Expense Tracking

Why Track Expenses?

Every pound you spend on materials, fuel, tools, and services is a pound that reduces your profit. Track expenses properly and you'll know your true job costs, spot spending patterns, and have everything ready for your accountant.

A.X.E.L makes expense tracking dead simple — add them manually, by voice, or bulk import from a spreadsheet.

Adding an Expense

1. Tap the green + button and select Expense
2. Fill in the basic details:
3. Amount — what you spent (VAT inclusive or exclusive)
4. Description — what you bought
5. Category — materials, tools, fuel, etc.
6. Supplier — where you bought it (optional)
7. Date — when you spent the money
8. Link it to a specific job if relevant
9. Attach a photo of the receipt
10. Hit Save

Expense Categories

A.X.E.L organises expenses into categories that make sense for tradesmen:

• Materials — timber, cement, tiles, fixings, consumables
• Tools — power tools, hand tools, equipment purchases
• Fuel — van diesel, travel costs, parking
• Subcontractor — payments to other trades
• Office — stationery, software subscriptions, admin
• Marketing — website, business cards, advertising
• Insurance — public liability, vehicle, tool insurance
• Utilities — phone bills, internet, workshop electricity
• Rent — workshop rent, storage costs
• Other — anything that doesn't fit elsewhere

Pick the right category and your P&L reports will show you exactly where your money goes.

Linking Expenses to Jobs

When adding an expense, you can link it to a specific job. This is gold for job costing — you'll see the true profit on every piece of work.

Example: You spend £180 on materials for Mrs. Smith's kitchen. Link it to her job and your profit calculation updates automatically — you'll know if you're making money or just covering costs.

Receipt Photos

Always attach a photo of the receipt. It's proof of purchase for HMRC and means you'll never lose a receipt again. Just snap it with your phone camera and attach it to the expense.

The photos are stored securely in the cloud and linked to the expense permanently.

VAT Handling

If you're VAT registered, A.X.E.L handles the calculations for you. Toggle the VAT option when adding expenses and it'll separate the VAT element automatically.

All your VAT expenses feed into reports so you've got everything ready for your quarterly return.

Viewing Your Expenses

Head to Expenses from the main menu to see all your logged costs. You can:

• Filter by category — see just materials, or just fuel costs
• Filter by date range — this month, last month, or custom dates
• Filter by job — see all expenses for a specific piece of work
• Search by supplier — find all your B&Q receipts

Expense Reports

The real value comes from reports. See total spending by category, spot trends, and export everything to CSV for your accountant. Check out the P&L Reports article for the full breakdown.