PEX Connector for Aplos (Prepaid)

Auto-sync purchases, transfers, fees, rebates and cardholder reimbursements from PEX into Aplos, keeping your data accurate, organized, and up-to-date. Map Aplos fields such as Account, Fund, etc. to PEX tags. PEX also supports Aplos Tags including 990 Tags. Additionally, you can import your existing list of vendors, referred to as “contacts” in Aplos, into PEX to automatically create vendor cards. Follow this link for more details on how to auto create vendor cards. If you use PEX Bill Pay, the connector can also import your unpaid Aplos bills into the PEX Bill Inbox, let you pay them in PEX, and mark them paid in Aplos once the payment goes through. To configure this integration, you don’t even need to wait for your account manager. You can get started right away with just your Aplos and PEX credentials.

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Pre-Configuration

Prior to using this guide, please ensure you have completed all set-up components detailed in this article.

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Configuring Connector in PEX

Log into your PEX account to finalize the set up.

• Log in to http://dashboard.pexcard.com/
• Navigate to Apps > Available
• Scroll to locate PEX Connector for Aplos.
• Click More info > Install > Launch.

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Select your use case(s)

There are currently two options for how you can connect PEX with Aplos. We recommend as many as possible to make your reconciliation experience seamless.

• Auto create vendor cards from my Aplos contact list.
• Sync transactions from PEX to Aplos nightly.

Click on the “Sync transactions from PEX to Aplos nightly”.

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Choose What to Sync

• Sync Aplos Funds/Accounts to PEX Tags.
  • Enable this option to successfully retrieve your Fund and Account list from Aplos.
• Automatically import PEX Purchases into Aplos.
  • Enable this option to import PEX purchases as expenses in Aplos.
  • You can choose to sync all PEX transactions (regardless of approval status) or just approved (recommended).
  • PEX purchases must have an Account and Fund PEX Tag in order to sync. For details on transaction review, please see our article How to Review Transactions.
• Automatically import PEX transfers into Aplos.
  • Enable this option to import PEX transfers to Aplos.
  • An example of a transfer would be an ACH/wire transfer from your business checking account to your PEX business account.
  • If you are funding your PEX account from more than one Operating Account, choose the primary funding account since the Connector only supports one Bank Account.
• Automatically import Fees into Aplos.
  • Enable this option to import PEX business and cardholder fees to Aplos.
  • Examples of a PEX Fee include an ISA fee for international use or priority shipping fees.
• Automatically import Rebates into Aplos.
  • Enable this option to import PEX rebates to Aplos.
  • This option is available only if “Automatically import PEX Purchases into Aplos” is on.
• Automatically import cardholder reimbursements into Aplos.
  • Enable this option to import paid PEX cardholder reimbursements into Aplos as expenses.
  • Only reimbursement requests that have been approved and paid in PEX will sync. Pending or unpaid reimbursement requests do not sync.
    • To learn more about creating and paying reimbursements in PEX, see What are Reimbursements and Approving and Paying a Reimbursement Request.
• Automatically import outstanding bills.
  • Enable this option to import your unpaid Aplos bills into the PEX Bill Inbox. After you pay an imported bill in PEX, the next sync marks it paid in Aplos.
  • This option is available only if Bill Pay is enabled for your PEX account. To learn more about Bill Pay, see Getting Started with Bill Pay.
  • Only bills with the full amount outstanding are imported. Bills that are already paid or partially paid in Aplos are not imported.
• Sync 990 Tag.
  • You can enable this option to successfully retrieve 990 tags from Aplos.
  • If you enable 990 Tag, make sure you have 990 tag enabled in Aplos. Otherwise, your transactions will not sync.
  
• Select an asset account that represents your PEX balance.
  • Purchases will credit this account.
  • Transfers will debit this account.
  • Fees in PEX will credit this account.
  • Rebates in PEX will debit this account.
  • Aplos bills paid in PEX by vendor card will credit this account.
  Note that the asset account you select should be of the “Register” type in Aplos.
  
• Select the Start date to begin the sync.
  • Transactions on and after this date will sync to Aplos.
  • Reimbursements with a payment processing date on and after this date will sync to Aplos.
  • Unpaid Aplos bills with a bill date on and after this date will be imported into PEX.
  • The start date must be <1 year in the past.
• Select the Post date for syncing transactions to Aplos: either Settlement Time or Transaction Time.
  

