Expenses List
How to add expenses, see and stop the costs that repeat, filter the Expenses list and understand the expense summary cards.
Expenses is the costs-only view of the ledger. It uses the same underlying transaction system as the wider Transactions screen, but keeps the page focused on money going out of the business. The page has two tabs: Transactions, the list of your expenses, which it opens on, and Repeating Costs, the costs that come round again, with how many there are beside it. Add expense, above the list, records a new cost.
Repeating Costs
Costs that come round again, such as van insurance each month, are listed on the Repeating Costs tab. Each adds itself to your expenses when it's due. You set one up in Add expense by choosing how often it Repeats. While there are none, the tab says No repeating costs yet. To add one, such as your insurance each month, use Add expense and choose how often it repeats., with an Add expense button if your role can add expenses.
- Each cost: Its name, with its category and van underneath, then the amount, in red as money going out, how often it repeats and when it's next due, such as Every month, next on 1 Nov 2026. The one due soonest is at the top.
- Stop: Stops the cost repeating. Work Planner asks first, then it drops off the tab. The ones already on your expenses stay; it just won't add any more. Stop only shows if your role can change expenses. To change the amount, stop it and add it again.
- Other transactions repeat too: When charges, payments or other kinds of transaction repeat as well, the tab says so, and See them all opens the Scheduled Transactions page, which lists everything that repeats. It's also under Accounts > Scheduled Transactions in the menu. See Scheduled Transactions List.
SMS Credits Are Added For You
SMS credits you buy from Work Planner go into Expenses on their own, whether you bought them on the Bolt-Ons screen or an automatic top-up bought them for you. Each purchase is added on the day you paid, as something like 200 SMS credits from Work Planner, under the SMS Credits category, with the Work Planner invoice number as its payment reference. A minute or so later the invoice itself is attached as the receipt, so Accounts Home won't ask you for one. The notifications bell says SMS credits added to your expenses to everyone who can add expenses, on their phone too, and opens the expense when you click it.
- VAT: For a VAT-registered business, any VAT on the invoice is recorded, so it goes in your VAT return as VAT you can claim back. Otherwise the whole amount is the cost.
- Which business: SMS credits are shared by all your businesses, so the expense goes to the business you were in when you bought them. Automatic top-ups go to the business you added first.
- Not added: Credits that cost nothing, such as ones Work Planner gives you, aren't added. Nor are they for a business that shows its money in euros, because Work Planner charges in pounds. Instead the bell says Add your SMS credits to your expenses, with what you paid and when. Click it and Add expense opens with the date, the description and the SMS Credits category filled in, so you only put in what it cost you in euros, as on your bank or card statement.
Expense Summary
The summary sits above the table and is open when you arrive. Hide expense summary folds it away, and the page remembers your choice on that device.
- Total Expenses: The number of completed expense entries in the current filters.
- Total Amount: The full gross value of those expenses.
- Annual Expenses: Your spend over the whole financial year your date range falls in, so you have a yearly figure to compare the range against. For the financial year you're in, it's the spend so far; pick dates in an earlier financial year, such as last year's, and the card shows all of that year. It still respects your other filters, such as category, so it describes the same slice of spending. Set when your financial year starts in Settings > Accounts & tax.
- Monthly Expenses: The average spend per month across the range you have selected, with the number of months shown underneath. A year from 6 April to 5 April counts as 12 months, and a part month counts as a whole one.
- Total VAT: Shown when your business is VAT registered.
- Net Amount: Also shown for VAT-registered businesses so you can split gross and net quickly.
Summary Charts
- Expenses by Category: A bar chart of spend per category for the selected range, so the biggest costs stand out immediately.
- Breakdown by Category: The same data as a pie chart, showing each category as a share of the total.
- Breakdown by Payment Method: Where the money went out from, which is useful for reconciling against a card or bank account.
