> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nyumbazetu.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Expenses > Record what you owe and what you pay — expense invoices, expense payments, approvals and bulk import. **Finance → Payables → Expenses → `/expenses`** Expenses are money going out: maintenance, utilities, security, cleaning, professional fees, supplies. The module separates what you **owe** from what you have **paid**, which is what makes payables reporting and cash-flow planning possible. | Tab | Route | Contents | | -------------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | **Expense Invoices** | `/expenses` | The bills you have received — what you owe. | | **Expense Payments** | `/expenses/payments` | The money you have sent — what you paid, and against what. | ## Recording an expense invoice **Expenses → Add.** The payee. Create the vendor first if it does not exist — see [Vendors](/guides/vendors). The service type determines which expense account the cost posts to. This is what makes the profit & loss statement meaningful; a generic "miscellaneous" line helps nobody. Assign the expense to the branch, block or unit it belongs to. Unattributed expenses cannot be recharged to owners or allocated in owner statements. Amount, tax where applicable, invoice date and due date. The vendor's invoice or receipt. Attach it now — nobody attaches it later. The expense is recorded as payable and appears in expense reports. ## Approvals Where configured, an expense routes to the [approvals inbox](/guides/approvals) before it can be paid. The expense list shows the approval state inline, and the actions available to you are computed by the server, so you only see buttons you may actually use. This is the standard separation of duties for payables: one person records, another approves, and both are recorded. ## Paying an expense | Method | Use it when | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Expense payment** | The normal route: record the payment against the expense from **Expense Payments**, with the bank account, date, amount and reference. | | **Expense wallet** | Paying from a petty-cash style float. See [Expense wallets](/guides/expense-wallets). | A paid expense settles the payable and posts the cash movement to the ledger. ## Bulk import Expenses can be imported from CSV — useful for a month of vendor invoices, or for migrating history. Use **Admin → Bulk Upload** with the *Expenses* type, or the import action on the expenses list. The importer validates before committing and keeps a per-row outcome. See [Bulk upload](/guides/bulk-upload). ## Recurring expenses Costs that repeat every period — security contracts, cleaning, internet — are managed as recurring items so they do not depend on someone remembering. Set them up once with the vendor, amount, and frequency. ## Expenses and owners For managed properties, expenses attributed to an owner's units flow into the owner's statement and reduce the amount disbursed to them. This only works if the expense is attributed to the right unit or block — see [Owner statements](/guides/owner-statements). ## Expenses and the ledger An expense posts to: * the **expense account** the service type maps to (profit & loss); * **accounts payable** when recorded; * **bank / cash** when paid. See [Accounting and posting](/guides/accounting-and-posting). ## Reporting | Report | Answers | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Expense report** | What did we spend, by period and category? | | **Expense report by vendor** | Who did we spend it with? | | **Profit & loss** | How does spend compare to income? | | **Budget report** | How does actual spend compare to budget? See [Budgets](/guides/budgets). | ## Common problems | Symptom | Cause | | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Expense missing from the P\&L | It has no service type, or the service type has no account mapping. | | Owner statement does not show a cost | The expense is not attributed to the owner's unit or block. | | Expense shows as unpaid but the bank shows the payment | The payment was recorded against a different expense, or not recorded at all. | | Duplicate expenses | Recorded manually and imported. Reconcile by vendor invoice number before deleting anything that has been paid. | ## Next steps The payees behind every expense. Petty-cash style funds with a hard spend guard. Compare spend against plan. Who signs off, and how.