Understand business-paid expenses
Know when to enter an expense and how drafts, approvals, posting and bank matches differ.
- Who can do this
- Owners, or staff with expense viewing access; each action needs its own expense permission
- Where
- Expenses & bills, then Expenses
- You'll need
- Accounting enabled
On this page
Business-paid expenses record purchases already paid from business cash, a bank account or a credit card. They keep the purchase, category lines, supporting receipts and accounting entry together. Recording updates your books; it does not send a payment.
If a bill already records the purchase, settle that bill with a bill payment. Entering an expense as well would count the purchase twice. Employee reimbursements and personal funds are separate from this workflow.
Read the accounting status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved for later; no accounting entry yet. |
| Awaiting approval | Submitted to the configured workflow; details are locked during review. |
| Rejected | Returned by a reviewer; still a draft and editable. |
| Posted | Recorded in the ledger. Payment details and amounts cannot be overwritten. |
| Voided | Original purchase retained with its reversing entry and reason. |
Read the bank status
Bank matching is separate from posting. A posted purchase can remain unmatched until the withdrawal appears. Matching connects the evidence without another journal. Removing a match leaves the purchase posted. Completed reconciliations must be corrected before removing their links or voiding matched purchases.
Use the list filters to find a date range, vendor, category, payment account, accounting status, receipt presence or bank state. The summary cards follow those filters. Recorded spend includes standing posted purchases, including eligible asset purchases; operating cost includes only expense-category lines. Drafts and voided purchases do not add spend.