Click “Next”.

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Configure contact sync options

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Purchases

• Use a single contact for your expenses
  • With this option, all PEX purchases will be booked against a single contact selected from the drop down list.
  Tip: Consider creating a new contact in Aplos called “PEX” if you would like to book all of your PEX purchases against a single contact.
  
• Create a contact for each unique merchant
  • With this option, PEX will book purchases against corresponding contacts that already exist in your Aplos account. If there is no corresponding contact then PEX will auto create a new contact in Aplos.
  • Note that the connector will not create duplicate contacts, but “Walmart23455”, “Walmart-brooklyn223” are two unique contacts from the connector’s point of view. If you don’t want to have “Walmart23455” and “Walmart-brooklyn223” then read below.
  

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Standardized merchant names

With the “Create a contact for each unique merchant” option, you can also sync your purchases with standardized merchant names if you check “Use standardized merchant names” checkbox. This means that a purchase “Walmart23455” and a purchase “Walmart-brooklyn223” will be recorded in Aplos with “Walmart” as a contact instead of “Walmart23455” or “Walmart-brooklyn223”.

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Reimbursements

• Use a single contact
  • With this option, all PEX reimbursements will be booked against a single contact selected from the drop down list.
  Tip: Consider creating a new contact in Aplos called “PEX” if you would like to book all of your PEX reimbursements against a single contact.
  
• Create a contact for each unique employee
  • With this option, PEX will book reimbursements against corresponding contacts that already exist in your Aplos account. If there is no corresponding contact then PEX will auto create a new contact for the given employee in Aplos.
    

Click “Next”.

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Configure Tag Mapping

Map the Fund, Account fields and Aplos tags. The Fund and Account mapping is required to sync purchases and reimbursements to Aplos. The mapping configured on this step applies to purchases and reimbursements.

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Fund (required)

Map the Aplos field “Fund” to the PEX tag called “Fund” that you have previously created following the instructions in the “Setting up Tags in PEX” section. Make sure to enable the “Sync” toggle. This will pull your funds from Aplos into PEX as tag option values. The mapping and auto sync allows you and your cardholders to select a tag value for each purchase. For that go to the “Transactions” menu -> locate a transaction -> click on it -> select a tag value (“Building Fund” in our example below) of the “Fund” tag -> click “Save”. Note that you and your cardholders can select one of the tag values for each purchase once you finish the Aplos connector setup and sync tag options from Aplos to PEX. When mapping to a tag, you can also specify a default “Fund” value: for example, General Fund, as highlighted below. Note that a purchase will not be tagged with this default value (“General Fund” in our example) on the transaction details. It means that if you or your cardholders forget to tag a purchase before it is synced to Aplos, the default value (“General Fund” in our example) will be applied to this purchase during the sync. If you or your cardholders do tag a purchase with the tag option from the tag chosen in the highlighted field below, that specific purchase will be recorded against the fund (“Building Fund” in our example below) you tagged the purchase with. Tags take precedence over default values. If you are using split tag functionality on the PEX platform, the connector will support that while exporting the purchases and create the same split structure for purchases in Aplos.

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Account (required)

Map the Aplos field “Account” to the PEX tag called “Account” that you have previously created following the instructions in the “Setting up Tags in PEX” section. Make sure to enable the “Sync” toggle. This will pull your expense accounts from Aplos into PEX as tag option values. Note: Only expense accounts will sync from Aplos into PEX; asset, income, liability, and other account types will not sync from Aplos into PEX. The mapping and auto sync allows you and your cardholders to select a tag value for each purchase. For that go to the “Transactions” menu -> locate a transaction -> click on it -> select a tag value (“Travel” in our example below) of the “Account” tag -> click “Save”. Note that you and your cardholders can select one of the tag values for each purchase once you finish the Aplos connector setup and sync tag options from Aplos to PEX. When mapping to a tag, you can also specify a default “Account” value: for example, Uncategorized, as highlighted below. Note that a purchase will not be tagged with this default value (“Uncategorized” in our example) on the transaction details. It means that if you or your cardholders forget to tag a purchase before it is synced to Aplos, the default value (“Uncategorized” in our example) will be applied to this purchase during the sync. If you or your cardholders do tag a purchase with the tag option from the tag chosen in the highlighted field below, that specific purchase will be recorded against the account (“Travel” in our example below) you tagged the purchase with. Tags take precedence over default values. If you are using split tag functionality on the PEX platform, the connector will support that while exporting the purchases and create the same split structure for purchases in Aplos.

