How expenses work

An expense is money someone spent to get the work done — the fuel and tolls on the way to site, food on a long day, a camera bought from a merchant because the one in the van was the wrong model. The person out on the road pays for it there and then and claims it back from the company afterwards.

Each claim is one record: what was spent, when, what it was for, and which job or client it belongs to, with a photograph of the receipt attached to it.

The receipt is the claim

Every expense can carry the actual receipt, uploaded as an image or a scan when the claim is made. It is what turns “I spent twenty euro on lunch” into something that can be checked, approved and paid without anyone having to remember the day.

Take the photograph at the counter, while the receipt is in your hand. See adding an expense.

Finding your expenses

Expenses on the main menu opens every claim in the account.

Main menu → Expenses

Main menu → Expenses

Claims run down the left, newest day first, and clicking one opens it alongside the list.

Expenses, Simple View

Each row carries the name of the claim, its category and its status. Above the list:

• Table View redraws the claims as a table with a column per field, which is where searching and filtering live. The button is labelled with the view you are going to, so Simple View brings you back. See finding and filtering expenses.
• Add Expense opens the claim form — see adding an expense.
• The search icon opens a search box over the list.

Where claims come from

An expense reaches the list by one of three routes:

• A fieldworker logs it in the app as they spend, which is how most of them arrive — see expenses and leave in the app.
• Somebody logs it here, from Add Expense on this screen or on the job’s own Expenses tab. A claim recorded for someone else is marked as theirs with Log expense on behalf of user — for the worker with no signal, or the one who left the receipt on your desk.
• A fieldworker buys something on site and adds it to the job as an item line, ticking Report it as an expense and request reimbursement in the app. The cost reaches the client’s invoice and the claim reaches this list. See expenses on jobs and clients.

From Open to Paid

A new claim starts as Open and is worked through from the expense itself:

Status	What it means
Open	Claimed and waiting on a decision
Approved	Accepted — the company owes this money
Reject	Turned down
Paid	The claimant has had their money back

Every change is kept, with who made it and when, so a claim can always be traced. See approving and paying an expense.

Where the money shows up

A claim linked to a job comes off that job in the estimated profit figure, which is what separates a job that looked profitable from one that was.

Getting a cost on to the client is done on the job’s item lines: Mark as expense on a line carries it through to the invoice. See expenses on jobs and clients.

Where to go next

Page	What it covers
Adding an expense	The claim form, field by field — receipt, amount, category, what it links to, and logging one for somebody else
The expense page	Reading one claim, and editing or deleting it
Approving and paying an expense	Moving a claim through Open, Approved, Reject and Paid, and the history behind it
Finding and filtering expenses	Table View — searching, filtering and choosing columns
Expenses on jobs and clients	Linking a claim to a job or a client, and claiming for an item bought on site
Expense categories and groups	Setting up the categories and groups claims are sorted into
Expense questions	The things people get stuck on

Settings behind this module

• Expense and user settings — Where the category and group lists are maintained