Expenses

An Expense (also called Direct Pay) is the one-step alternative to Bill + Bill Payment. It records that money has already left a bank or card account and pays for something the same day — taxis, fuel, office supplies, software subscriptions paid by card, anything where you don't track an unpaid balance with a supplier. The expense posts both sides of the journal in one document.

Use a Bill instead if you have an unpaid invoice from the supplier that you need to track, age, and pay later.

Step by step

Browse expenses

1. Open AP (Purchases) ▸ Expenses. Each row shows date, supplier (optional), bank/card account, total, status (Draft / Posted / Reversed), and tags.
2. Filter by date range, account, supplier, or status.

Create an expense

1. Click New Expense.
2. Pick the Bank or Card account that paid for it.
3. Optionally pick a Supplier (helps for the Purchases by Supplier report). Archived suppliers do not appear.
4. Enter Expense date, Reference, and the Method: Cash, Cheque, or Bank Transfer (or card). Paying by Cheque: choose method Cheque, then pick the Cheque Book and the Cheque No. from the book's available leaves — see Cheques.
5. Add line items: Account / Item, Description, Quantity, Unit price, Tax. If an item doesn't exist yet, type its name and pick Create «what you typed» — a small New item window creates it and drops it straight into the line.
6. Optionally tag lines with Dimensions.
7. Drop the receipt PDF or photo into the single receipt drop box on the form. If the form is still empty, the receipt is scanned and the fields are filled in for you; otherwise it is simply attached (see below).
8. Save as Draft or Save & Post.

Bulk create / import expenses

When you have many expenses to enter at once, use Bulk Expenses — open it from the caret next to New Expense. Bulk is an input shortcut only: every expense it creates is an ordinary expense, saved through the same rules as one typed on the normal form. There is no special "bulk" record type and no accounting shortcut.

The page has two ways to enter data:

• Manual entry — fill in one card per expense (date, supplier, currency, expense account, description, amount, tax). Add as many cards as you need.
• File import — download a per-document CSV or XLSX template, fill it in, and upload it. One row becomes one single-line expense. The XLSX template has drop-downs on the supplier, currency, expense account, tax code, and pay-from columns so you pick valid values instead of typing them; the tax drop-down shows the code, name, and rate together. A panel of searchable reference lists (accounts, taxes, suppliers) is shown on the import tab, each value with a copy button.

After entering or uploading, click Validate to preview every expense — totals, per-line tax, and any blocking errors are shown before anything is saved. Fix the highlighted rows, then Save as draft or Save and post. The whole batch saves in one transaction: if any document fails, nothing is saved.

To record payment at the same time, turn on Record payment & mark paid and give each expense a Pay-from account (in a file, fill the pay-from column). An expense with a pay-from account is created posted and paid; one without it is created as a normal draft.

Scan a receipt

The create form has one clearly-labelled receipt drop box wired to receipt scanning.

1. Drop (or upload) a photo or PDF of the receipt into the box on the expense create page.
2. The scanner reads supplier name, date, total, tax, and (where possible) line items.
3. Review the prefilled form. Adjust accounts and tax codes as needed.
4. Save.

Scan vs attach — automatic based on form state. The drop box shows a small info note explaining the behaviour:

• If the form is empty, the upload is scanned and the fields are auto-filled.
• If you have already entered any data (supplier, reference, notes, or any line), the upload is only attached as a file — it is not scanned, so your data is kept. No scan credit is consumed.

This means it's always safe to upload a receipt: it will never overwrite values you typed.

Line-item matching. Where the scan returns a line description, the system fuzzy-matches it against your inventory:

• If a close match is found (exact name, contains, or a near-miss — it tolerates single-character misreads), the line is created as an Item line with the inventory item, account, unit, and price wired automatically.
• If no match is found, the line falls back to an Account line with a default expense account so the expense is immediately saveable. You can change the account afterwards.

Tax codes are not extracted from receipts (the scanner returns the tax amount, not a code) — pick the right tax code per line manually.

The receipt scan works on both Bills and Expenses; it suggests the appropriate document type from the merchant pattern but you can override.

Edit a draft

Drafts are freely editable. A posted expense locks its accounting fields — date, supplier, account, currency, and line items. The edit page shows a locked banner. To change a posted expense: Unpost it, edit the draft, then post again. Notes and attachments stay editable while posted.

Post an expense

Posting writes:

• Debit the expense / inventory accounts on each line.
• Credit the bank / card account.
• Debit the recoverable-tax account for any recoverable tax.