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Tags (optional)

PEX tags can also be mapped to your Aplos tags if they are enabled in Aplos. If you have a tag that is required in Aplos, it is required to map it in PEX to successfully sync transactions. If you have multiple Aplos tags, click on the blue plus sign (+) on the right side of your screen to map a PEX tag to each Aplos tag. The corresponding PEX tag(s) should be created first following the instructions in the “Setting up Tags in PEX” section. Mapping to a PEX tag, setting a default value, and tagging a purchase work the same way with Aplos tags as they do with the Aplos Fund and Account fields described above. Click “Next”.

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Transfers

When you fund a PEX account via either an ACH transfer or wire transfer, the transfer amount will credit an account (“1000-Checking” in our example below) selected in the dropdown field “Bank Account”. If you are funding your PEX account from more than one Operating Account, choose the primary funding account since the Connector only supports one Bank Account. At the same time, the transfer amount will debit the asset account you selected as your PEX balance (“1200-PEX Account” in the example below) on the “Sync Selection” step. You must select an Aplos fund and contact for transfers.

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Fees

The fee amount will debit an account (“5100-PEX Fees” in our example below) selected in the dropdown field “Account”. At the same time, the fee amount will credit the asset account you selected as your PEX balance (“1200-PEX Account” in the example below) on the “Sync Selection” step. You must select an Aplos fund and contact for fees. If you enable the “Sync 990 Tag” option at the first step then you should select the respective 990 tag option for fees.

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Rebates

This section is available only if the “Automatically import Rebates into Aplos” on the step “Sync Selection” is enabled. The rebate amount will credit an expense or income account (“4020-PEX Rebates and rewards” in our example below) selected in the dropdown field “Account”. At the same time, the rebate amount will debit the asset account you selected as your PEX balance (“1200-PEX Account” in the example below) on the “Sync Selection” step. You must select an Aplos fund and contact for rebates. If you enable the “Sync 990 Tag” option at the first step then you should select the respective 990 tag option for rebates.

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​​​Reimbursements

This section is available only if the “Automatically import cardholder reimbursements into Aplos” option on the “Sync Selection” step is enabled. PEX reimbursements are payments made to a cardholder to reimburse them for out-of-pocket expenses. When this option is enabled, each eligible (paid) reimbursement is posted to Aplos as a balanced journal entry, following the same pattern used for transfers, fees, and rebates. The journal entry is coded using the Fund, Account, contact, and tags you configure for reimbursements. The reimbursement amount will credit a bank account (“1000 - Checking” in our example below) selected in the dropdown field “Bank Account”. At the same time, the reimbursement amount will debit the expense account that the reimbursement is tagged with (“Building & Property Maintenance” in the example below)/or the default expense account set on the “Purchases and Reimbursements” step.

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How to tag a reimbursement?

Admin view Go to the “Reimbursements” menu -> select any request -> select a Fund value of the “Fund” tag (for example, “Building Fund”) and an Account value of the “Account” tag (for example, “Building & Property Maintenance”). Cardholder view Cardholders go to the “Requests” menu -> select “Reimbursements” -> click “New reimbursement” -> select a Fund value and an Account value of the respective tags.

• If a reimbursement is not tagged, the default Fund and default Account configured for reimbursements are applied during the sync.
• If a reimbursement has no Fund and no default Fund is set, or no Account and no default Account is set, the reimbursement will not sync.
• If you enable the “Sync 990 Tag” option at the first step, you should also select the respective 990 tag option for reimbursements.

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Bill Payments

This section is available only if the “Automatically import outstanding bills” option on the “Sync Selection” step is enabled.

• ACH Bank Account. When you pay an imported Aplos bill by ACH in PEX, it’s marked as paid in Aplos from this bank account (for example, “1000-Checking”).

Click “Finish”.

