Enter and manage expenses in QuickBooks Online

Easily manage expenses in QuickBooks Online by recording, editing and deleting them. Entering your income and expenses gives a more complete picture of your business and profit. 

This article will cover how to: 

• Record an expense
• Edit an expense
• Review your expenses
• Delete an expense 

If you've already paid for a business expense, enter it as an expense. On the other hand, if you plan to pay for the expense at a later date, enter it as a bill.

Tip: Get familiar with the differences between bills, cheques and expenses.

Record an expense

Follow these steps if you already paid for a business expense and need to record it in QuickBooks:
Tip: If you have lots of expenses to record, you can also enter them directly to the account history.

1. Select + New.
2. Select Expense.
3. In the Payee field, select the supplier. Tip: If the transaction covers multiple petty cash expenses, leave this field empty.
4. In the Payment account field, select the account you used to pay for the expense.
5. In the Payment date field, enter the date for the expense.
6. In the Payment method field, select how you paid for the expense.
7. Optionally, enter a reference number for detailed tracking.
8. In the Tags field, enter the preferred label to categorise your money.
9. In the Category details section, select the expense account from the dropdown menu and provide a description. You can also itemise the expense by entering specific products or services in the Item details section.
10. Enter the Amount and VAT.
11. If you plan to bill a customer for the expense, select the Billable checkbox and enter their name in the Customer field. Learn more about billable expenses.
12. You can also enter notes in the Memo field. These appear in the Account history and on reports.
13. If you use expense vouchers, select Print to have a paper copy of the voucher.
14. Select Save and close.

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Edit an expense

Feel free to make edits to any expenses you've entered into QuickBooks at any time. 

Just keep in mind that if you've already bill your customer for the expense, any changes you make will affect the invoice you send them in the future:

1. Go to Expenses, then Expenses (Take me there).
2. Find the expense you want to edit. Select View/Edit in the Action column.
3. Update the transaction as needed.
4. Select Save and close.

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Review your expenses

To see the income and expenses for each customer: 

1. Go to Reports (Take me there).
2. Run an Income by Customer Summary report.

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Delete an expense

1. Go to Expenses and select Expenses (Take me there).
2. Find the expense you want to delete.
3. Select the View/Edit ▼ dropdown in the Action column, then select Delete.
4. Select Delete to confirm that you want to delete the transaction.

Once you delete an expense, it disappears from reports, but you can still see a record of it in the Audit log.

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