How to Create an Expense

Before you start

You need the Manage Expenses permission for the property. Contact your property administrator if you do not see the + New Expense button.

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Step 1, Open the New Expense drawer

1. Go to Accounting → Expenses.
2. Click + New Expense in the top-right corner.

The Create Expense drawer opens on the right side of the screen.

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Step 2, Choose the expense type

Select one of two expense types:

• Vendor Bill, money your property owes to a vendor. The system records an accrual entry (Debit Expense / Credit Accounts Payable) and creates a separate payment entry when you mark it paid.
• Quick Expense, a payment made immediately (e.g., petty cash or a credit card purchase). The system records a single entry (Debit Expense / Credit Cash/Card) with no separate payment step.

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Step 3, Enter the vendor and basic details

1. Vendor, search for an existing vendor or type a new name.
2. Date, the expense date (defaults to today).
3. Invoice number and PO number, optional reference fields for your records.
4. Description, a short summary visible in the expense list and approval notifications.

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Step 4, Add line items

Each line item represents a cost category within the expense.

1. Click + Add line item.
2. Select the GL account (general ledger account) from the dropdown. This is the account where the expense is recorded, for example "Maintenance" or "Utilities".
3. Enter the amount (pre-tax). If tax applies, enter the tax amount in the adjacent field. The total is calculated automatically.
4. Add a line item description if the line represents a specific service or material.
5. Repeat for additional line items. The grand total of all lines becomes the expense amount.

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Step 5, Select the payment account

Under Payment details, choose the Payment account, this is the bank or cash account that will be credited when the expense is paid. This is required for Vendor Bills and determines which account appears on the journal entry.

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Step 6, Optional: add a passthrough chargeback

If part of this expense will be charged back to a resident or unit:

1. In the overflow menu (three-dot icon), click Add Passthrough.
2. Select the unit and billing account, enter the chargeback amount, and confirm.

The chargeback is linked to this expense and goes through its own approval queue separately.

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Step 7, Optional: flag for reimbursement

If this expense should be reimbursed to a staff member, resident, or external party:

1. In the overflow menu, click Mark for Reimbursement.
2. Select the payee type (Staff / Resident / External vendor) and the payee.
3. Choose the payment method and confirm.

See How to Create a Reimbursement for full details.

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Step 8, Optional: assign labels, project, or category

Use the Labels, Project, and Category fields to tag the expense for cross-module reporting. These use the same projects and labels as your service tickets, so a single project can aggregate both tickets and expenses.

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Step 9, Optional: set Auto Pay

If your property has a linked bank account (US: Plaid ACH; Canada: Stripe Connect), you can set Auto Pay so the payment fires automatically once the expense is approved.

• On Approval, payment initiates the moment final approval is granted.
• On Date, payment initiates at 9:00 AM UTC on the date you specify.

Auto Pay is available for Vendor Bills and Reimbursements. It is not available for passthrough chargebacks.

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Step 10, Save and submit

• Click Save as Draft to save without submitting. The expense sits in DRAFT status and can be edited freely.
• Click Submit for Approval to send the expense to your property's approval chain.

Once submitted, the expense moves to Pending Approval and cannot be edited unless you withdraw the submission.

Note: This system is not yet generally available. A property administrator must have accounting enabled on your property before expenses can be created.