Expenses, Receivables, Payables & Payments

Expenses (/accounting/expenses)

Use Expenses for the day-to-day costs of running the business that are not stock purchases: rent, salaries, utilities, repairs, and so on.

Recording an expense

1. Click + Add expense.
2. Choose the Category (Rent, Utilities, and so on, or any expense account you added).
3. Enter the Payee (optional), the Amount (incl. tax) and, if any of it is tax, of which tax.
4. Choose how it is Paid:
   • Cash (paid now) or Bank (paid now): the money leaves immediately.
   • On credit: you owe it. It appears under Payables until you pay it.
5. Set the Date (blank means today), an optional Reference (such as the bill number) and a Note.

If you treat expense tax as reclaimable (Accounting Settings), the tax part is kept apart as Input Tax Receivable instead of being part of the cost.

A paid expense can be deleted; an expense with payments against it can't be, until those payments are deleted first.

Selling and buying on credit

Choose Credit as the payment method on a sale or purchase when the other side will pay later.

• A credit sale needs a customer, and a credit purchase needs a supplier, so there is always someone to chase or pay.
• You can take a first payment on the spot (a part-paid sale): the rest stays owed.
• The amount owed is shown on the Receivables (customers) or Payables (suppliers) screens.

Receivables (/accounting/receivables)

Everything customers owe you: credit sales and any opening receivables you entered.

• Each row shows the customer, the document, the total, the paid so far, what is still owed, and how overdue it is.
• Click Receive payment to record money coming in against a document, in full or in part, by Cash or Bank, with a date and note.

Payables (/accounting/payables)

Everything you owe: credit purchases, credit expenses, and any opening payables.

• The layout matches Receivables.
• Click Pay to record a payment to the supplier, in full or in part.

You can't pay more than what is owed on a document.

Payments (/accounting/payments)

A single list of every receipt and payment made against credit documents, with the date, the party, the method and the amount.

• A payment can be deleted; the amount goes back on what is owed and the books are reversed to match.
• Each payment records its own journal entry: receipts move Cash/Bank up and Accounts Receivable down; payments move Accounts Payable down and Cash/Bank down.

Where credit documents are tracked

What is owed on a document is its total, less payments received or made, and less any returns.