Expenses & Suppliers

Recording Expenses

The Expenses module tracks company spending from software subscriptions and office supplies to contractor fees and equipment. Each expense links to a supplier and can optionally be tied to a project or service contract. A multi-step form organizes fields into logical groups.

Three-step form

To record an expense, navigate to the Expenses page and click the Add button. The form is organized into three steps:

1. Basic Info - Select a supplier (required), optionally link to a project or service contract, set the expense date (defaults to today), and add a description.
2. Financial - Enter the total amount (required) and currency, choose an expense category (required, configured in your system settings), record the included tax if you want the split on file, and mark the expense as billable with an optional markup percentage. See Total Amount and Included Tax for exactly what those two figures mean.
3. Recurring - If this expense repeats on a schedule, enable recurring and choose a frequency. See the Recurring Expenses section below for details.

Project and service contract linking

Expenses can optionally be linked to a project or a service contract. This lets you track exactly how much you are spending on a given project or service agreement, giving you a complete cost picture alongside your revenue.

Viewing expense details

Click any expense row to open the detail drawer. The hero header shows the expense amount, the supplier name as a subtitle, and the current status as a badge. Below the header, information is organized into sections: Details (date, description, linked project and service contract), Financial (total amount, currency, category, included tax, billable flag, markup percentage), Recurring (recurring status, frequency, end date, next due date), and Timeline (created and updated dates).

Editing and deleting

To update an expense, open the record and click the edit action. The same three-step form opens with the current values pre-filled. To delete an expense, use the delete action from the drawer. Deleted expenses are permanently removed.

Multi-currency support

Each expense stores its own currency code, so you can track expenses in USD, EUR, GBP, or any other currency your organization uses. Currency formatting in the table and drawer adapts automatically based on the stored currency. Configure your available currencies in Settings to control which options appear in the currency dropdown.

Total Amount and Included Tax

An expense records two figures, and only one of them is money. Total Amount is the full amount payable to the supplier, tax included. Included Tax is the tax portion already sitting inside that total, kept so you can see the split. Belvak never adds the two together.

What to enter

If a supplier bills you 2,000 plus 100 of tax, enter 2,100 as the Total Amount and 100 as the Included Tax. The 2,100 is what leaves your bank account, so it is the figure Belvak treats as the cost of the expense. Included Tax is optional: leave it empty and nothing changes except that the split is not on file.

What Included Tax affects

Nothing. It is a reference figure only. Changing it does not move your Cash on hand, Money out, profit, margins, project or service contract costs, supplier spend, or the expense sent to QuickBooks. Every one of those reads the Total Amount, because the tax is already inside it. This is also why the tax is not subtracted anywhere: money you paid to a supplier has left your account whether it was tax or not.

Once an expense is marked paid, its Total Amount is what appears in Money out and reduces Cash on hand on the Overview. A pending or approved expense has not left your account yet, so it stays out of Money out, Cash on hand, profit, and project or service contract costs until you mark it paid. It does still count in the spend figures on the Expenses and Suppliers pages, which show everything you have committed to rather than only what you have settled.

Client invoices work differently: there you pick a tax rate and Belvak does the arithmetic, either adding the tax on top of the amount you type or treating that amount as already including it, depending on your Amount includes tax setting. Expenses have no such setting, because Belvak never calculates expense tax for you. See Tax and VAT on invoices for that side.

Expense Status Workflow

Every expense has a status that tracks its lifecycle from creation through payment or cancellation. Statuses help your team coordinate approvals and keep financial records accurate.

Status lifecycle

Expenses move through four statuses:

• Pending - The default status when an expense is created. The expense has been recorded but not yet reviewed.
• Approved - A team member or manager has confirmed the expense is valid and authorized.
• Paid - The payment for this expense has been processed. The paid date is automatically recorded.
• Cancelled - The expense was rejected or is no longer needed. An expense can be cancelled from either the Pending or Approved state.

Row actions by status

The available actions on an expense change depending on its current status. These actions appear in both the three-dot dropdown menu on each row and the right-click context menu:

• Pending expenses: "Approve" moves the expense to Approved. "Cancel" moves it to Cancelled.
• Approved expenses: "Mark as Paid" moves the expense to Paid and automatically records today as the paid date. "Cancel" moves it to Cancelled.

If your workspace syncs with QuickBooks, an expense marked Paid also posts to QuickBooks as an expense, with the supplier as the vendor.

Status badges

The table and drawer display color-coded status badges so you can see expense states at a glance. Use the status filter in the search bar to view only expenses in a specific state, such as all pending expenses awaiting approval.

Recurring Expenses

For expenses that repeat on a schedule, such as monthly software subscriptions, quarterly service fees, or yearly license renewals, set up a recurring expense to avoid manual re-entry each period.

Setting up a recurring expense

In the third step of the expense form, set "Recurring Expense" to Yes. Choose a frequency (monthly, quarterly, or yearly) and optionally set an end date to stop the recurrence automatically. The original expense acts as a template. The system tracks the next recurrence date and generates actionable periods for your review.

The Upcoming Expenses panel

The Expenses page displays a collapsible alert showing all overdue and upcoming recurring expense periods. Overdue periods appear first and require action. Each entry shows the supplier name, the period date range, a color-coded frequency badge (purple for monthly, blue for quarterly, cyan for yearly), and the expected amount.

