Every cost in one ledger, with the receipt where you paid it

Every cost lives in one ledger, whether it is materials for a job or petrol you paid on the way to it. You can link a cost to a job or leave it as a general cost. The cost appears on the job's Expenses tab when linked, and under Money then Expenses when you want the whole book.

Each cost has a date, a shop name, a category and a set of item lines with their own prices. The amount and the VAT on it are totalled from those lines.

What it does

The expenses ledger holds every cost you paid. Costs have thirteen categories. They have item lines with a total. They have a VAT amount. They have a receipt photo where you want one. They can be spoken in.

The form is one form opened from any door. The plus sheet's Expense cell, the Money page's row for an edit, or the yellow page button on a job's Expenses tab all open the same screen with the same fields in the same order.

A cost typed by hand and a cost spoken in are the same thing by the time they are saved. A receipt photo read by the server becomes item lines with prices, and the total adds up from those lines.

Who it is for

It is for the trader who pockets receipts. One person and one phone on site.

The thirteen categories

One list, used everywhere.

1. Materials
2. Tools and equipment
3. Fuel
4. Subcontractor
5. Vehicle
6. Travel
7. Insurance
8. Office
9. Utilities
10. PPE
11. Workwear
12. Training
13. Other

Other is the default. The same words appear in the category picker, in the chat's expense tools, and in the voice that reads a spoken cost.

How it works

1. Open the cost form. It starts quiet. You choose to type, to speak, to take a photo or to pick one from the gallery.
2. The top row is Receipt photo, with Take photo and Gallery, and a line that says a photo will fill the boxes for you. The photo stays with the cost.
3. Second is Category, a single picker with the thirteen words above. Third is the date, on the app's own calendar. It is today on a new cost, and the cost's own day on an edit.
4. Next is Who you paid, now called Supplier, and the item lines. Each line has a name on the left and a pound amount on the right. A line you are unsure about is shown as a question: Did you mean price over your words, with Yes use it. Nothing is counted until you tap.
5. Below the lines the form shows the total and the VAT on receipt where it applies. Both add up from the lines. A lump sum you typed stops the adding up and is taken as your figure.
6. Any line can be taken off with the cross, including the last one. Save expense is always on the foot of the form, disabled until the form can really save, with a line above that says what is still missing.
7. Saving from the plus sheet lands on Money then Expenses, where the cost is the top row. Saving from a job stays near that job.

A receipt photo can be read by the server. The photo is sent, the figures on it come back, and the lines are filled for you to check before you save. A box you typed is never overwritten by that read.

A spoken cost is read the same way as a spoken quote. Each finished sentence is read on its own. The lines own the total. What you said is gathered into the lines rather than kept as a separate note.

The receipt day rule

A receipt belongs to the day it was paid. That is the date on the form.

Typing a cost sets today as the date for a new cost. Reading a receipt can land its own day onto the date picker, and you can change it. Editing a saved cost shows its own saved date, not today.

Correcting a typo does not move a receipt to today. Changing the shop name or a line amount leaves the date as it was, unless you move the date yourself. The date is yours, not the save time.

What it does not do

• It does not guess a category. The picker defaults to Other until you choose. It will not change the category you set.
• It does not keep your receipt in the cloud by itself. The receipt photo stays on the phone with the cost. It only leaves the phone when you ask the app to read it, and that read is sent to the server for that one task.
• It does not let a form save with a question unanswered. A Did you mean price row holds Save shut. You must tap Yes use it. You can also type over it or remove the line.
• It does not split a receipt for you. The lines and the total are the whole receipt. The ledger is cash based and grouped by the date paid.
• It does not reclaim VAT on its own. It records the cost with total and VAT for that receipt. What you can reclaim is worked out in the tax and VAT reports.
• It does not move a cost to today because you opened it. The date picker shows the cost's own day on an edit, so a January receipt looked at in March stays in January until you move it.

Questions

Which category should I use?

Pick the one that best fits the shop or the kind of cost. Materials for stock, Tools and equipment for plant you keep, Fuel for diesel or petrol, Subcontractor for another tradesman's day, Vehicle for the van. If none fits, leave it as Other.

How does the receipt read work?

Take a photo or pick one. The app asks the server to look at the photo. It returns the shop name with items and total. The lines are filled for you. You check them and save. If the read is blank or unsure, type what you see.

Can I speak the cost?

Yes. Tap Talk on the foot of the form. Say the supplier and each item with its price in the same way you speak a quote. Each item becomes its own line with a pound amount beside it. The total adds up from those lines. Press Save expense when you have checked them.

Where is the date taken from?

From the date picker on the form. On a new cost it is today. On a receipt read it can be the day the receipt shows, copied onto the picker for you to keep or move. On an edit it is the cost's own saved date.

Can I link a cost to a job?

Yes. The form has a job picker. Pick the job or leave it as General for a cost with no job. A linked cost is shown on that job's Expenses tab and in the ledger. A general cost is only in the ledger.

Can I delete a line item?

Yes. Each line has a cross to remove it, including the last line. The total updates when a line is taken off. An empty list cannot be saved.

Related

• Jobs: the work that a cost can be linked to.
• Invoices: the bill built from the work, with the VAT the cost page records.
• The assistant: ask what you spent and where.
• Every part of the app: the other pages.

Join the list

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