> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://beebole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Expense tracking: categories, records, and reports
> Track project and employee expenses in Beebole — create expense categories, log amounts or quantities, and report on spending alongside time.
Beebole's expense tracking lets you record spending — travel, meals, mileage, equipment — against the projects and people it belongs to. Expenses are grouped into categories you define, can carry a billing markup, and appear in reports and budgets alongside tracked time.
Expense tracking is not included in every Beebole plan. If you don't see expense features in your account, review your plan and add-ons on the [Subscription](/help/documentation/subscription) page.
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## How expenses work in Beebole
Expense tracking has two building blocks:
* **Expense types** — The categories of spending your organization recognizes (Travel, Meals, Equipment, …). You create them once in Beebole's settings.
* **Expense records** — The individual entries: a date, a category, an amount or quantity, and an optional note. You log them on the **Expenses** panel of a person or a project.
Every expense record must be linked to at least a person or a project — it can be linked to both, so you know who incurred the expense and which project it is charged to.
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## Creating expense types
Click the button with your initials at the bottom of the sidebar, then go to **Settings** > **Expense Types**.
Click **Add Expense Type**, enter a **Name** (e.g., "Travel", "Meals", "Mileage"), then click **Add Expense Type** again to confirm.
In the expense type's **Details** panel, check **Currency** if entries of this type are monetary amounts; leave it unchecked for quantity-based expenses such as kilometers or meals. Changes are saved automatically.
For currency-based expense types, the **Details** panel also shows **Billing markup in %**: the percentage applied to the expense amount when calculating the billed amount in reports. The billed amount is `expense amount × markup / 100`, so a markup of 100 bills the expense at cost.
### Adding several expense types at once
To create a whole list of expense types in one go, paste their names from a spreadsheet:
Click **Add Expense Type**. Below the name field, find the **Or add multiple entries** area.
Copy the names from a spreadsheet, one name per line, then click **Paste**.
Check the entries in the **Import preview**. Click the **×** on a row to leave it out.
Click **Import entries**. If something looks wrong afterwards, click **Undo**.
Each new expense type gets a color automatically. Like a type added on its own, it starts with **Currency** unchecked, so open the monetary ones afterwards to check **Currency** and set the **Billing markup in %**.
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## Controlling who can use an expense type
Each expense type has a **Who has access?** panel where you assign it to specific people, tags, or projects — for example, mileage reimbursement for field staff only.
The organization-wide default is the **Show all expenses** toggle in your organization's **Show or hide by default** panel: when it's on, every expense type is available unless you exclude it; when it's off, an expense type is only available where you assign it. See [Assignments](/help/documentation/assignments) for the full availability model.
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## Archiving and deleting expense types
To manage an existing expense type, open it in **Settings** > **Expense Types** and click the **⋯** action menu next to its name. The menu offers **Duplicate**, **Rename**, **Archive**, **Unarchive**, and **Delete**.
Archive a type you no longer use. It leaves the list and the **Select expense category** picker, so nobody can log new expenses with it, while its past expense records stay in place and still count in reports. When archived types exist, click **Show Archived** on the **Expense Types** page to display them, then use the **⋯** action menu and **Unarchive** to restore one. **Hide Archived** hides them again.
**Delete** only works on an expense type that no expense record uses. When records exist, Beebole refuses the deletion and, in most cases, names a person with expense records of that type; click the name to open their **Expenses** panel. To retire a type and keep its history, archive it instead. See [Delete protection](/help/documentation/concepts#delete-protection).
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## Logging expenses
You log expense records on the **Expenses** panel of a person or a project:
Click **People** or **Projects** in the sidebar and select the person who incurred the expense or the project it is charged to.
In the detail panel, open the **Expenses** panel.
Click **Add**, then pick a category with **Select expense category**. Beebole creates the record, dated today, and saves it automatically.
Adjust the **Date**, enter the **Amount** (for currency-based categories, with its own currency) or **Quantity** (for unit-based categories), link the **Project** — or the **Person** when you started from a project — and add an optional **Note**. Every change is saved automatically.
To remove an expense record, open it in the **Expenses** panel and click the trash button (**Delete**).
What a person can see and do in the **Expenses** panel depends on the **Expense records** permission of their role. See [Roles and authorizations](/help/documentation/roles-authorisations).
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## Expenses in reports
To analyze spending, click **Reports** in the sidebar and add an **Expense** column to a report. You can group expense records by expense type, person, project, tag, or period, and filter them like any other report. Expense columns include **Amount**, **Quantity**, and **Expense billing** — the billed amount with the category's markup applied (in the report matrix they appear as **Expense amount** and **Expense quantity**). See [Reports](/help/documentation/reports) for folders, charts, sharing, and exports.
Expenses also count toward the project's budgets, alongside time: the expense amount adds to the budget's cost and the billed amount to its billing. Only currency-based expenses count. Quantity-based expenses, such as mileage or units, are left out of budgets. On a budget [split by person](/help/documentation/budgets#budget-splits), an expense linked to a person counts on that person's line. Track them in the **Budget Status** report described in [Budgets](/help/documentation/budgets).
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## Related content
Set billing, cost, and hours targets on projects and monitor consumption — including expenses.
Build, filter, and share reports on time and expense records.
Control which expense types, projects, and absence types are available to each person.
Create the projects that expenses and budgets are tracked against.
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## Frequently asked questions
No. Beebole's approval workflow covers timesheets and time-off requests. Expense records are not submitted or approved — anyone with the **Expense records** permission can add and edit them directly.
Yes. Leave the **Currency** setting unchecked on the expense type, and Beebole records a **Quantity** instead of a monetary amount — useful for kilometers, meals, or any per-unit expense. Quantities show in reports but don't count toward project budgets, which only add up currency-based expenses.
Each currency-based expense type has a **Billing markup in %** setting. In reports, the **Expense billing** column shows `expense amount × markup / 100` — so a markup of 100 bills the expense at cost, and a markup of 120 adds 20%.
Archive it. In **Settings** > **Expense Types**, click the type's **⋯** action menu, then **Archive**. Beebole removes it from the **Select expense category** picker, and its past expense records stay in reports. Deleting is refused while records use the type. Click **Show Archived**, then **Unarchive** in the type's menu, to bring it back.
The default is your own currency setting; you can change it on the **Amount** field.
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