Track expenses and receipts

Expenses records money spent, with the receipt. Expenses, categories and payment methods belong to the selected Personal or team context. Every member of the context can use Expenses. Members see and change their own expenses; admins also see the team's.

Add an expense

On Overview, enter an amount and a date. Merchant, category and a receipt are optional. Open More details to add a currency, the tax included in the total, a payment method, project, Contact, tags, a description, notes and whether the expense is reimbursable. The currency starts as the default currency from Invoicing settings. An expense keeps the currency it was recorded in, and Magpie does not convert between currencies. Amounts are stored exactly, in whole cents or the smallest unit of the currency.

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 projects in the selected context. Projects are created in Time Tracking. Expenses can be linked to a project without using Time Tracking otherwise.

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 in the page bar uploads 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 and the form keeps what you entered. They wait in Receipt Inbox. Open one and enter its amount to complete it; it leaves the inbox once it has an amount. An expense's page shows an image receipt beside its details. 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, date, category, tax, currency, 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. Changing the currency is allowed between currencies with the same number of decimal places. More on the expense page deletes it. An expense on a submitted, approved or reimbursed report cannot be changed or deleted.

Find and export

The Needs attention list on Overview, shown when something needs attention, links to receipts that need details, expenses with no receipt, no category or no merchant, and pending reimbursements.

All Expenses lists expenses with search and filters for date range, category, project, Contact, payment method, reimbursable status and missing receipts. Admins on a team can also filter by person. Search covers merchant, description, notes, category, project, Contact, tags and an exact amount. Export CSV downloads the expenses matching the filters. Export receipts downloads a ZIP with expenses.csv and a receipts folder, each file named by date, merchant and amount. A receipts export is limited to 500 receipts; choose a shorter date range for more.

Reports totals expenses by category, project, merchant and Contact for a date range: this month, last month, this quarter, this year, any date or custom dates. On a team, admins also see totals by person. Each currency is totalled separately. Years are calendar years; Magpie does not assume a fiscal year.

Reimbursements

Set an expense's Reimbursable to Yes. Its Reimbursement status can then be set to not submitted, submitted, approved or reimbursed. Setting it to reimbursed records the date, and you can add a reference.

To submit several together, choose + New expense report on Reimbursements, enter a title and choose expenses. A report holds expenses in one currency. Add or remove expenses on the report's page, then choose Submit report. While it is submitted, its expenses cannot be changed. An admin can approve it, or reject it with an optional reason. A rejected report can be edited and submitted again. After approval, an admin chooses Mark reimbursed and enters the date and an optional reference; each expense on the report becomes reimbursed. Magpie does not send money. It records that a reimbursement was paid.

A report or reimbursed expense, like one on an invoice, is a record other people rely on, so the expenses on it are locked until a report is rejected.

Recurring expenses

Recurring lists expenses that repeat, such as subscriptions. Choose + Add recurring expense and enter a merchant, amount, currency, how often it repeats (weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly) and the first date. When a date arrives, Magpie creates a draft expense with the rule's details. A draft is not counted in lists, totals, reports, exports or invoices. Open Recurring or the draft itself, change anything that differs this time, and choose Confirm to make it a real expense, or Discard to delete it.

Drafts are created when someone opens Expenses: your own rules when you open it, and the whole team's when an admin does. A rule that has been unused for a while creates up to 12 drafts at a time, one for each date it missed. A monthly rule keeps the day it started on and falls on the last day of a shorter month, so a rule that starts on 31 January falls on 28 February and then 31 March.

Amount, how often it repeats and the next date save as soon as you change them on Recurring. A rule's currency cannot be changed; add a new rule instead. Pause stops a rule creating drafts and keeps its date. Delete stops it for good and keeps the drafts it already made. Only the person who set up a rule can change it. The estimated monthly total on the page averages weekly, quarterly and yearly amounts to a month and totals each currency separately.

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.

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.

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, merchant, category and date, and choose Save expense. 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, 30 at a time.

Open an expense to see its receipt and details. Choose Edit to change its amount, 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. Currency, 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.

Categories and payment methods

Settings lists categories and payment methods. Rename a category or payment method in place. Archiving one keeps it on the expenses that use it and hides it from new expenses. A new context 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.

A payment method has a label, a type and, if you choose, the last four digits. Do not enter a full card number.

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. On Personal, you see your own. Only admins manage categories and payment methods and approve, reject or mark reports reimbursed. Payment methods are shared by everyone in a team.

If an expense does not appear, check the selected context, the date range and the filters. For more help, Contact support.