What an expense entry does
Use Record an Expense for everyday costs such as office supplies, travel, utilities or professional fees. Billing sends each saved expense to Smart Books, where it is recorded in your accounts.
Before you start
- Your profile must be allowed to record expenses. If it is not, the page tells you that recording an expense is not part of your profile.
- Your company needs an expense category and a cash or bank account set up in Smart Books. If the lists are empty, add them there first.
Record an expense
- Select Expense from the quick actions at the top of Billing. The page Record an Expense opens.
- Check the Expense Date. It is required.
- Type the Expense Amount. It is required.
- Under What is this expense for?, choose the expense category, for example Office Supplies, Travel & Conveyance, Utilities or Professional Fees.
- Under Paid From, choose the bank, cash or card account you paid with.
- If you paid a business, search for it under Vendor / Paid To. This is optional. Leave it blank for a cash expense with no party.
- Pick a GST Treatment if you want to claim input GST credit (to reduce the GST you owe by the GST you paid on purchases). This works best when the vendor is registered for GST. If you choose nothing, the expense is recorded with no GST.
- Add the Reference No. / Bill No. and a note if you wish. Both are optional.
- Select Save Expense.
When it works, you see Expense recorded successfully. with the Smart Books voucher number and a View the entry link.
Save several expenses quickly
Tick Save and add another before saving, or use the small arrow beside Save Expense and choose Save & add another. The form is ready for the next entry straight away. Reset clears what you typed.
Read a bill from a photo or file
You can drag and drop a bill, or click to upload it. Billing reads what it can and fills in details such as the bill date and bill number. Always check the amounts yourself. If nothing can be read, you see That bill could not be read and you can type the details in.
Possible duplicates
If an expense with the same amount under the same category is already recorded, you see Possible duplicate expense. Select Look at the first to compare. Saving anyway records a second entry.
If something goes wrong
- Select an expense category. or Select the account used to pay this expense.: choose a value in that field.
- No expense categories found: add an expense head in Smart Books.
- Could not save this expense: read the message shown and try again.