Expense and receipt tracking

The Expenses section lets you record every cost you incur on a job — materials, fuel, subcontractors, tools, and more. You can attach a photo of the receipt, link the expense to a supplier from your library, and associate it with an invoice for easy job-cost reconciliation. All expenses can be exported to CSV for your accountant.

Adding an expense — two ways

You can add expenses either from the Expenses page (via New Expense) or directly from an invoice detail page in the Job Expenses section. Both places offer two entry methods:

• Fill in manually — enter the details yourself using the form.
• Scan receipt — upload a photo and Quotimiser's AI assistant extracts the details for you (see “Receipt scanning” below).

Manual entry

1. Choose Fill in manually and fill in Date, Category, and Description (required). Be specific — for example, "50m twin & earth cable" rather than just "cable".
2. Enter the Total amount (incl. VAT). If VAT applies, enter it in the VAT amount field and tick VAT is reclaimable if applicable.
3. Optionally select a Supplier from your library (see Clients, materials, and quote presets) and link to an Invoice from your invoice list.
4. Add a Reference (supplier invoice number, receipt number) and any notes, then click Add expense. You will be taken to the expense detail page where you can upload a receipt photo.

Receipt scanning (AI-powered)

Quotimiser uses OpenAI's GPT-4o-mini vision model to read your receipt and extract every line item — description, category, amount, and VAT — in one scan. A receipt from Screwfix with 10 products creates 10 separate expense records, each correctly categorised and ready to save. Free plan includes 10 scans per month; Pro plan is unlimited. Your remaining scan count is shown next to the upload button.

1. Click Scan receipt (available on New Expense and on the Job Expenses section of any invoice).
2. Choose the receipt photo from your device. A preview appears — check it is legible, then click Scan & extract items.
3. Review the line-item table. Each extracted product appears as its own editable row showing description, category, amount, and VAT. Amber highlights mean the AI was uncertain; red means the field could not be read and requires manual entry. The shared header (date, supplier, linked invoice, reference) applies to all rows.
4. Edit any rows you want to correct, add rows the AI missed with Add item, and remove unwanted rows with ✕.
5. Click Save N expense(s). One expense record is created per row and the receipt photo is attached to each automatically.

Currency conversion: if the receipt is in a foreign currency (e.g. USD or EUR), Quotimiser fetches a live exchange rate and converts every line to GBP automatically. The original currency and amount are shown in the field placeholder (e.g. “EUR 45.00 — enter £”) so you can verify. If the rate cannot be fetched, the fields are left blank with the foreign amount as a placeholder — you must enter the GBP equivalent manually.

Expenses on an invoice

Open any invoice and scroll to the Job Expenses section. This shows all expenses already linked to that invoice, with a total. Use the Add expense or Scan receipt buttons to add new costs directly from the invoice — the invoice link is pre-filled for you. Clicking any expense row takes you to its detail page where you can edit it or upload a receipt.

Expense categories

Choose the category that best describes the cost. The full list of available categories is:

• Materials & Supplies — cable, pipe, fixings, paint, and other consumables
• Tools & Equipment — hand tools, power tools, test equipment purchased outright
• Fuel & Travel — diesel, petrol, public transport, mileage reimbursements
• Plant & Equipment Hire — hired scaffolding, access platforms, generators
• Accommodation — hotels or lodgings for away-from-home jobs
• Subcontractors — labour or specialist work bought in from other trades
• Insurance — premiums for public liability, tools, or van
• PPE & Safety Equipment — hard hats, gloves, hi-vis, safety boots
• Training & Certification — course fees, exam fees, card renewals
• Waste Disposal & Skip Hire — skip hire, licensed tip runs
• Parking & Tolls — car park fees, congestion charge, bridge tolls
• Phone & Internet — work phone contracts, mobile data
• Software & Subscriptions — apps, cloud services, trade software
• Uniforms & Workwear — branded clothing, overalls, boots
• Advertising & Marketing — flyers, directory listings, online ads
• Other — anything that does not fit the categories above

Attaching a receipt

On the expense detail page, the Receipt section lets you upload a photo directly from your device. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, WebP, and GIF (max 8 MB). Quotimiser stores both a JPEG (for download) and a WebP (for fast in-app preview) with a unique filename automatically generated from the expense description and date so filenames never collide. You can replace the receipt at any time or remove it entirely using the Replace receipt and Remove buttons.

Linking to invoices and suppliers

Linking an expense to an invoice is purely internal bookkeeping — it does not add the cost to the invoice total or appear on the invoice PDF. It is there so you can later filter expenses by invoice to understand the true profitability of a job.

Linking to a supplier saves a snapshot of the supplier name at the time of the expense. If you later rename or delete the supplier in your library, the snapshot on the expense remains unchanged, so your records stay accurate.

Editing and deleting expenses

Open any expense from the list to view its full details. Click Edit to change any field and Save changes to confirm. To delete an expense permanently, click Delete and confirm — any attached receipt image is also removed from storage.

Filtering and searching

The Expenses list supports filtering by category and date range, plus a free-text search across description, supplier name, reference, and notes. All filters can be combined.

Exporting to CSV

Scroll to the Export Expenses section at the bottom of the Expenses page. Choose a date range (use the preset buttons for last 3, 6, or 12 months) and an optional category filter, then click Download CSV. The file includes date, description, category, supplier, invoice number, reference, total amount, VAT amount, amount ex-VAT, VAT reclaimable flag, and notes — one row per expense. The file is UTF-8 with a BOM so Excel opens currency amounts correctly without re-importing.

VAT tracking

If you are VAT-registered, enter the VAT element of each purchase in the VAT amount field and tick VAT is reclaimable where applicable. The Stats endpoint (available via the API) summarises total reclaimable VAT across a date range. This information is also included in the CSV export for your accountant.