# Understand business-paid expenses

Know when to enter an expense and how drafts, approvals, posting and bank matches differ.

Canonical: https://demo.qixcount.com/help/bills-and-vendors/expenses-overview

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

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.