You’ll have all the tools necessary to record your expenses. We’ve made the creation of expenses simple, fast and effective; exactly what you need when you have lots of expenses to account for on a regular basis.
Watch our bite-sized walkthrough video
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Pro-tip: If you're using Google Chrome, double right-click anywhere inside the video while it’s playing and select 'Picture-in-picture' to watch while you complete the steps when logged into Crunch!
Step-by-step instructions
To begin adding a new expense, navigate to the ‘Expenses > Expenses:
In the bottom right corner of your account, select the ‘(+)’ button:
Basics, let’s get you started
First,you’ll need tochoose the supplier for the expense you’re about to create using the dropdown menu - in our example below, we’ve gone with “Public Travel” as our supplier:
If you don’t have a supplier setup for the expense yet, don’t worry. You can create a new one by using ‘+ New Supplier’.
Next, enter the date of the expense - you can type this in, use the calendar menu, or select ‘Today’ at the bottom. You can enter past dates but not one in the future:
Optional features
Once you’ve specified the supplier and date of the expense, you’ll be able to use some additional features if you need to:
Attach a file:
We’d recommend doing this for record-keeping purposes - you can simply take a photo of the receipt and upload it into your Crunch account.
Add a note:
You can choose to add a note to expenses for your own purpose to make it distinguishable from others of similar nature; as an example, perhaps you record a lot of travel expenses to London but want to remind yourself of which expense was for which journey.
Make this chargeable to a client:
Sometimes you may need to recharge an expense to your end-client; i.e. travel. You can attach expense details to sales invoices, which will then be reimbursed to you alongside payment for your services.
Similar to the “Add a note” function, you can use this to help distinguish expenses further to make them easier to identify.
Items, what did you spend money on?
Now that you’ve chosen your supplier and entered the date, you can begin adding the description and cost of the expense incurred.
First, include a ‘Description’ of the expense - this can be as simple or as detailed as you’d like:
Next, choose your ‘Expense type’ from the dropdown menu. If you’ve set up your chosen supplier with a default expense type, you’ll notice this is automatically populated for you, however, you’re still able to change it if you need to:
Then choose the ‘VAT Rate’ applicable to the expense:
Once you’ve checked the VAT rate, you’ll simply need to enter the ‘Amount’. This should be the total amount inclusive of VAT because your account will automatically separate the VAT element of the expense for you (if applicable):
If you need to add another line item, just click ‘+ Add item’ underneath the description field.
You can add as many line items as you need to. For example, if you’ve purchased multiple pieces of equipment and want them all to be listed separately alongside their respective costs:
To remove a line item, click on the bin icon beside the item you want to delete:
Once you're done adding your line item(s), it should look something like our example below:
Payment, how are you paying for this expense?
Lastly, you’ll need to enter details for how you paid for the expense:
The ‘Date’ will automatically reflect the same date as the original expense date you entered. This is because for the majority of expenses purchased, you’ll have made the payment simultaneously, however, you can still change this if you need to.
Then, simply specify how it was paid for using the ‘Payment method’ dropdown menu. You’ll be presented with a few options:
•Transfer out from business bank account - this is the option you’ll likely use the most if you’re using business current or saving accounts to pay for expense items
•Business debit card - the same as above, but the options is there if you want to be more specific
•Business credit card - use this option to reflect payments being made using your business credit card.
•Paid by director personally(limited company only) - this option only to be used by limited company directors that need to reflect payments made using a personal bank account.
Make sure that the ‘Paid’ field reflects the exact amount that left the bank account. Crunch will calculate this to show the total amount entered when creating your line item(s):
Once you’re happy, simply select ‘Save’ and you’re all done:
You can also use the ‘Save & Add Similar’function. This can be used to create more expenses without having to navigate back and forth between the expense tabs and forms.
It’ll even populate the same information you entered on the expense you just created to make things even faster, just don’t forget to amend the date, amount paid, description, and expense type (if necessary):
Paying for an expense through instalments
Let’s say you’ve purchased a piece of equipment for £1,200, but are paying it through instalments over 12 months at £100. Simply create the expense in the same way you would any other expense and ensure in the ‘Item’ section that the line item amount reflects the total you will have eventually paid.
When you get to the ‘Payment’ section, ensure that you enter the instalment amount being made in the ‘Paid’ field, rather than the full cost - it should look something like this:
You’ll notice we have two separate line items in the payment section. When you make your next instalment, navigate back to your list of expenses and select the pencil icon to the right of the relevant expense item to edit it:
In the ‘Payment’ section, you’ll be able to use the ‘+Add payment’ button to create multiple payment lines for the expense:
You can add as many payment lines as you need until the total value of the amount is fulfilled. In order to track what’s left to be paid, your Crunch account will show you the amount outstanding for this expense based on the amounts of the payments you’ve recorded in your account:
Once the expense has been fully paid and recorded in your account, you’ll see a ‘Paid’ label.
How to view, edit and delete expenses
To view existing expenses, navigate to ‘Expenses > Expenses’ and you’ll see a list of all other expenses created, along with their payment status:
To the right of all expenses, you’ll see three icons:
• The pencil icon allows you to edit the expense
• The bin icon allows you to delete the expense
• The dots allow you to create another expense similar to the one you’re selecting.
Check out our Snap Expense appand you’ll be creating your expenses on the fly.
Want to set up an automated recurring expense?
These can be extremely handy for expenses paid by Direct Debit or Standing Order. We’ve got you covered in our article “How to add and edit a recurring expense”.
This article explains how to create new expenses in Crunch.
