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 of it to quickly capture 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 an attachment – if you’ve used a photo to create an expense, it’ll automatically be attached. If you’ve manually recorded an expense, add or take photos of the receipt or bill so you’ll have a copy 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.

Capture an expense from a photo

Use a photo 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, 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.

3. If needed, crop or rotate the photo, then tap Next.

4. If you’re not happy with the photo, tap Retry. Otherwise, tap Done.

5. A new expense is created and auto-filled with details scanned from the photo.

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

Capture now, finish later

Pressed for time? Snap a photo 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 and snap the pic.

4. Tap Done.

5. Close out of the expense.

6. When prompted, choose Save photo for later.

Tap Home and check the Action hub to see your saved photos in Unrecorded expenses.

Create an expense from a saved photo

Saved photos are shown as Unrecorded expenses in the Action hub on your Home screen.

To create an expense from a saved photo:

1. Tap Unrecorded expenses on your Home screen.

2. Tap the three dots for the photo you want to use and choose:

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

   • Auto-fill upcoming expense – if the photo is something you haven’t fully paid for, like a supplier’s bill.

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

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

Delete a saved photo

1. Tap Unrecorded expenses on your Home screen.

2. Tap the three dots for the photo 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 an attachment

Once an expense is recorded, you can add attachments to retain a handy copy of the expense. If you created the expense using a photo, that photo will automatically be attached. After saving it, you can add more attachments from your photos. Just open the expense and tap Add attachment. Then take a photo, or choose an existing one.

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

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

You can view or delete attachments by tapping the expense, then tapping Edit. Tap the icon on the photo to see all the attachments or to delete them.

FAQs