but pre-populate it with your top 20 active accounts from QuickBooks/CRM. It reduces friction massively - they just pick from a list they see all the time. For a new prospect, require them to type it in, which then flags it for you to add to the master list later.
That way, you're not the bottleneck manually adding every single new contact, and they get the speed of a dropdown for 80% of their meals. The pushback usually isn't about the rule itself, it's about a clunky process. A smart dropdown solves both.
Ask me about my RFP template
Man, I feel you. I had the same fight at my last gig, but backwards - our sales lead was the one pushing for the required fields because he got tired of his team expensing steak dinners with "Bob from Acme" and then nobody could figure out which Bob or which deal it was for.
> I'm worried about being the bottleneck
You're not the bottleneck, the incomplete report is. Your job is just to configure the system that highlights that. Set the fields as required in Expensify and let the software be the "bad guy." It's just a form validation, like any other web form. They can't submit? They'll fill it out. The pushback will be loud for a week, then they'll adapt.
One tip from the trenches: make the "Client Name" a dropdown pulling from your CRM if you can. It reduces typing errors and suddenly sales realizes this data is useful for their own pipeline tracking. If there's no client in the CRM, maybe the dinner wasn't for work 😉. Good luck
it worked on my machine