How to Use Insights in Expensify
How to Use Insights in Expensify
Insights are pre-built reports that help you understand spending patterns and trends without exporting data or creating complex custom searches. Each Insight is a suggested search that groups and analyzes your expense data automatically.
Who can use Insights
Anyone can use Insights. What you can see depends on your role in the workspace.
- Regular members can view Insights that include their own submitted expenses.
- Approvers can view Insights that include their own expenses plus expenses submitted to them for approval.
- Workspace Admins can view Insights that include all workspace expenses.
- Auditors can view Insights that include all workspace expenses.
Insights always respect workspace permissions. You will only see data you’re allowed to access.
Where to find Insights
You can access Insights on both web and mobile.
- Click Reports in the navigation tabs (on the left on web, or on the bottom on mobile).
- Scroll to Insights.
- Select an Insight to open the report.
Available Insights
Spend over time
Spend over time shows how total expenses change across a selected date range.
You can use Spend over time to:
- Monitor overall spending trends
- Identify increases or decreases in expenses
- Compare spend across months or custom date ranges
- Track seasonal or recurring spending patterns
- Support budgeting and forecasting decisions
Learn more about the Spend over time report.
Top Spenders
Top Spenders shows which members submitted the highest total expenses in the previous calendar month.
You can use Top Spenders to:
- Identify unusually high spenders
- Monitor employee-level spending patterns
- Evaluate policy compliance
- Support reimbursement and approval reviews
Learn more about the Top Spenders report.
Top Categories
Top Categories shows which expense categories had the highest total spend in the previous calendar month.
You can use Top Categories to:
- Understand where most money is being spent by expense type
- Compare spending across categories like Travel, Meals, and Office Supplies
- Make budget allocation decisions
Learn more about the Top Categories report
Top Merchants
Top Merchants shows which merchants or vendors received the highest total payments in the previous calendar month.
You can use Top Merchants to:
- Track vendor spending trends
- Identify opportunities for volume discounts
- Monitor subscription and recurring expenses
Learn more about the Top Merchants report
How Insights work
Each Insight is powered by Expensify’s search query engine using grouping filters and operators to:
- Automatically group expenses by relevant dimensions (employee, category, merchant, time period)
- Calculate totals and counts
- Sort results to show the highest values first
- Update dynamically as new expenses are added
How to switch between views in Insights
Insights support four viewing modes:
Bar View Displays grouped results as a bar chart. This is the default view for Top categories and makes comparisons easy at a glance.
Table View Displays grouped data in rows and columns for more detailed analysis. This is the default view for Top spenders and simplifies side-by-side comparisons.
Line View Displays grouped data in a line chart for analyzing trends. This is the default view for Spend over time and helps you monitor changes and patterns.
Pie view Displays grouped data as a pie chart to show proportional distribution. This is the default for Top merchants and helps you understand distribution instantly.
To switch views:
- Open any Insight.
- Click View in the top navigation.
- Select Table, Bar, Line or Pie.
How to customize Insights
While you can’t modify the suggested Insight searches directly, you can:
- Apply additional date filters
- Filter by workspace or member
- Expand groups to view individual expenses
- Export data to CSV
- Save a modified search
How to create a custom spending report using Insights
If you want to build your own grouped report:
- Open an Insight as your starting point.
- Modify the filters to match your needs.
- Adjust the date range if needed.
- Click Save search to store your custom version.
This allows you to automate recurring analysis without rebuilding the search each time.
Learn how to use search operators and grouping
How to export data from an Insight
Insights cannot export grouped totals directly. However, you can export the underlying expenses.
To export Insight data:
- Open the Insight.
- Expand a group to show individual expenses.
- Select the expenses you want to export.
- Click Export to CSV.
This is helpful for external reporting or sharing detailed data with finance teams.
Grouping options used in Insights
Insights use grouping operators to summarize expenses. These include:
- group-by:from - Group by employee (who submitted)
- group-by:category - Group by expense category
- group-by:merchant - Group by merchant or vendor
- group-by:tag - Group by expense tags
- group-by:month - Group by calendar month
- group-by:week - Group by calendar week
- group-by:quarter - Group by fiscal quarter
- group-by:year - Group by calendar year
You can use these operators in custom searches to create your own insights and analyze spending from different perspectives.
View all available search operators
FAQ
Can I export grouped totals from Insights in Expensify?
No. Grouped totals cannot be exported directly. You must expand each group and export the individual expenses as a CSV file.
How often do Insights update in Expensify?
Insights update in realtime as expenses are created, edited, approved, or reimbursed.
Can I change the time period in Insights?
Yes. Use date filters to adjust the time period.
Common filters include:
date:this-monthdate:last-monthdate:year-to-date- Custom date ranges
