Tracking expenses¶
Keep a record of what your business spends, ready for tax time and BAS reporting.
Expenses live in the Expenses area of the app. That area has two lists: To pay for Bills you still owe, and Spent for expenses you have already paid. This page is about the Spent list.
Adding an expense¶
- Go to Expenses in the sidebar.
- Click Add Expense.
- Fill in the details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Date | The date the expense was paid. This is what BAS uses, since reporting is cash basis. |
| Description | What the expense was for. |
| Account | The category from your chart of accounts. Required. |
| Tag | An optional free-text label of your own, for example "Office Supplies". It does not affect your reports. |
| Amount (inc GST) | The total you paid, including GST. |
| GST Component | The GST portion. This fills in for you and can be changed. |
- Optionally attach a receipt.
- Click Add.
Note
The Account is what classifies the expense for your reports. If your chart of accounts is set up, you must choose an account before you can save. If you have not set one up yet, start with Chart of accounts.
How GST fills in¶
Enter the Amount including GST, and FairBooks works out the GST Component for you (one eleventh of the amount). If you choose a GST-free account, such as bank fees or insurance, the GST is set to $0 automatically. You can always type a different GST figure if you need to.
For a fuller explanation, see GST on expenses.
Note
If your organisation is not registered for GST, the GST fields are not shown.
Receipts¶
Attach a photo or PDF of each receipt so everything is together at BAS time:
- Supported formats: PNG, JPG, PDF.
- Maximum file size: 5 MB.
To pull down several receipts at once, tick the expenses you want in the list and click Download Receipts. FairBooks gives you a single ZIP file of the receipts from the selected expenses.
Finding an expense¶
The Spent list has a search box (matching the description or tag), a tag filter, and a date range so you can narrow down to a period or a supplier quickly.
Where expenses come from¶
You can add expenses directly, as above. A paid bill also creates an expense automatically, dated to when you paid it. That is the record that flows into your BAS and Profit and Loss.
Deleting an expense¶
Deleting an expense moves it to the Rubbish Bin, where you can restore it within 30 days. See Data and record keeping.