Funny how the most obvious things slip by.  You might recall that we just released a new "Mileage (and other unit) support" feature.  It just occurred to me that a perfect use of this "other unit" functionality is foreign currencies, duh!  It's so incredibly obvious, naturally I'd only realize it once I had the need to log a cash expense in Turkish Lira.  So to do that I simply:

1. Went to my settings page
2. Created a new unit named "lira"
3. Set it to the current exchange rate ($0.65/lira)

Now I can log Turkish expenses by just creating expenses like "160 lira - Korean hostel 2 nights 4 people", and it automatically converts it to the relevant USD amount.  Brilliant!  I mean, I knew we were pretty cool, but even *I* sometimes underestimate ourselves.

-david

From the mailing list:

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Expensify: Our iPhone app is finally here!

It's been a couple months since our last update, but I'm very proud to announce something we've all been waiting for: the Expensify iPhone Application is finally here! I know you thought we were making it up all along (and at times it felt like a dream), but the vapor has finally taken shape and you can download it today!

Install the Expensify iPhone Application

As you might know, you've always been able to take pictures of receipts and email them to receipts@expensify.com for inclusion with expense reports. This application streamlines it even further for iPhone users such that you can take pictures and upload straight to your account, over wifi or 3G, skipping email entirely. So download it today and give it a shot!

What's new?

We've been so busy we haven't spent a lot of time communicating with you (sorry about that!) but here's a quick update:

• Lots of talking: One reason we've been quiet in email is we've been loud in person -- watch us demo at Finovate Startup 2009, watch Witold demo solo (part one, 1:23:50 in) at Business Insider Startup 2009, or keep an eye out for the results of even more demos given in private!
• Lots of learning: The general consensus seems to be that Expensify "just works". Not perfect, but pretty darn well. So rather than just building loads of random features, we've talked in detail with hundreds of users to learn exactly which new features will make our already good product great.
• Lots of tweaks: Some of those user-requested features are already underway (thanks a million, keep clicking that red Feedback link!), including:
  • Mileage (and other unit) support: Log a cash transaction for "500 miles" (via web, email, or SMS) and we'll auto-calculate the reimbursable amount based on the federal mileage rate, or customize the rate and add other units (hours, widgets, etc.) in your settings page. (Read more)
  • Multi-level approval: Do you approve reports but not reimburse them? Now click "Approve and forward" to send it up the food chain -- we'll even keep track of the approval (and rejection) history for all to see.
  • Report CCs: A little thing but one that got countless requests: now you can "carbon copy" another email address when submitting reports!

And of course we've released a ton of minor fixes under the hood, and are laying the foundation for some even more significant changes down the road. So we might have been quiet, but we sure have been busy!

Expensify is growing!

That's right, we just doubled the company! Granted, that's not terribly hard when you only have two people to start, but think of it this way: if we can do all this with just two guys, just think what we'll be able to do with two more!

So there's a lot going on over here at Expensify world headquarters, and I'll try to do a better job in the future of keeping you informed. In the meantime, just keep filing expense reports and we'll keep getting you reimbursed, faster and easier every day!

- David Barrett (dbarrett@expensify.com, Twitter: @expensify)

As I wrote about previously, Expensify is doing (what I believe to be) some pretty innovative Twitter marketing.  However, from the very start we realized there's a delicate line between marketing and spam, so we set out some early rules to ensure we're on the right side of the line:

1) Keep it personal.  Only send messages from real people, to real people.  Leave the faceless boxes on Google and maintain the social foundation of Twitter.

2) Keep it timely.  A huge benefit of Twitter is you can go straight the people who are experiencing the problem at that exact moment.  Leave the huge backlog of past posters alone and stay focused on the present.

3) Keep it relevant.  The temptation is overwhelming to just blast this out to everybody.  But resist that temptation and focus on the people who are actually calling out for your thing.

That said, we were afraid then that others would cross the line, and it appears that's happening with increasing frequency.  Alas.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what Twitter could do to thwart it.  Perhaps the easiest way would be to just add a "Spam" button to the Twitter interface and then kick off users who get too many relative to their post volume.  In Expensify's case, we get 4x more compliments than complaints (the above rules appear to work!), so I think we'd do just fine under such a scheme.

But it's still too early to predict how the Twittersphere will react.  What do you think?

- David Barrett
Follow me at http://twitter.com/quinthar