Approving and skipping periods

For each overdue period, you have two options:

• Approve creates an actual expense record for that billing cycle. The new expense starts with Pending status and follows the normal approval workflow, unless the recurring expense is set to create automatically. In that case, approving follows its Record as choice: Pending or Paid.
• Skip advances the recurrence date to the next period without creating an expense. Use this for periods where the expense did not occur or was handled outside the system.

The Approve All button lets you bulk-create expenses for every overdue period across all recurring expenses at once. This is useful when catching up after a vacation or a busy stretch.

Sequential enforcement

Periods must be processed in chronological order. You cannot approve or skip a future period until all earlier periods have been handled. This prevents gaps in your expense history and keeps your records consistent. Recurring invoices follow a similar sequential approval workflow.

Creating periods automatically

For expenses you never need to review, such as rent or a software subscription charged to a card, set "Create automatically when due" to Yes in the third step of the expense form. Belvak then creates each due period for you once a day, oldest first, so it no longer waits in the Upcoming Expenses panel. It never creates a period before it is due, and it stops after the end date.

• Record as Pending creates the expense like an approval does, and you mark it paid when the payment goes out.
• Record as Paid suits card or direct debit payments. The expense is recorded as paid on its period date, so it counts toward cost and profit on that date. Belvak only records the expense; it never sends money to the supplier.

Each expense created this way shows which recurring expense it came from, and the activity log lists System as the one who created it. If a period cannot be created, for example because an exchange rate is missing for its date, it stays in the Upcoming Expenses panel for you to approve with a manual rate, and it appears under Needs attention in your notifications until it is handled.

Managing Suppliers

The Suppliers module is your supplier directory. It stores contact and reference information for every company or individual you purchase from, creating a centralized record of your supplier relationships.

Creating a supplier

To add a new supplier, navigate to the Suppliers page and click the Add button. The single-step form captures the core supplier information:

• Name - The supplier's company or individual name. This is the only required field. It appears in expense dropdowns and throughout the system.
• Email - The supplier's contact email address. Useful for quick reference when reaching out about an order.
• Website - The supplier's website URL. Handy for reordering, checking product catalogs, or verifying supplier information.
• Phone - A direct phone number for the supplier or their sales team.
• Contact Person - The name of your primary point of contact at the supplier. Especially useful for larger suppliers where you work with a specific account manager.
• Address - The supplier's physical or mailing address.

Viewing supplier details

Click any supplier row to open the detail drawer. The hero header displays the supplier name. Below that, information is organized into sections: Contact (email, website, phone, contact person), Details (address), Expenses (recent expenses linked to this supplier), and Timeline (created and updated dates).

Recent expenses widget

The supplier drawer includes a Recent Expenses section showing the last five expenses linked to that supplier. Each entry displays the date, description, amount, and status. Click "View all expenses" to navigate to the Expenses page filtered to that specific supplier, giving you a complete spending history.

Editing and deleting suppliers

Supplier records can be edited at any time to keep your supplier directory current. You cannot delete a supplier while expenses are still linked to it: Belvak blocks the deletion and asks you to remove or reassign those expenses first. It is generally better to keep supplier records even for suppliers you no longer use, as they preserve context for historical expenses.

The supplier table

The Suppliers table supports column visibility toggling, so you can customize which fields are displayed. Search by name, email, or contact person to find specific suppliers quickly. Sort by supplier name, contact person, or date added as your supplier list grows.

Expense Tracking

The Expenses table is your primary tool for expense tracking and for monitoring and analyzing company spending. With search filters, column customization, and status-based workflows, you can turn raw expense data into actionable insights.

Search and filtering

Use the search bar to narrow down the expense list with multiple filters:

• Supplier - Select a specific supplier from the dropdown to see all their expenses.
• Status - Filter by Pending, Approved, Paid, or Cancelled to focus on expenses in a specific lifecycle stage.
• Category - Choose an expense category to view expenses of a particular type. Categories are configured in your system settings.
• Date range - Set a start and end date to view expenses within a specific time period.

Combine multiple filters to answer specific questions, such as "What approved expenses from Supplier X are in the Software category this quarter?"

Table columns

The default table view shows the most important fields: Supplier, Expense Date, Total Amount, Category, and Status. Toggle additional columns for more detail:

• Description - The expense description text.
• Project - The linked project, if any.
• Service Contract - The linked service contract, if any.
• Included Tax - The tax portion already contained in the Total Amount, recorded for reference. It is never added on top.
• Billable - Whether the expense is marked as billable.
• Paid Date - The date the expense was marked as paid.
• Recurring - Whether the expense is a recurring template.
• Created / Updated - Record timestamps.

Sorting

Click any column header to sort the table. Sort by date to see recent expenses first, by total amount to identify your largest expenses, or by supplier to group expenses by supplier.

Using categories

Expense categories are configured in your system settings. Assign a category to every expense for consistent expense classification across your team. Categories appear as a filterable column in the table, making it easy to analyze spending by type.

Best practices

• Record expenses promptly while details are fresh.
• Use consistent, descriptive supplier names so your team can easily find the right supplier.
• Assign a category to every expense for easier filtering and reporting.
• Use the status workflow: create as Pending, approve after review, then mark as Paid once processed.
• Review the Expenses table periodically to identify spending patterns and recurring costs.
• Take advantage of multi-currency support by recording each expense in the currency it was actually billed in.