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Review Transactions in PEX

To review transactions in PEX:

• Navigate to Transactions > Card Transactions
• Click on a transaction row.
• If a receipt is missing, add it by uploading or dragging and dropping.
• Add Fund and Account tags.
• Click Save & Submit.

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Auto Tagger

The Auto Tagger app is a great complement to Aplos. It allows you to create rules that auto-tag purchases. Learn more.

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Approve Transactions in PEX

This is necessary to sync transactions into Aplos if you configured the connector to sync approved transactions only.

• Navigate to Transactions > Card Transactions
• Click on the Not reviewed.
  • Click Approved.

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Start syncing

Navigate to the History tab and click “Sync Now” to initiate the sync between PEX and Aplos. Manual sync will process transactions based on the start date specified on the Sync Selection step, with a limit of 1 year back from today. If there is no start date specified on the Sync Selection step then manual sync will process transactions only up to 2 months back from today. Each sync also imports tag option values from Aplos to PEX if the “Sync” toggle is enabled. Once transactions are synced to Aplos, you can view their history in the Sync History table and view the synced transactions in your Aplos account.

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Sync outstanding bills

When “Automatically import outstanding bills” is on, every sync (automatic or “Sync Now”) runs the following round trip for your Aplos bills: 1. PEX imports unpaid bills

• Fully unpaid Aplos bills dated on or after your sync start date go to your PEX Bill Inbox. Paid and partially paid bills are skipped.
• Each bill keeps its vendor, amount, bill date, due date and reference number. Fund and Account are not copied. You can add PEX tags if needed; this doesn’t change anything in Aplos.
• PEX finds or creates the vendor and orders a vendor card for it.

To import a bill, the Aplos contact needs:

• Company Name, or First and Last Name
• Billing address (Street 1, City, State, Postal Code)
• Email

If anything is missing, Sync History tells you what to fix, for example “Add a billing address for the Acme Supplies contact in Aplos. Missing: Postal Code.” Update the contact in Aplos and the bill imports on the next sync. 2. You pay the bill in PEX Pay it like any other bill, by vendor card or ACH. See Create and Send a Bill Payment. 3. PEX marks the bill paid in Aplos The next sync after the payment goes through marks the bill paid in Aplos with the PEX payment date:

• ACH: on the first sync after the Estimated payout date shown in the transfer details (Payments menu), paid from your ACH Bank Account. The payment date in Aplos is this estimated payout date.
• Vendor card: on the first sync after the card charge shows as Settled in the Transactions menu (no Pending label), paid from your PEX balance account

Only the payment is recorded. The expense and fund stay as booked in Aplos, and the card charge isn’t synced again, so nothing is double-counted. Good to know

• Each bill is imported only once. PEX adds a “Synced Aplos bill #…” note to the imported bill in PEX to track it.
• Import and payment results appear in Sync History as “Outstanding Bills” and “Bill Payments” rows.

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View Transactions in Aplos

Log into Aplos account and navigate to Fund Accounting -> Transactions -> Registers -> Select a PEX account (“1200-PEX Account” in the example) to view synced transactions.

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View Reimbursements in Aplos

Log into Aplos account and navigate to Fund Accounting -> Transactions -> Registers -> Select a bank account (the one configured on the Other Options step, “1000-Checking” in the example) to view synced reimbursements.

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View Bill payments in Aplos

Log into Aplos account and navigate to Fund Accounting -> Transactions -> Accounts Payable to see the imported bills marked paid. The payment itself is posted to the register of the account it was paid from: the ACH Bank Account for ACH payments (“1000-Checking” in the example) or your PEX balance account for vendor card payments (“1200-PEX Account” in the example).

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Manage Sync

On the Manage sync tab you can:

• Enable/disable auto-sync.
  • Enabled: Transactions/tag option values and outstanding bills sync automatically every 24 hours.
  • Disabled: Transactions/tag option values and outstanding bills will not sync automatically.
  
  • Auto-sync will always process transactions based on the start date specified on the Sync Selection step, with a maximum limit of 2 months back from today. If there is no start date specified on the Sync Selection step then auto-sync will sync transactions up to 2 months back from today.
  
• View/Edit configuration settings.
• Disconnect from your Aplos account.

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FAQ

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Support & Inquiries

For any questions related to your connector, please email aplos@pexcard.com