Transaction Settings

Transaction Settings let you define exactly what cardholders must provide before a card transaction can be considered complete and submitted for review. Use these settings to enforce consistent documentation across your team and ensure every transaction has the information your bookkeeping workflow requires.

To get there, navigate to Settings → Cards → Transaction Settings.

Receipts

The Receipts section controls whether cardholders must attach a receipt before a transaction can be submitted.

• Set the requirement to Required to make receipt attachment mandatory on all card transactions.
• Use the for $ ___ and above amount field to apply the requirement only to transactions at or above a specific dollar amount. Set this to $0.00 to require receipts on all transactions regardless of amount.
• Enable Show Missing Receipt Link to display a prompt in transaction details when a receipt is missing, making it easier for cardholders to attach one.

Exempt Merchants and Cards (Receipts)

You can carve out specific merchants or cards from the receipt requirement without disabling it globally:

• Exempt Merchants — Select merchants (for example, a recurring SaaS subscription billed monthly) that should never be required to have a receipt attached.
• Exempt Cards — Select individual cards (for example, a shared purchasing card) that are exempt from the receipt requirement.

Type in either field to search for and select the merchants or cards you want to exempt.

Memos

The Memos section controls whether cardholders must add a short written note to each transaction before it can be submitted.

• Set the requirement to Required to make a memo mandatory on all card transactions.
• Use the for $ ___ and above amount field to apply the memo requirement only to transactions at or above a specific dollar amount.

Memos are useful for teams that want a brief description of every purchase — for example, noting what a supply run was for — without relying solely on the merchant name or category.

Exempt Merchants and Cards (Memos)

Just like receipts, you can exempt specific merchants or cards from the memo requirement:

• Exempt Merchants — Select merchants where a memo is not practical (for example, utility providers or automated vendor payments).
• Exempt Cards — Select individual cards that should not be required to include a memo.

Category

The Category section controls whether cardholders must assign a GL code or expense category to each transaction.

• Check Require category for transactions to make category selection mandatory before a transaction can be submitted.

When this is enabled, cardholders must choose a category from your chart of accounts before the transaction is considered complete.

Property

The Property section controls whether cardholders must assign a property to each transaction.

• Enable the property requirement to ensure every transaction is attributed to a specific rental property.

This is particularly important for property-level reporting and owner statements, where expenses need to be clearly tied to the property they belong to.

Accounting

The Accounting section controls whether cardholders must fill in additional accounting fields — such as class, location, and department — before a transaction can be submitted.

These fields are most relevant when you use an accounting integration (such as QuickBooks Online) and need these values populated for transactions to sync correctly. Enable only the fields your accounting integration requires.

Submission Rules

Submission Rules live under Settings → Cards → Submission Rules and control whether a transaction must be fully complete before it can be submitted for approval.

Require Completion

The Require completion toggle enforces that all mandatory fields are filled before a cardholder can submit a transaction for review or approval. This includes property, category, and receipt — based on whichever requirements you have enabled in Transaction Settings.

When this toggle is off, cardholders can submit transactions even if required fields are still missing. When it is on, the transaction remains locked for submission until every required (and non-exempt) field is complete.

Click Save after making any changes to Submission Rules.

How These Settings Affect Cardholders

When requirements are active, cardholders see a checklist of outstanding items when they open a transaction in their webform or the transaction detail view. A transaction cannot be marked as submitted until every required field — that is not covered by an exemption — has been completed.

From the admin side, you can see at a glance which transactions are incomplete. Topkey flags transactions that are missing a receipt, memo, category, property, or accounting field, so you can follow up with the relevant cardholder.

Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to existing transactions if I turn on a new requirement? Topkey updates the completion status of existing transactions when you save changes. Transactions that were previously considered complete may become incomplete if they are missing the newly required field. Allow a few minutes for all transactions to be updated after saving.

Can I require receipts only above a certain dollar amount? Yes. Each requirement that supports a minimum amount threshold — Receipts and Memos — includes an and above amount field. Set this to your desired threshold (for example, $25.00) and the requirement will only apply to transactions at or above that amount.

Can a single card or merchant be exempt from multiple requirements at once? Yes. Exemptions are applied per requirement, and they are additive. You can add the same card to the exempt list for both Receipts and Memos independently, and it will be exempt from both.

Questions about Transaction Settings? Contact Support.