Expenses

Written By Ignacio

Last updated 2 days ago

Expenses is the cost side. Revenue on its own tells you how busy you are, not whether you're making money, and this is the tab that closes that gap.

The Expenses report

1. Add Expense

Records a single cost.

The Add Expense button

The form is short: an amount field and an optional description of the expense, alongside a date and category.

Keep descriptions specific. "Supplies" across forty rows tells you nothing in December. "Water-fed pole replacement" does.

The Add Expense form

2. Import with AI

Bulk import rather than typing rows one at a time. Point it at a bank export or a set of receipts and it works out what each row is.

This is the realistic way to keep expenses current. Manual entry works for a fortnight and then stops, and expenses that stop halfway through a year are worse than none because the totals look real.

The Import with AI button

Date ranges and filters

The usual 1W, 1M, 3M, 1Y presets plus custom, and Filters to narrow by category.

Match the range to your revenue reporting. Comparing this month's revenue against a quarter of expenses produces a number that means nothing but looks like it means something.

The Expenses report controls

What to actually track

For a home service business the categories that matter:

  • Vehicle, fuel, maintenance, insurance. Usually the biggest and most underestimated.
  • Materials and chemicals.
  • Equipment, which pairs with the Equipment page if you enable it.
  • Marketing, so you can compare against lead source attribution in the Jobs report.
  • Subscriptions and software.

Marketing is the one worth the effort. Spend by channel here, against jobs by lead source in the Jobs report, is the closest thing to a return figure you'll get without a spreadsheet.

Tips and gotchas

  • Import, don't type. Manual entry always lapses.
  • Specific descriptions. You're reading these months later.
  • Match ranges to revenue before comparing anything.
  • Marketing spend plus lead source attribution is the pairing that answers "is this working".

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