Have you been asked to send expense or payment data to your accounting team — but you’re not sure what they need or how it works? This article will give you all the needed information and set things up smoothly.
Prepare for your CSV export
You already know what your accounting team needs? Skip this section and jump straight to the setup.
What does your accounting team need?
Before you create a CSV export from Moss, it’s important to know how your accounting team wants to process the data. A quick internal check can save time and prevent errors later.
Here are the key questions to ask your accountant:
Do they want payment data, supplier data — or both?
Some teams only need payment records (e.g. what was paid, when, and by whom).
Others want to book expenses against suppliers, which requires more detailed supplier information.
If using credit cards, will your accountant want to:
Record the purchase (as a supplier invoice)?
Or only the payment (as a credit card transaction)?
Or both, as two separate steps?
Are there special requirements for tracking taxes, cost centers, or projects?
If yes, make sure to clarify which data points are needed in the CSV.
Next: What Can Your Accounting System Import?
Ask your accountant or technical team these questions:
Does your accounting system have a CSV import feature?
If yes, does it require a specific template or format? If it does, try using that import CSV as your template.
Do any of Moss’s built-in export formats match this template?
Moss offers preset formats that may work out-of-the-box for tools like DATEV, Xero, or generic ledger imports.
If you're not sure, check if your team can send a sample file from their system and compare it to the preset templates you see in Moss.
Can your accounting system create a custom import based on Moss’s format
Some systems allow you to map columns from a custom file to their fields.
If that’s possible, Moss can provide a consistent export format for your team to work with.
If there’s no import option at all:
What structure, layout, or data is needed to manually enter the data from a spreadsheet? In this case we recommend you create a template called “generic CSV” in Moss. This includes almost all CSV fields available, and once you have exported your first set of data, you can simply remove any that doesn’t suit you.
Tip: You can send a sample Moss export to your accountant and ask:
“Can you import this format? If not, what do we need to change?”