How to Track Business Expenses?
Every cost your business absorbs — fuel for deliveries, repair bills, office supplies, insurance premiums — belongs in Rentablez Expense Tracking. Recording expenses alongside your revenue gives you an accurate picture of what the business actually earns, not just what it invoices.
Why Track Expenses Here?
- True profitability — pair spending with revenue so the Summary and Financial Reports show real profit, not just billings.
- Traceability — link an expense to the exact asset or order it belongs to, so costs sit next to the work that caused them.
- Reporting — filter by category, date, asset, or order and export the result to CSV for month-end reviews or your accountant.
Expenses and Financial Reports are part of the Accounting & Financials module. If you don’t see the Expenses menu, your organization isn’t subscribed to that module yet. Adding, editing, or deleting an expense also requires the expense.write permission.
How It Works
Open the list from Finance → Expenses in the top menu. Add each expense as it happens — category, date, amount, and any details you have. Rentablez keeps a running list sorted by most recent first, scoped to your current branch (location). Use the filters to pull up expenses by category, date range, asset, or order whenever you need a report or a month-end review.
The list shows each expense’s Description, Category, Reference (a linked asset or order), Date, Amount, Status, and Actions.
Statuses and the Status Tabs
The tabs above the table — All, Draft, Pending Approval, Approved, Paid, Rejected — each show a count and filter the list to that status.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not yet sent for approval. Click the send icon on the row to submit it. |
| Pending Approval | Waiting for someone with the expense.approve permission to Approve or Reject it (row icons, or tick several rows and use Approve selected). |
| Approved | Counted in your P&L. The row shows Locked — it can no longer be edited or deleted. |
| Paid | Settled. Also locked. |
| Rejected | Sent back with a reason. It can be edited and submitted again. |
Approvals are optional. They’re switched off by default, in which case every new expense is saved straight as Approved. To turn them on, go to Settings → Expense Approvals: there you can also set an amount at or below which expenses skip approval (so small receipts don’t need a manager). With approvals on, the Add Expense form has Save Draft and Submit for Approval buttons instead of Add, and pending expenses also appear under Finance → Expense Approvals.
Spent Money on Something? — Add an Expense
Click Add Expense in the top right to open the form.
Fill in the fields:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Category | Start typing to search. Not there yet? Create it inline without leaving the form. |
| Date | The date the expense occurred. Defaults to today. |
| Amount | Entered in your organization’s currency. Up to 8 digits before the decimal and 2 after. |
| Vendor | Optional — search your vendor list. |
| Tax Rate % | Optional — for example 18. The amount you enter is treated as the receipt total, so the form splits it into Taxable + Tax for you. Tick Input tax credit can be claimed on this tax if you can claim it back. |
| Reference No. | Optional — the bill or receipt number. |
| Description | Optional — any detail that makes the expense identifiable later (up to 256 characters). |
| Payment Method | Optional — how it was paid. Add a new method inline if it’s missing. |
| Paid On | Optional — the date it was paid. |
Click Add to save it (or Save Draft / Submit for Approval if approvals are on). Once the expense exists, you can open it again to attach Receipts.
To manage your full category list, go to Expense Categories.
Link the Expense to an Asset or Order
Two optional fields let you tie a cost to the thing that caused it:
- Link to Asset — search by asset name or tag and pick the specific stock unit (for example, a tire replacement on one trailer).
- Link to Order — search by order number to attribute the cost to a particular rental (for example, extra fuel for a delivery).
Linked expenses show an Asset or Order chip in the list’s Reference column, and you can later filter the list by asset tag or order number.
Where This Lands
Choose how the expense is treated:
- Operating expense — hits the P&L (default) — a normal running cost.
- Recharge to a customer — pass the cost on to the customer of the linked order. Available only once you’ve linked an order (see below).
- Capitalize onto the linked asset — for a purchase that improves an asset (an upgrade, a new part). It’s added to the asset’s cost and depreciated instead of appearing as an operating expense. Available only once you’ve linked an asset.
Repair and service costs for a maintenance-type category are tracked in the Maintenance module, so the Link to Asset field is disabled for those categories. Log the parts and labor against the maintenance job instead.
Recharge: Security Deposit or Next Invoice
When you pick Recharge to a customer, an Attach to choice appears:
- Security Deposit — deducts the expense from the linked order’s refundable hold, useful for recovering damage or cleaning costs. The form shows the available hold and won’t let you take more than what remains; if the order has no collected deposit, this option is disabled.
- Invoice (next billing) — adds the cost to the customer’s next invoice. Available only when the linked order is an active recurring lease.
Made a Mistake? — Edit or Delete
Click the pencil icon on a row to reopen the expense form. Change any field and click Save.
To remove an expense, click the trash icon on the row and confirm. The record is deleted permanently.
Approved and Paid expenses are locked — their row shows Locked and the form opens read-only.
Expenses that came from the Maintenance module carry a (maintenance) tag, show the asset in Reference, have no status, and have no edit or delete actions here — manage them from the maintenance job they belong to.
Looking for Something Specific? — Search and Filter
Click Filters to open the filter panel. You can narrow the list by:
- Search Expenses — matches the description text
- Category — pick one or more categories
- Asset Tag — costs linked to a specific asset
- Order Number — costs linked to a specific order
- Start Date / End Date — a date range for month-end reviews or checking a vendor’s total charges
Active category and date-range filters appear as chips above the table; remove a chip or use Clear All to return to the full list.
Export Your Expenses
Click Export in the header to download the current list — with all active filters applied — as a CSV file. Handy for handing spending to your accountant or reconciling against bank statements.
See the Bigger Picture — Summary
Click Summary to open the Financial Summary sidebar without leaving the list. It has two tabs:
- Charts — headline KPI cards plus an expense-by-category donut.
- P&L Report — a period profit-and-loss table.
Pick a time range at the top — Today, This Week, This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, or This Year — and the sidebar updates. The Charts tab shows Total Revenue, Total Expenses, Net Profit / Loss, and Expense Ratio. Click Hide Summary (or the ✕) to close it. For the full breakdown — Profit & Loss, Cash Flow, Receivables, and more — head to the Financial Reports suite.
You’re All Set!
Keep adding expenses as they happen and Rentablez builds your financial picture over time. Reading the Summary tabs is covered in detail in the Expense Summary guide.