How To Manage Expenses in WorkZen

A pile of receipts in the truck isn't an expense system, it's a tax-time horror movie. Logging expenses against jobs as they happen keeps job costing accurate and bookkeeping painless.

Record an expense

Open Expenses in the sidebar's Finance section and click Create. The form has a Details card (Vendor, description, Category, Payment Method (Cash, Credit Card, Debit Card, Company Card, Personal, or Other), Date, Employee, Job, and notes) and an Amounts card (Amount before tax, Currency, and Taxes). Only the amount and date are required. When you're done, click Create Expense at the top of the page.

Pick the Job so the cost lands where it belongs; the job's client comes with it. Two switches on the Amounts card matter:

• Billable to the client: this cost should be passed on to the client.
• Reimbursable: a team member paid out of pocket and needs paying back.

The Summary card on the right keeps the running total and shows who gets paid back and which job it bills to, and What happens next lays out the review steps the expense goes through.

You can also add expenses straight from a job's Finance tab: open Add Expense and pick Quick Expense or Upload Receipt. Either way the expense is linked to the job automatically.

Scan receipts instead of typing

On the expense form, the Receipt card accepts JPG, PNG, and PDF. Drop the receipt in and WorkZen reads it and auto-fills the fields ("Receipt scanned! Fields have been auto-filled."). A Read from the receipt box lists what it found (vendor, date, subtotal, tax, and total), so you know exactly what to check. Adjust anything, then click Create Expense. The receipt stays attached to the expense either way.

Categories

Categories keep spending reportable: fuel, materials, tools, and whatever else your business needs. Open Categories on the Expenses page to add, rename, or delete them. Deleting a category never loses data; its expenses move to the category you choose. Only the default category can't be deleted.

Edit an expense

While an expense is Pending, each card on its page has its own Edit, which opens just that card's fields:

• Details: vendor, description, category, date, payment method, employee, and notes.
• Amounts: subtotal, currency, and taxes.
• Linked records: the job the cost belongs to (Link when there isn't one yet).

The Billable to the client and Reimbursable switches on the Amounts card flip in place, no form needed, and Upload on the Receipt card attaches the receipt. An expense holds one receipt: to replace it, delete the current one first. The same rule applies in the iPhone and Android apps.

Once an expense is reviewed, editing locks, so approved numbers can't quietly change afterward. On an approved expense, two things stay fixable for a user with Manage Expenses: the job on the Linked records card (link a missed job, change or unlink it, even after the expense is paid back), and the Reimbursable switch until the expense is paid back.

Questions about an expense go in its Comments card, so the submitter and the reviewer talk where the numbers are. Anyone who can see the expense can read and reply; a team member who only manages their own expenses sees the comments on their own.

Approve, reject, and reimburse

Every new expense starts as Pending. Approve and Reject sit at the top of the expense page; rejecting asks for a reason the submitter can see. The Review card under the totals shows where the expense stands: submitted, reviewed, and (for reimbursable expenses) paid back. To approve several at once, open the Pending tab of the Expenses list in table view, tick the expenses (or click Select all N visible), and click Approve N selected in the bar above the list.

For approved reimbursable expenses, click Mark as Reimbursed at the top of the expense page when you've paid the person back and record how (E-Transfer, Check, Cash, Direct Deposit, or Other). WorkZen doesn't move the money; it tracks that it happened.

Who can do what: team members with only the View & Manage Own Expenses permission see and submit their own expenses; View Expenses and Manage Expenses cover the whole company; approving, rejecting, and reimbursing require Approve Expenses.