Record expenses, approve and cancel them

An expense is money the school pays out: a TANESCO bill, chalk and markers, repairs. Each expense is paid from an account (the cash box or a bank account), so the account's balance always shows what is left.

Before you start

• Create the accounts the money comes from, and the categories you group spending by (see Accounts, categories and expense settings).
• Decide whether expenses need approval (Expense Settings).

Record an expense

1. Open Expenses → Expenses. The list shows the Date, Description, Category, Paid from, Amount, Status and any Receipt. Use the From and Until dates, Category, Paid from and Status filters, and the columns button to change what is shown.

   

2. Click Record expense.

   

3. Click Create.

What you see next depends on the approval setting:

• Approval off: "Expense recorded". It is Paid at once and the amount is taken from the account.
• Approval on: "Expense recorded: waiting for approval. It is taken from the account once approved."
• If the account is now below zero you are warned ("… is now below zero. Record the money put in under Accounts → Add money.").

Approve or reject

When expenses need approval, an authorised person opens the list and, on a row that shows Waiting for approval:

The dashboard's Needs your attention list shows how many expenses are waiting.

Cancel an expense

Use Cancel expense on a row. The expense is cancelled, not deleted, and the money goes back into its account. It stays on the list marked Cancelled.

Import, export and print

• Import expenses loads many from a file, with a preview ("Expenses recorded: 30 recorded, 2 skipped as already recorded").
• Export gives Excel-friendly CSV or Excel (.xlsx).
• Print expenses lets you choose From and To dates and opens a printable list.

Salaries

Salary payments made through Payroll appear here as expenses in the Salaries category. Do not record them twice.

If something goes wrong