Money & reports
Expenses and startup costs
Record running costs like rent and wages, and one-off setup spending.
For: Owner, Manager
To see your real profit, iTrade needs to know what it costs to run the shop, not just what you sold. There are two kinds of cost: expenses, which come round again and again, and startup costs, which you pay once to set up. Owners and Managers can record both.
Stock you buy to resell is not an expense. Record it as an inventory purchase (see Buying stock). Its cost counts against profit only when the goods are sold.
Expenses
Day-to-day running costs: rent, electricity, wages, transport, airtime and so on.
- Check the company switcher shows the branch the cost belongs to.
- On the Apps page, open Expenses and click + Add New.
- Fill in:
- Date: already set to today. Use the day you paid.
- Category: Rent, Electricity, Water, Transport, Wages, Airtime, Packaging, Cleaning, Repairs or Other.
- Description, for example "September rent" or "Delivery to Chitungwiza".
- Amount, for example 250.00.
- Notes (optional).
- Click Save.
Expenses show on:
- the Profit & Loss, grouped by category under "Operating expenses",
- the Cash Flow Statement, as money paid out,
- the End of Day report, and the "Expenses this month" figure on the Dashboard.
Pay a staff member's wages from the till? Record it as an expense straight away, so your cash count at the end of the day still adds up.
What you pay iTrade
Every iTrade invoice you pay is added to your expenses automatically, under iTrade subscription, so your Profit & Loss and Cash Flow already include it. You don't record it yourself, and it can't be edited - it follows the invoice.
Only the Owner and a Finance Manager see those rows, on the Expenses page and in the totals. A Manager's expenses and End of Day figures leave them out.
Startup costs
One-off spending to get the business going: shelving, a counter, a fridge, signage, the till computer, the first fit-out.
- On the Apps page, open Startup Costs and click + Add New.
- Fill in the Item (for example "Display fridge"), a Description, the Date purchased, the Cost and any Notes.
- Click Save.
Startup costs are an investment, not a running cost, so they are not taken off your profit on the Profit & Loss. They show on the Cash Flow Statement under "Investing activities", because the money did leave the business.
Expense or startup cost?
| Expense | Startup cost |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | The deposit and fit-out when you moved in |
| Fixing the fridge | Buying the fridge |
| Paper rolls for the receipt printer | The receipt printer |
| Wages | Shelving and signage |
Finding and fixing entries
Both lists can be searched and filtered by date. Use Edit or Delete on a row to correct it. Every change is kept in the Audit Trail.
See how these feed into your figures: Profit & Loss explained and Cash Flow explained.
Photograph the slip
When you record an expense you can take a photo of the receipt. On a phone the Receipt photo box opens the camera straight away. The photo is shrunk when you upload it, so it doesn't eat your data or your device's storage, and it is the proof behind the figure when the books are checked.
Who can record an expense
Anyone can, including a Sales Person - the person who paid the taxi is the one holding the slip, and an expense that needs a manager to enter it mostly never gets entered.
A Sales Person only ever sees and edits their own expenses. The shop's rent, wages and what the business pays for iTrade stay with the Owner, the Finance Manager and the Manager.