Creating Departments

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.pexcard.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Creating Departments in PEX: A Complete Setup Guide for Administrators

Welcome to PEX! This guide walks you through setting up departments. By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear structure for organizing your cardholders by department, controlling spend at the department level, and automating expense coding to streamline reconciliation. Setting up departments in PEX involves three key components:

1. Creating Department Tags – Establish department categories in Tag Manager
2. Configuring Spend Rules – Set spending controls for each department
3. Automating Coding with Auto Tagger – Automatically assign departments to transactions based on cardholder

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When to Set Up Your Department Structure

The best time to think about departments is when you order cards. As you’re deciding which employees need PEX cards, you’re already thinking about their roles, responsibilities, and spending needs—this is the perfect moment to plan your department structure. Before placing your card order, consider:

• Which departments will use PEX? List every team or cost center that needs purchasing power.
• What are each department’s spending patterns? Field teams may need fuel and hardware stores; marketing may need advertising and professional services.
• Who approves expenses for each department? This helps you plan approval workflows later.
• Do departments have different budget limits? This informs your spend rules.

By mapping out your departments before cards arrive, you can have your GL codes (Tag Manager) configured, cardholder groups created, and spend rules ready to go. When your cards are activated, every transaction will flow into the right department bucket from day one—no retroactive cleanup required.

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Step 1: Create a Department Tag

Tags are the foundation of expense categorization in PEX. Before you can organize spending by department, you’ll need to create a department tag with values for each department in your organization. For complete Tag Manager documentation, see: How to Setup and Create Tags with Tag Manager

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Accessing Tag Manager

1. Log in to your PEX Admin portal at admin.pexcard.com
2. Navigate to Business Settings in the left navigation menu
3. Click on the Tag Manager tab

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Creating Your Department Tag

1. Click Add Tag to create a new tag
2. Enter a name for your tag (e.g., “Department” or “Cost Center”)
3. Add an optional description to help cardholders and admins understand its purpose
4. Select Dropdown as the Tag Type – this ensures cardholders select from your predefined list rather than entering free text
5. Enable the Required field option if every transaction must be assigned to a department

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Adding Department Values

We recommend pulling values from your Accounting or ERP platform as the source of record. Please visit the App tab to see if your accounting software is listed. If you do not see this available, you can create a custom file export via the Universal Exporter. If you are adding options manually:

1. Click Add a New Option for each department
2. Enter the department name in the Display as column (what cardholders see)
3. Enter a corresponding value in the Option Value column (can match the display name or use a code)
4. Repeat for all departments (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Operations, Finance, Human Resources, IT)

Pro Tip: If you are adding multiple departments manually, PEX supports bulk upload via CSV. Download the Sample CSV File from the Tag Manager page, enter your department values, and upload to create multiple options at once.

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Create Group-based filters (Optional)

PEX offers Group-based filters, which allow you to specify which tag values are available. This is useful if you want cardholders to only see and select their own department:

1. When adding or editing tag values, specify which cardholder groups each value is available to
2. This prevents a Marketing team member from accidentally coding expenses to the Finance department

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Step 2: Create Spend Rules at the Department Level

Spend rules give you granular control over where, when, and how much cardholders can spend. By combining spend rules with groups organized by department, you can enforce department-specific policies. For complete spend rules documentation, see: Card Spend Rules

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Understanding Spend Rule Options

PEX allows you to control spending through:

• Daily Spending Limits – Cap the maximum amount a cardholder can spend per day
• Merchant Category Restrictions – Limit spending to specific merchant types (e.g., Hardware Stores, Fuel, Office Supplies)
• Time-Based Restrictions – Restrict card usage to specific days of the week or business hours
• Location Restrictions – Limit spending to specific states or regions

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Creating Groups by Department

Before setting department-level rules, organize your cardholders into groups:

1. Navigate to Cards in your PEX dashboard
2. Create cardholder groups that align with your departments (e.g., “Marketing Team,” “Field Operations,” “Executive Team”)
3. Assign cardholders to their respective department groups

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Setting Up Department Spend Rules

1. Log in to your PEX dashboard
2. Navigate to Business Settings > Spend Policies
3. Click Create a New Policy

Example Department Policies:

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Applying Rules to Groups

1. After creating your spend policy, assign it to the appropriate group of users
2. Any cardholder within that group will automatically follow the department’s spend rules
3. Attempts to use a PEX card outside the pre-approved rules will be declined

Pro Tip: 60% of PEX customers who use custom spending rules report saving money. Rules prevent out-of-policy spending proactively, rather than catching it during reconciliation.

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Step 3: Automate Department Coding with Auto Tagger

Auto Tagger is a powerful PEX feature that automatically applies GL codes and tags (including your department tag) to transaction records. Instead of manually coding every expense, you tell the system once which codes go with which types of transactions—or which cardholders. Good news: Auto Tagger is included in your PEX subscription at no additional cost. This means you can start automating your department coding right away. For complete Auto Tagger documentation, see: PEX Auto Tagger

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How Auto Tagger Works

Auto Tagger enables you to create rules that automatically apply tags based on:

• Cardholder Name – Automatically assign the department tag based on who made the purchase
• Merchant/Vendor – Apply codes based on where the purchase was made
• Transaction Type – Categorize based on the merchant category code

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Setting Up Auto Tagger for Department Coding by Cardholder

To automatically code every transaction to the correct department based on the cardholder:

1. Access Auto Tagger through your PEX Admin portal
2. Create a rule for each cardholder or group
3. Set the condition to match the cardholder name
4. Set the action to apply the corresponding department tag value

Example Auto Tagger Rules:

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Benefits of Automating Department Coding

• Eliminate manual data entry – Transactions arrive pre-coded to the correct department
• Reduce errors – No more misclassified expenses (like team lunches marked to the wrong cost center)
• Speed up month-end close – Expense data arrives already categorized and ready to reconcile
• Improve cardholder experience – Cardholders don’t need to remember which department code to select

Real Results: PEX customers using automated tagging report saving significant time on reconciliation. One customer, Wheelhouse Group, saved 4 hours per month by implementing AI-based receipt matching and automated GL code tagging.

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Putting It All Together: Your Department Structure

Once you’ve completed all three steps, your department structure will work like this:

1. A cardholder makes a purchase – Their card is governed by department-level spend rules
2. The transaction is recorded – Auto Tagger automatically applies the department tag based on the cardholder
3. During reconciliation – All transactions are already coded to the correct department, ready for review and export to your accounting system

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Recommended Workflow Summary

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Additional Resources

• Tag Manager Setup Guide: support.pexcard.com/s/article?name=000001107
• Card Spend Rules: support.pexcard.com/s/article?name=000001102
• PEX Auto Tagger: support.pexcard.com/s/article?name=000003073

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Need Help?

If you have questions about setting up departments or any other PEX features, our Customer Success team is here to help. Contact us at support.pexcard.com or reach out to your dedicated account manager.

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Last Updated: February 2026