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To submit an expense, open Expenses, click Submit expense, fill the form, then click Submit for approval. You can also save it as a draft and finish it later.

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Before you start

You need:
  • the Expenses app switched on – it is on by default
  • the expense.submit capability – every working role has it
  • at least one active expense category in the workspace
Submitting is free on every plan. Only the approval step needs Pro.

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How to submit an expense

1

Open Expenses

Click Expenses in the sidebar. You land on your own expense log.
2

Start a new expense

Click Submit expense in the top right. The New expense dialog opens.
3

Enter the amount and currency

Type the amount you paid, for example 240. Pick the currency. The default is USD.
4

Set the expense date

Pick the date the money was spent. It defaults to today. This is the date reports window on, not the date you filed the expense.
5

Choose a category

Pick from the workspace category list – Travel, Meals, Software, Equipment or Other on a fresh workspace.
6

Pick the client and project

Both are optional. Choosing a client narrows the project list to that client’s projects and switches the currency to the client’s default currency.
7

Decide if it is billable

Turn Billable to client on if the client pays for this. A Markup % field appears. Leave it blank to bill at cost.
8

Attach the receipt

Click Attach receipt or drag the file onto the box. PDF, PNG or JPG up to 10MB.
9

Save or submit

Click Submit for approval to send it to a reviewer. Click Save draft to keep working on it.
A toast confirms the result: Expense submitted for approval. or Draft saved.

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Example

Sarah Lin buys a stock photo licence for the Bluebird Coffee Website Redesign. Northwind pays 240∗∗.Bluebirdischarged240×1.15=∗∗240**. Bluebird is charged 240 × 1.15 = **276. The $36 difference is Northwind’s margin on the expense. Sarah clicks Submit for approval. The expense leaves her drafts and lands in the Approvals queue for Daniel Okafor.

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Every field on the form

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How the client and project fields behave

  • Picking a client clears the project selection and re-filters the project list to that client’s projects.
  • Picking a client also switches the currency to that client’s default currency, if it has one.
  • You can leave both blank. The expense is still valid.

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How markup works

The Markup % field only appears while Billable to client is on. The form shows the formula under the field:
Billable value = amount × (1 + markup%).
A markup on a non-billable expense is rejected. If you turn billable off after typing a markup, the markup is cleared. Worked examples on a $240 expense:

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The receipt upload

The receipt box accepts one file.
  • Click Attach receipt to open a file picker, or drag a file onto the box.
  • Accepted types: PDF, PNG, JPG. The limit is 10MB.
  • Once picked, the box shows the file name and size, for example receipt.pdf (812 KB).
  • The receipt uploads when you save or submit, not when you pick the file.
A receipt is optional but strongly recommended. Reviewers see a View link in the approval queue when a receipt exists, and a dash when it does not.

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Save as a draft

Save draft creates the expense without submitting it. Use a draft when:
  • you do not have the receipt yet
  • you are waiting to confirm which project it belongs to
  • you want a colleague to check the amount first
A draft is private to you. It sits in your expense log with a Draft status chip and can be edited or deleted freely. When you reopen a draft to edit it, the dialog title reads Edit expense and the ghost button reads Save changes.

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What happens next

  1. The expense moves to Submitted and leaves your editable set.
  2. It appears in Approvals → Expenses → Awaiting for everyone who can approve your expenses.
  3. Those reviewers get an in-app notification and an email. You are not notified about your own submission.
  4. A reviewer approves or rejects it. Either way, you get a notification.
  5. If nobody acts, the expense escalates – at 24 hours to the routed approver, and at 72 hours to workspace managers.
You can pull a submitted expense back before anyone decides. Open the row menu and choose Withdraw to draft.

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Editing and deleting

To change a submitted expense, withdraw it to draft first. To change an approved one, ask a reviewer to withdraw their approval. Deleting moves the expense to Settings → Trash, where it can be restored. The receipt goes with it and comes back on restore.

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Permissions

You can only act on your own expenses. Editing, withdrawing and deleting are all submitter-only. A reviewer never edits someone else’s expense – they approve or reject it. A Client portal contact cannot submit expenses at all.

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Common questions

No. An expense belongs to the person who created it. Ana Ferreira submits her own font licence; Priya cannot file it for her.
No. One expense holds one receipt. Split a multi-receipt purchase into separate expenses, or combine the receipts into a single PDF.
Not while it is submitted. Withdraw the expense to draft, attach the new file, then submit again.
The expense date is when the money was spent. Reports window on it by default. The filing date is recorded separately and is available in reports as Date recorded.
No, but you should. A billable expense with no client cannot be matched to that client’s invoice, so it will not appear in the invoice builder for them.
An expense records money spent. To correct an over-claim, delete the expense and file a correct one, or ask a reviewer to reject it so you can rework it.

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Troubleshooting

Expenses overview

How expenses fit the rest of TimeTracker.

Billable expenses

Markup, billable value and invoicing.

Expense statuses

What draft, submitted, approved, rejected and invoiced mean.

Expense categories

The list an expense is filed under.

Approve an expense

What your reviewer sees next.