Adding an Expense
How to record something you’ve paid for the business with Add expense: the amount, date, category and van, the VAT in it, a photo of the receipt, and costs that repeat.
Add expense records something you've paid for the business, such as fuel, a new ladder or the van's insurance. It opens from the Add expense button above the list on Accounts > Expenses, which is just a + on a phone, and from Add expense on Accounts > Home. It asks only what an expense needs, works out the VAT in it, keeps a photo of the receipt with it, and can repeat a cost that comes round again.
The Fields
- Amount paid: The total you paid, VAT included, as it is on the receipt. It has to be more than 0.
- Date paid: The day you paid, which starts as today. Change it when you're catching up on older receipts: it's the date the expense counts on in the Expenses list, its summary and your reports. When the cost repeats, this reads First paid on.
- What for: The expense category, such as Fuel or Insurance. You have to choose one. It decides where the cost sits in the Expenses charts and the Profit and Loss Report, and which of HMRC's boxes it goes in on the Income Tax page and in your Income Tax updates. The choices are your categories in Settings > Expense Categories, so add one there first if nothing fits.
- Description (optional): What it was, such as Diesel or New ladder. It's what the Expenses list shows and searches, so a few words now make the cost easy to find later. Leave it empty and the category's name is used, as the box suggests once you've chosen one.
- Van: The van the cost was for, so it counts against that van in its reports, such as the Vehicles Report. Leave it on No van for costs that aren't for one van, such as your phone bill. It shows once your business has a vehicle, if your role can see vehicles, and offers the ones still in use.
- VAT: Only for a VAT-registered business. Choose the VAT rate the amount includes: 20% (standard), which it starts on, 5% (reduced) for the few things charged at the lower rate, or No VAT for things with none, such as insurance, or anything from a supplier who isn't VAT registered. Underneath it says how much of the amount is VAT: on £60 at 20%, Includes £10.00 VAT, which you can claim back. Work Planner works the VAT and the net out from the amount, so £60 is recorded as £10 VAT and £50 net, with nothing more to fill in. The VAT goes in your VAT returns as VAT you can claim back.
- Repeats: Leave it on Doesn't repeat for a one-off. For a cost that comes round again for the same amount, such as van insurance paid monthly, a phone contract or a yearly subscription, choose how often: Every week, Every 2 weeks, Every 4 weeks, Every month, Every 3 months or Every year. See Costs That Repeat below.
- Advanced: The link under Repeats sets the schedule out in full, as a job's is: Schedule Frequency (daily, weekly or monthly), Schedule Interval (every how many), the days of the week, and for a monthly cost the weeks of the month, such as the first Monday of every month. It starts from the choice already made, or every month, and Schedule Summary underneath says how it repeats and when it's next due. Back to the usual choices returns to the list.
- Receipt (optional): A photo of the receipt (JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP) or a PDF, up to 10 MB. On a phone you can take the photo there and then, or pick one or a PDF you already have. It's kept with the expense: the paperclip shows beside it on the Expenses list, and it won't be counted among the expenses without a receipt on Accounts > Home. To add another file later, or swap it, open the expense and choose Edit.
A business that isn't VAT registered doesn't see VAT: it can't claim VAT back, so the whole amount is the cost.
Costs That Repeat
When it repeats, either way, the date reads First paid on and the popup says It adds itself to your expenses each time it's due, starting on the date above, until you stop it.
- Started in the past: The ones already due, up to today, are added straight away. Van insurance paid on the 1st of every month since 1 August, added on 23 October, adds August's, September's and October's at once.
- From then on: Each one is added on the day it's due, with the same amount, category, van, description and VAT.
- Starting later: Nothing is added until the first date comes round.
- The receipt: Kept with the first one, once that's been added. When the cost starts later, the popup says It starts later, so add the receipt to it once it's on your expenses. When it's there, open it and choose Edit to add the receipt.
- Seeing and stopping them: Every cost that repeats is on the Repeating Costs tab of the Expenses List, with how often it repeats and when it's next due. Stop ends it, and the ones already on your expenses stay.
- Changing one: When the price changes, such as at renewal, stop it and add it again with the new amount, starting on the date it's next due.
After You Add It
Once you've typed the amount, the button at the bottom shows it, such as Add £60.00, so you can check it before you add it. If something is missing, the field says what: Enter an amount greater than 0., Enter the date you paid. or Choose what it was for. A receipt that isn't a photo or a PDF, or is over 10 MB, is turned away with a message under it, and nothing is added until it's put right.
Then the popup says what was added, such as £60.00 for Fuel is added. or £30.00 for Insurance repeats every month; next on 23 November 2026. Add another clears it for the next one, which helps when you're working through a pile of receipts, and Done closes it. When you add it from Expenses, the list, its summary and the Repeating Costs tab update straight away. From Accounts > Home, its figures and things to do update instead.
Linking an Expense to a Job
Add expense keeps to what most costs need. For a cost that belongs to one job, such as materials for one customer, or one you want a payment method or payment reference on, open it once it's added and choose Edit, or record it from Accounts > Transactions instead, as Creating an Expense from Transactions explains. An expense put down to a job also shows when you filter the Expenses list by that job's round.
Who Can Add Expenses
You need a role that can create expenses. When you're looking at more than one business, Business at the top says which it's for, and offers that business's categories and vans; otherwise it's added to the business you're working in. Stop on the Repeating Costs tab needs a role that can change expenses.
Related articles
- Expenses List: Where your expenses appear, and the Repeating Costs tab.
- Editing an Expense: Putting an expense down to a job, or adding another receipt.
- Creating an Expense from Transactions: The full transaction form, for an expense that needs more.
- Expense Categories List: The categories What for offers.
- Vehicles Report: What each van has cost, set against what it earned.
- Transaction Attachments: Previewing and removing receipts.