Track expenses and receipts

Expenses records money spent, with the receipt. Expenses, categories and payment methods belong to Personal or the selected team. Every member of a team can use Expenses; someone with view access can look but not add. Members see and change their own expenses; admins also see the team's.

Add an expense

On Overview, under Add an expense, enter an amount and a date. Merchant, category and a receipt are optional. Choose Add expense. Tax, a payment method, a project, a Contact, tags, a description, notes and whether the expense is reimbursable are added on the expense's page afterwards.

Overview also shows this month's total in each currency, totals by category for the month, and Recently added, newest first. When something needs doing, Needs attention links to receipts that need details, expenses with no receipt, no category or no merchant, recurring expense drafts to confirm, and pending reimbursements.

If an expense has the same merchant, date, amount and currency as one you already recorded, the confirmation names it as a possible duplicate. The expense is still saved.

The project list is the Time Tracking projects of Personal or the team. An expense can be linked to a project without using Time Tracking otherwise.

Currency

The currency is beside the amount. It starts as the team's currency, which a team admin chooses on the team page; in Personal it is your Personal currency in Account settings. If none has been chosen, the line under Amount says which currency is used instead and where to choose one. For an expense paid in another currency, such as a meal on a trip abroad, choose that currency beside the amount. The next expense will start in the team's currency again.

An expense keeps the currency it was recorded in. Magpie does not convert between currencies, so totals and reports show each currency separately. Changing the team's currency does not change expenses already recorded.

Type an amount the way you write it: 42.18, 42,18, 1,234.50 or 1.234,50. A currency sign or code may be typed with the number, such as €42 or 42 USD, but it has to match the currency beside the amount; $42 with EUR chosen is refused rather than saved as euros. Some amounts could be read two ways, such as 1.234 or, in euros, 1,234; these are refused, and you can type the amount without a thousands separator, such as 1234 or 1234.50.

Receipts

A receipt can be a JPG, PNG, WebP or PDF file up to 10 MB. Choose a file, drop it on the page where a receipt chooser is shown, or paste an image. On a phone, the file chooser offers the camera. Magpie checks what a file contains, not only its name, and does not accept a PDF that contains script. HEIC photos are not accepted; most phones can save or share a photo as JPG.

Receipts are private. They open only for people who can see the expense, and they are not available by a public link.

Receipt Inbox

+ Receipt in the page bar uploads one or more receipts without details. While a receipt uploads, a panel at the top right shows how much of it has been sent; if it cannot be saved, the panel says why. The receipts wait in Receipt Inbox. Open one and enter its amount to complete it; it leaves the inbox once it has an amount. Until then a receipt shows the team's currency as it is that day. Entering its amount, or choosing a currency on it, fixes its currency.

An expense's page shows an image receipt beside its details, and a PDF receipt has Open in PDF Editor. Use Replace receipt or Remove receipt on an expense that has not been submitted or reimbursed.

Edit an expense

Open an expense from a list. Merchant, amount, currency, date, category, tax included, payment method, project, Contact, description, tags, reimbursable status and notes save as soon as you change them. Only the person who recorded an expense can change it. An admin can also add a category from the expense's Category; see Categories, payment methods and currency below.

Changing the currency keeps the amount as written: 42.00 USD becomes 42.00 EUR, not its value in euros. An amount with cents cannot move to a currency without them, such as JPY, until you change the amount to a whole number. An expense on an expense report cannot change its currency until it is removed from the report.

Delete expense, in the expense's More menu, deletes it. An expense on a submitted, approved or reimbursed report, or on an invoice, cannot be changed or deleted.

Find expenses

All Expenses lists expenses, with a search over merchant, description, notes, category, project, Contact, tags and an exact amount, and filters for dates, category, project, Contact, payment method, reimbursable or not, and receipt missing or attached. Admins on a team can also filter by person. To total or export them, see Expense totals and exports.

Bill an expense to a client

Set an expense's Reimbursable to Yes and choose its Contact. In the invoice editor, choose the invoice's contact and use Add unbilled expenses. The list shows your reimbursable expenses for that contact in the invoice currency that are not on an expense report or another invoice. Each one becomes a draft line item with the expense's amount. The line can be edited on the draft, and the expense stays linked to it. See Create and track invoices.

An expense on an invoice shows the invoice number and cannot be changed or deleted, and cannot be added to an expense report. Issuing the invoice marks it billed. Removing its line from the draft, or deleting the draft, releases it. A voided invoice keeps its expenses linked.

Categories, payment methods and currency

Settings lists categories and payment methods, and shows the currency new expenses start in and where it is set. Only admins, and you in Personal, manage categories and payment methods.

A new team or Personal starts with these categories: Advertising, Bank fees, Contractors, Equipment, Insurance, Meals, Office supplies, Rent, Shipping, Software, Subscriptions, Travel, Utilities and Other. The categories are not tax categories and are not tied to a country. Admins add more in either place:

• On an expense's page, open Category and choose Add a category… at the end of the list. Enter the name and choose Add category. The category is added and the expense is put in it.
• In Settings, choose Add category beside Categories.

A name that a category already has, in any capitals, uses that category, and restores it if it was archived. Other members choose from the team's categories; while the team has none to choose from, an expense's Category says that team admins add them in Expenses settings. Rename a category in Settings; the new name shows on every expense that uses it.

Add payment method, beside Payment methods, adds one by its label, such as Business Visa. It starts as a card. On its row, change its type (card, cash, bank account, PayPal or other) and, if you choose, add its last four digits. Do not enter a full card number. Payment methods are shared by everyone in a team.

Archive keeps a category or payment method on the expenses that use it and hides it from new expenses. Restore offers it again.

History

An expense's page and a report's page have a History section listing who changed what and when, newest first. It records when an expense is created or deleted, when its amount, tax, currency or date changes, when it is marked reimbursable or its reimbursement status changes, when a receipt is attached or removed, and when it is added to or removed from a report or an invoice. A report records when it is created, submitted, approved, rejected, marked reimbursed or deleted. Merchant, description, notes, tags and category changes are not recorded. History cannot be edited or removed.

Who can see expenses

An admin sees every expense in a team. A member sees only their own expenses. In Personal, you see your own. Only admins manage categories and payment methods and approve, reject or mark reports reimbursed; see Reimburse expenses.

In the mobile app

The mobile app has Expenses for adding and reviewing expenses on a phone. Reports, expense reports, recurring expenses, invoices and exports are only on the website.

Overview shows this month's total for each currency, receipts that need details, expenses with no receipt, recent expenses and + Receipt. + Receipt opens a form where you take a photo, choose a photo or choose a file, then enter an amount, its currency, merchant, category and date, and choose Save expense. The currency starts as the team's. The date is written as YYYY-MM-DD. Choose Save receipt for later to add only the receipt to Receipt Inbox. All expenses lists expenses with a search and a receipt filter.

Open an expense to see its receipt and details. Choose Edit to change its amount, currency, merchant, date, category, tax, payment method, reimbursable status and notes, then Save to save them together or Cancel to discard them. The menu adds, replaces or removes its receipt and deletes the expense. Reimbursement status, project and Contact are changed on the website. The same rules apply as on the website: only the person who recorded an expense changes it, and an expense on a submitted report, an invoice or a reimbursement cannot be changed. A PDF receipt shows its file name in the app.

If an expense does not appear, check Personal or the selected team, the dates and the filters. For more help, Contact support.