Record an expense

When you spend money on your business, create an expense for it. If you’ve got a receipt or bill, use a photo or PDF of it to quickly create the expense to auto-fill most of the details for you.

To get started, go to Money out and tap +.

• Paid expense – this is something you’ve already paid for and typically will get a receipt for. You can add the supplier too, so it’s easier to find the expense later.

• Upcoming expense – this is something you haven’t fully paid for, like a supplier’s bill.

• Manually record – if you don't have a bill or receipt handy, you can manually enter all the details of the expense.

Now add more details.

• Add a receipt – if you’ve used a photo or PDF to create an expense, it’ll automatically be added. If you’ve manually recorded an expense, add a copy of the receipt or bill so you’ll have it for tax time.

• Choose the expense type – either business or personal. Or choose Split if:

  • the expense is both business and personal, or

  • you want to add details for a business expense.

• Pick a category – depending on what the expense is for, choose how you want to categorise it. Each category has a tax code, so if you’re GST registered, the right amount of GST will be automatically calculated. More about tax on expenses.

Create an expense from a bill or receipt

Use a photo or PDF of a receipt or bill to quickly create an expense.

1. Go to Money out and tap +.

2. Tap Paid expense or Upcoming expense.

   • Tap From photos to choose an existing photo,

   • Tap Add PDF to choose from your files or

   • Tap Take photo to take a new photo. A purple outline will appear over the document to show what will be captured – then take the pic. You can crop or rotate the photo too.

3. If you took a photo, and you're not happy with it, tap Retry. Otherwise, tap Done.

4. A new expense is created and auto-filled with details scanned from the bill or receipt.

5. Check these details and enter anything that’s missing.

Add a bill or receipt and record the expense later

Pressed for time? Snap a photo or add a PDF of an expense now, save it, then use it later to create an expense.

1. Go to Money out and tap +.

2. Tap Paid expense or Upcoming expense.

3. Tap Take photo or Add PDF.

4. Tap Done.

5. Close out of the expense.

6. When prompted, choose Save for later.

Tap Home and check the Action hub to see your saved bills or receipts in Unrecorded expenses.

Create an expense from a saved bill or receipt

Bills and receipts that you added earlier but did not record are shown as Unrecorded expenses in the Action hub on your Home screen.

To create an expense from a saved bill or receipt:

1. Tap Unrecorded expenses on the Home screen. The most recently saved photos or PDFs will be at the top of the list.

2. Tap the three dots for the bill or receipt you want to use and choose:

   • Auto-fill paid expense – if it is a receipt for something you’ve already paid for.

   • Auto-fill upcoming expense – if it is something you haven’t fully paid for.

3. A new expense is created and auto-filled with details scanned from the bill or receipt.

4. Check these details and enter anything that’s missing.

Delete a saved photo or PDF

1. Tap Unrecorded expenses on your Home screen.

2. Tap the three dots for the photo or PDF then tap Delete.

3. Tap Delete again to confirm.

Splitting an expense

If an expense is both business and personal, you’ll need to split the business and personal amounts. If you’re registered for GST, this helps keep track of how much GST you can claim from the ATO.

For example, you make a trip to your local hardware store and buy something for a job. But you also bought a snack in the same transaction. This means you can only claim the GST on the expenses related to the job.

To learn more about claiming GST credits, visit the ATO’s website.

Adding a receipt or bill

Once an expense is recorded, you can add a photo or PDF of the receipt or bill to keep a copy handy. If you created the expense using a photo or PDF of a receipt or bill, it will automatically be added. After saving it, you can add other photos of PDFs. Just open the expense and tap Add receipt.

If you manually recorded the expense, you can also add the receipt or bill while you’re recording it, or after you’ve saved it.

You can add up to 10 photos or PDFs to an expense, so long as they’re under 6MB each.

You can view or delete photos or PDFs by tapping the expense, then tapping View receipt. Tap the photo or PDF to take a closer look or delete it.

FAQs