The journal is balanced in one document, so there is no "Pay" step afterwards.

Unpost

Returns a posted expense to Draft so you can correct and re-post it. Unposting voids the expense's journal entry — the entry is kept for the audit trail but is marked void and excluded from reports — rather than posting a separate reversal. Unpost is blocked when the period is locked.

Reverse a posted expense

Posts a reversing journal on the reversal date. Use when a charge is refunded or a wrong card was used — i.e. when you want the correction dated later, not the original entry removed. Blocked if the original date's period is locked.

Delete a draft

Allowed only while the expense is a Draft.

Print a PDF

Every expense can be printed as a PDF.

Record a payment against an expense

This is for the case where an expense was originally entered as Draft against an "Owe Director" or "Owe Employee" account; the Record a payment action lets you pay that off later. For straightforward card/bank expenses you do not use this.

How the journal looks

A JOD 50 fuel expense paid by card (zero-rated):

A JOD 117 office-supplies expense, 17% VAT recoverable, paid by card:

A JOD 117 customs-broker fee with 17% VAT, only 50% recoverable:

The non-recoverable portion is added back to the expense account, so the full JOD 117 actually hits P&L (split across the line and the gross-up).

A stocked-item purchase entered as an expense (JOD 60 of inventory, JOD 10.20 of VAT, paid cash):

Recurring expenses

You can convert any expense into a recurring template (Make Recurring), or start from the Recurring Transactions page. Useful for monthly subscriptions paid by card.

Plan availability: recurring transactions depend on your subscription. If you don't see the option, your plan may not include it — see Subscriptions & billing, or ask your workspace owner.

See Recurring transactions.

When to use which AP document

Common mistakes

• "The scan didn't fill the form." Scanning only runs when the form is empty. If you've already typed anything (supplier, reference, line), the upload is just attached. Clear the form first if you want it to scan.
• Wrong card account → wrong cash-out posting. The bank/card account picked on the expense is what gets credited. If you accidentally posted to the wrong card, Unpost, change the account, re-post.
• VAT not reducing what you owe to the tax authority. Check the tax code — non-recoverable VAT is added back into the expense line, not the recoverable VAT account. See Taxes & VAT.
• Project cost not appearing on profitability. Each line must be tagged to the project (Dimension column). Untagged lines stay in general overhead — see Project profitability.
• "Period locked" → posting, unposting, and reversing all need an open period. Use Reverse (with a later date in an open period) to correct a posted expense whose original period is closed.

Tips

• Drag and drop a receipt PDF or photo onto the receipt box on the New Expense page — if the form is empty it scans and fills the form; no need to open an upload dialog.
• For monthly card subscriptions (SaaS, hosting, mobile bill), create a recurring template once.
• Use the Bulk Expenses flow (caret next to New Expense) when entering many card transactions from a statement.

Behaviour and rules

• An expense is single-step — posting writes both sides of the journal in one document. There is no separate Payment.
• The bank/card account on the expense becomes the cash-out account in the journal.
• A posted expense's accounting fields are locked. The edit page shows a locked banner; Unpost it back to Draft to change them. Notes and attachments stay editable.
• Tax recoverability behaves the same as on a Bill: the recoverable-tax line is split based on the tax code.
• Period lock: posting, unposting, and reversing all require an open period.
• Unposting voids the journal. It does not post a reversal — the original entry is kept (marked void) for audit and dropped from reports.
• Inventory lines on an expense post to Inventory and COGS exactly as on a Bill — stocked items can be entered through expenses, but it is unusual.
• Bulk create/import always produces ordinary expense records — see Bulk create / import expenses above.
• If an action described here is missing or greyed out, your account may not have that access — ask your workspace administrator.

Related

• Bills — for unpaid supplier obligations (the alternative to Expense).
• Mileage — per-km reimbursement instead of fuel receipts.
• Suppliers — supplier profile shows every expense booked against them.
• Cheques — cheque books and cheque numbers for cheque payments.
• Documents — where attachments and receipts live.
• Recurring transactions — auto-create card-subscription expenses.
• Projects & Finance — tag project costs from an expense line.
• Banking — match card-account expenses against the imported card statement.
• Taxes & VAT — recoverable / non-recoverable VAT handling.
• Settings — sequences, receipt scanning, mileage rate.
• Reports — Expenses by Category, Purchases by Supplier.
• Fiscal years and lock dates.