- Breakdown by Vehicle: What each van or car cost, with No vehicle for the expenses that aren't for one. It appears once an expense in the current filters has a vehicle. Each vehicle's costs also count against it in its reports, set against what it earned in the Vehicles Report.
- Colours and grouping: Each slice uses the colour set on the category, payment method or vehicle. Smaller categories beyond the top few are grouped into a single Other slice so the chart stays readable.
Filters And Search
- Search: Search checks descriptions, payment references, linked customer details, and linked job or customer addresses.
- The Filters button: Category, the date range, Business, Round and Vehicle are behind the funnel button beside the search, with the number you've set in a circle on its corner. It slides them out from the right, and each applies as soon as you change it. Each one you've set shows as a chip beside the search, such as Category: Fuel, with an × to take it off. Clear all, at the foot, takes them all off, and Show 42 expenses closes it. On a phone, the filter button opens the Filter expenses popup, where you choose them and tap Apply.
- Without a category or a receipt: Opened from a thing to do on Accounts Home, the list shows only the expenses still missing one, and says so above the table. Show all expenses goes back to all of them.
- Category: Narrows the list to one expense category, such as Fuel.
- Date range: Works from the entry date of the expense, and starts as your financial year so far (This Tax Year for most businesses). The choices are This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, This Tax Year and Last Tax Year, the same on every money page, plus All Time, or pick any dates on the calendar.
- Business: Shows when you're working in more than one business. Choose one or more to see only their expenses, with the summary and charts to match.
- Round: Shows the expenses put down to a job on the rounds you choose, such as materials bought for one round's jobs. Expenses that aren't for a job, which is most of them, are left out while a round is chosen.
- Vehicle: Shows once your business has a vehicle, if your role can see vehicles. Narrows the costs, and the summary and charts above them, to one or more vehicles, sold ones included, or to No vehicle.
Working With The Table
- Expense-only view: The page hides the transaction-type filter because this screen is already focused on expenses.
- Amount: Each expense has a − in front of its amount, such as −£38.50, as money going out of the business, the same as on Transactions.
- Open a row: Clicking a row opens the expense details popup.
- Attachment marker: A paperclip beside the description means the expense has a receipt or document attached, which makes it easy to spot the costs still missing paperwork.
- Add expense: Opens Add expense, for something you've paid for the business: the amount, date, category, van and VAT, with a photo of the receipt, once or repeating. On a phone it's the + button. See Adding an Expense.
- Columns: The cog just left of the Filters button opens Select Columns, sliding out from the right. Use it when you want extra fields such as VAT, Net Amount, Payment Reference, Vehicle, or linked job details visible in the table: tick them, drag them into order and click Save.
- Export CSV: Downloads every expense the search and filters find as a spreadsheet, not just the page on screen, oldest first: its date, description, category, vehicle, job, payment method, reference, status, net amount, VAT and amount. The last column, Receipts, says how many receipts or documents are attached, so 0 is an expense still missing its paperwork. It follows everything that narrows the list, such as the date range, a category, a round or a vehicle, and the expenses without a category or a receipt when you came from Accounts Home. When you're looking at more than one business, the first column, Business, says which business each expense belongs to. The button shows if your role has Export Reports and Lists under Reports, as owners, admins and the ready-made Accountant role do. See Editing a Role. With more than one business chosen, only those where you can export are in it. It isn't in the iPhone and Android apps, which can't save a download: export from Work Planner in a web browser.
Why Expenses And Transactions Both Matter
Every expense is still a transaction underneath. Use Expenses when you want the clean cost view. Use Transactions when you need to compare costs against charges, payments, refunds, or other money movement in one ledger.
Related articles
- Adding an Expense: Each field in Add expense, and the costs that repeat.
- Creating an Expense from Transactions: The full transaction form, for an expense that belongs to a job.
- Expense Detail View: Shows what you can inspect after opening an expense.
- Transactions List: Useful when you need the expense in the context of the full ledger.
- Transaction Attachments: Explains the paperclip marker and how to attach receipts.