Record an expense
A till receipt, a supplier invoice, an expense claim: every purchase the company makes becomes an expense in To Bill, with its receipt. If your books are kept in To Bill, the expense is recorded there by itself.
Before you start
- You need the permission to create expenses. Administrators have it; a user with a limited role may only see the list.
- Have the receipt to hand: a PDF, or a sharp photo in JPG or PNG, 10 MB at most. It is mandatory for a new expense.
- A supplier invoice you will pay later is recorded the same way. See Pay supplier invoices.
The list of expenses
In the menu, click Expenses. Expenses are sorted from the most recent to the oldest.
- Add creates a new expense. The To pay button next to it opens the supplier invoices still to be paid.
- The tabs sort the expenses: All, Paid (paid or already settled) and To pay (not paid yet, or ordered at the bank).
The Payment column shows where each expense stands: Paid with the date, To pay with the due date (in red if it has passed), or Ordered when a payment file has gone to the bank.
To find an expense, type a supplier, a description or an amount in the search, or filter by Supplier, Category, Date or Amount Incl. Tax. See Filter, sort and keep your views.
Create an expense
Click Add. The New expense page opens.
Drop the receipt in Receipt upload (1), or click inside the box to choose it. The preview appears on the right.
The expense form appears under the box, and To Bill reads the document. If it is a QR-bill, the supplier, the amount, the IBAN, the reference and the due date are filled in from the QR code. If the AI assistant is switched on, it also reads receipts and invoices without a QR code. See Receipts and automatic reading.
Basic information. Check or complete the Supplier, the Category, the Description, the receipt’s Date and the Currency.
Amount Information. Enter the Amount Excl. Tax. The Amount Incl. Tax is worked out by itself.
- A single VAT rate: enter its amount in Total VAT.
- Several rates on the same receipt, for example 8.1% and 2.6%: click Add Tax Detail, then fill in one line per rate, with its VAT Rate (%), its Net Amount and its VAT Amount.
Payment. In Paid by, say how the expense was paid (see the table below).
Click Save, at the top right. To Bill goes back to the list and confirms: The expense has been created successfully.
Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory, as are the Category and the Currency. As long as something is missing, Save stays greyed out.
What to choose in “Paid by”?
| Paid by | When to choose it |
|---|---|
| Not paid yet – to pay | A supplier invoice to pay later. It joins the To pay list. |
| Company bank account | Paid by transfer, debit card or direct debit from the company’s account. If you have several accounts, choose which one in From the bank account. |
| Cash box | Paid in cash, with money from the cash box. |
| Company credit card | Paid with the company’s credit card, settled later in one go. |
| The owner, out of pocket | The owner or a partner advanced the money. |
| An employee (expense claim) | An employee advanced the money; the company owes it to them. |
| Other means | Any other case. The payment is not posted by itself: your fiduciary enters it in the journal. |
| Not an invoice to pay (already settled) | The default choice. Nothing is followed as a debt to pay. |
Except for Not paid yet – to pay, enter the payment date in Paid on.
An expense claim: who advanced the money?
With An employee (expense claim), if your payroll is in To Bill, choose the employee in Advanced by (1).
The expense is owed to them: it appears in Payroll › To pay back, from where you pay it back with their next payroll or by transfer. See Pay back expenses advanced by an employee. An expense already paid back (or whose repayment is scheduled) can no longer change its means of payment.
Paid from the bank account
Choose Company bank account rather than Not an invoice to pay (already settled) when the money has left the account: the payment is then recorded, and the line on your bank statement links to it by itself, without being counted twice. See Reconcile payments.
A service from a supplier abroad
Online software invoiced from Ireland, a graphic designer in France: switch on Service from a supplier abroad, then enter the Supplier's country and the Rate of the service. To Bill then declares the acquisition tax in your VAT return. See Acquisition tax.
View, edit or delete an expense
In the list, click a row. The expense’s page shows the receipt on the left and the summary on the right: amounts excluding and including VAT, VAT by rate, supplier, date, category and description.
- Edit (1) opens the same form. Change what needs changing, then click Save. To replace the receipt, drop the new file in the box.
- To delete an expense, go back to the list, open the … menu on its row, then choose Delete. You can also tick several expenses and click Delete above the table.
An expense already posted
If accounting is on, editing or deleting an expense does not erase it from your books: To Bill posts a counter-entry (reversal) and keeps the receipt. If the counter-entry is refused, for example because the financial year is closed, the expense is not deleted. A payment that has already been posted can no longer be edited: reverse its entry in the journal first.
What accounting records
If your books are kept in To Bill, each expense is posted on its receipt’s date, without you doing anything more:
| Entry | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| The expense | the expense account of its category, the amount excluding VAT, and the input tax (1170 or 1171) | 2000 Accounts payable, the amount including VAT |
| Its payment, on the Paid on date | 2000 Accounts payable | the account chosen in Paid by |
If the company is not registered for VAT, or if it accounts with the net tax rate method, there is no input tax: the whole amount including VAT goes to expenses.
The account credited by the payment depends on Paid by: the ledger account of the bank account (1020 by default), the cash box 1000, the card 2211, an employee 2212, the owner 2850 in a sole proprietorship, 2820 in a partnership or 2213 in a company. Accounts 2211, 2212 and 2213 are created the first time they are used.
Each expense category is linked to an expense account, for example Rent & Utilities to 6000. To change this link, open Accounting › Settings, Expenses: category → account card. See Accounting settings.
The categories
Every company receives a list of categories when it is created: Meals & Entertainment, Transportation, Office Supplies, Rent & Utilities, Telecommunications and twenty others. The list cannot be changed from the expenses screen.
Legal basis
- Every accounting record is supported by a voucher. A voucher may be on paper or in electronic form: Art. 957a para. 2 no. 2 and para. 3 CO.
- A company registered for VAT deducts the VAT invoiced to it (input tax) in the course of its business activity: Art. 28 para. 1 VAT Act. The invoice must show, among other things, the supplier and their VAT number, the supply, the amount and the VAT rate: Art. 26 para. 2 VAT Act. A till receipt up to CHF 400 does not need the buyer’s name: Art. 57 VAT Ordinance.
- When accounting on the basis of agreed consideration, the deduction is possible as soon as the invoice is received; on the basis of consideration received, when it is paid: Art. 40 VAT Act.