---
title: "Expenses"
description: "Record small, already-paid costs in one step, including those paid personally or by company card, with tax and withholding worked out for you."
url: "https://bareledger.app/guides/expenses"
category: "Purchases & expenses"
updated: "2026-10-29"
publisher: "BareLedger (Syneria Technologies OPC)"
---

# Expenses

> Small, already-paid costs in one step, including things paid personally or by company card.

This page walks you through the whole journey of an expense — from having a receipt in your hand to it being recorded in the books.

## Step 1: Record the expense

Go to **Expenses** and click **New expense**. Fill in:

- **Expense account** — what category this is (Utilities, Supplies, Travel, etc.).
- **Paid through** — this one matters more than it sounds. Pick the account that actually paid for it: a cash or bank account if it was already paid for (out of pocket or from the company account), or the right payable account if it's something to be reimbursed or paid later. There's no separate "mark as paid" step afterward, so getting this right now is what determines whether the expense shows as already settled.
- **Date**, **Category** (a short label), **Amount**, and **Tax** if it applies.
- **Description** — a short note on what it was for.

The form has two buttons: **Save as draft** and **Submit for review** — the latter saves the expense and sends it into the approval flow in one step (with a confirmation first). There's no vendor field on this form — just who paid and what it was for.

## Step 2: Attach your receipt (optional, but a good habit)

Open the expense you just saved and use **Upload file** to attach your receipt — a photo (JPG/PNG), a scanned PDF, or even a spreadsheet, up to 10 MB each (you'll see a progress bar while each file uploads). You can upload more than one file, one at a time. This step is optional — the app won't stop you from moving forward without a receipt attached, but it's good practice to keep one on file.

## Step 3: Submit it for review

If you saved it as a draft first, open the expense and click **Submit for review**. This sends it onward and takes it out of your hands as an editable draft.

## Step 4: Review and approval

Someone other than the person who created the expense (you can never review or approve your own submission) clicks **Mark reviewed**, and then an approver — a third person, not the creator and not the reviewer — clicks **Approve & post**. If your company requires it, the reviewer/approver may be asked for their 6-digit security code before their action goes through.

If a reviewer or approver finds a problem, they click **Reject** and leave a required note explaining why, so the person who submitted it knows what to fix. The expense goes back to Draft — but since drafts can't currently be edited in the app, correcting a rejected expense means entering it again with the right details.

## Step 5: It's approved — now what?

The moment an expense is approved, it's automatically recorded in the books at the same time — there's no separate "post" button to click. This is also when it's officially considered handled financially, based on the "Paid through" account you chose back in Step 1.

## If you (or an employee) paid for it personally

There's no separate "reimburse me" button — you handle it the same way as with a bill (see *If you paid it yourself* in [Purchases: Bills & Payments](https://bareledger.app/guides/purchases)): under **Paid through**, pick a liability account such as *Due to Employee* or *Officer's Advances* instead of a bank or cash account (create the account first under Chart of Accounts if it doesn't exist yet). The expense still posts normally, but instead of showing as paid from company cash, it shows as something the company now owes that person. When the reimbursement is actually paid out — usually from the bank — clear that liability with a payment or journal entry against the same account.

## An expense that repeats every month

Rent, subscriptions, a retainer — anything you'd otherwise retype each period. Post the expense once, then open it and click **Make recurring** to set up a schedule; see [Recurring Transactions](https://bareledger.app/guides/recurring).

## Fixing a mistake after the fact

If an expense was posted incorrectly, someone with the right access can click **Request expense reversal** and provide a reason. The reversal goes through the same review-and-approve flow, then undoes the expense's effect on the books without deleting the record.

## Common mix-ups

- Picking the wrong "Paid through" account — remember, this is what decides whether the expense looks already paid or still owed, since there's no follow-up payment step.
- Assuming a receipt attachment is required — it's optional, though recommended.
- Trying to edit a draft directly — right now, correcting a submitted-then-rejected expense means entering it again with the right details.