Project expenses, advances and settlements
Your team claims what they spent on a project, asks for an advance before a trip and settles it after. The project manager approves each one. Payments are recorded by method with proof, and a supplier's expense becomes a draft vendor bill.
PLANSFrom Growth
The problem it solves
- Site visit costs arrive as a pile of receipts at month end, and nobody can say which project they belong to.
- Advances are given in cash and never settled, or settled twice.
- Someone pays an expense by UPI and there is no reference or screenshot when the accountant asks.
How it works
- A team member opens Time > My Expenses > New, picks the project and adds a line per cost. Receipts are attached to the expense.
- For a trip, they ask for an Advance instead. Once approved and paid, it waits to be settled.
- After spending, they settle it with what was really spent. The form shows the balance owed either way.
- Send for Approval puts it in the Project Expense approval chain; a Projects Manager approves to start with. The person is told when it is decided.
- A Projects Manager registers the payment: method, amount, reference and proof. It counts as paid once approved in the Expense Payment chain.
- Expenses marked Bill the Client go onto the client's next billing run.
Everything it does
Three kinds
- Expense: money already spent
- Advance: money asked for before spending; it is not a cost until settled
- Settlement of an Advance: what the advance was spent on; the balance is paid to the person or returned
- A settlement needs an approved advance of the same person and project that is not settled yet; an advance is settled once only
The expense
- What For, kind, project, date, the person who asked, and Paid To (a supplier, or empty)
- Lines: what, date, quantity, price, amount and Tax / Bill No. for the supplier's bill number and GST or VAT
- Bill the Client: put it on the client's next billing run
- Statuses: Draft, Waiting Approval, Approved, Rejected, Withdrawn
- An approved expense is corrected with a new one with a negative line
Payments
- Paid Out, or Received Back when an advance is returned
- Methods ready to use: Cash, Bank Transfer, Cheque, Card (paid out only), UPI
- A reference is needed for every method except Cash (a setting per method)
- Proof of Payment: the bank slip, cheque scan or UPI screenshot
- Pay in parts and by several methods; on a settlement only the balance is paid
- Payment status: Not Paid, Partly Paid, Paid or Overpaid
- Approved payments cannot be changed or deleted
Vendor bill and billing
- Make Vendor Bill on an approved expense with a supplier: a draft vendor bill with its lines, linked both ways
- The supplier's taxes are left to the accountant on that bill
- Billing runs collect approved expenses marked Bill the Client, up to the run's end date, once
With budgets (Scale)
- Each line takes a budget category, Travel and Expenses to start with
- Sending checks what is left on the line, less other expenses waiting; it warns or blocks as your budget control says
- Approved expenses and settlements are actual cost on the budget; advances are not
Who uses it
Team memberClaims expenses, asks for advances and settles them, and sees when each is decided.
Project managerApproves or rejects expenses in the chain, with a reason for a rejection.
Projects Manager or financeRegisters and approves payments with proof, and makes vendor bills for supplier expenses.
Projects AdministratorSets up payment methods and whether each needs a reference.
Where you use it
- Web: Projects > Time > My Expenses for everyone; Projects > Money > Expenses > Expenses, Advances and Expense Payments for managers
- The project form: an Expenses tab and button
- Configuration: Projects > Configuration > Money > Payment Methods
- Not in the SmartMy Projects phone app yet: expenses are claimed on the web
What you control
Settings
- Payment methods: name, Needs a Reference (on, except Cash), paid out, received or both
- The Project Expense and Expense Payment approval chains
- With budgets: the category per line and the entity's budget control (warn to start with)
Approvals
- Project Expense: a Projects Manager approves to start with; add levels such as finance above an amount
- Expense Payment: a Projects Manager approves to start with; set finance as the level if you prefer
Notifications
- Project Expense Decided: to the person who asked, when approved or rejected (with why), in the app and by email
- Request Waits for Your Approval: to the approvers of expenses and payments, with a to-do
- The Money dashboard counts expenses waiting
Questions
Can someone settle the same advance twice?
No. Once a settlement is approved, the advance is marked Settled. A second settlement of it is refused.Can my team claim expenses on the phone?
Not yet. Expenses are claimed on the web, which works in a phone's browser. The SmartMy Projects app has tasks and time, not expenses.Will the expense show up twice in costs if we make a vendor bill?
No. The bill is marked as coming from the expense, so the budget and profitability count the expense only.Does it read receipts by itself?
No. Receipts are attached as files and the amounts are typed. Reading receipts is not built.Which plan has it?
Growth and Scale. In Scale each expense is also checked against the project budget.Related features
MONEYProject budgets by OPEX and CAPEXEach project gets a budget by cost category, marked OPEX or CAPEX, approved before it counts. Time, expenses, orders, bills and store issues fill it by themselves, with alerts at 80 % and over 100 %.MONEYBilling runs from approved hoursEach period, a billing run gathers what a project bills. That is approved hours at their rates, fixed-price instalments that are due, the retainer fee and overage, and expenses to pass on. Once approved, it becomes a draft invoice in accounting with the entity's GST or VAT.ACROSS SMARTMY PROJECTSApproval chainsTimesheets, billing runs, expenses, budgets, stage overrides and subcontract work go to the right people in the right order, set up by you without code. Every decision is kept with who made it, when and why.MONEYProfitability per projectOne row per project with revenue, cost, margin and budget used, read from the project's budget ledger. Time is costed at each person's cost per hour, and filters show the projects losing money or over budget.ACCOUNTINGFull accounting with GST returnsKeep the books in the same system as your projects. You get journal entries, the chart of accounts, matching payments to invoices, and full reports from ledgers to cash flow. For Indian entities, GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B are worked out from the posted invoices and bills.
See your next project on it.
Tell us how many people keep time, how you bill your clients today (hours, fixed price, retainers) and what you use now. We will set up one of your real projects with you.