Use Expenses to record items such as travel, software, advertising, materials, and subcontractor fees. Each expense can be classified as billable to the client or as an internal project cost.

Roles: Admins, Managers | Pro & Business Feature

Why track expenses in TrackingTime?

Hours are only one part of a project’s cost.

A project may also include:

Travel and accommodation
Advertising spend
Software licenses
Printing and materials
Meals or client-related purchases

Recording these costs in the same project as the team’s hours helps you understand the project’s complete financial performance.

TrackingTime uses project expenses when showing revenue, cost, profit, and margin:

Billable expenses contribute to project revenue.
Non-billable expenses contribute to project cost.

This means the profitability report reflects both the team’s time and the money spent on the project.

Add an Expense

How to add an Expense:

Open the relevant project.
Go to the Billing tab.
In the Expenses section, click + Add Expense.
Confirm the project which the expense belongs to.
Select the date of the expense. The date determines the retainer period to which the expense belongs to.
Enter the amount.
Choose a category, such as Advertising, Meals or Office supplies.
Add a description. A useful description should give enough context for a manager—or the client—to understand the charge.
Attach any supporting files, such as a receipt or supplier invoice.
Enable This expense is billable when the amount should be charged to the client. If enabled, you can later mark it as "Billed" or "Not billed".
Click Save.

Manage Expense Categories

How to create Expense ypes:

Open the Category menu while adding an expense.
Click Manage Categories.
Click + Add category to create a new one.
Reorder the existing categories as needed.
Click Done.

Use category names that are clear and consistent across the workspace.

A practical starting set is:

Advertising
Meals
Office supplies
Software and subscriptions
Travel
Other

Avoid creating categories that are too specific. A short, reusable list makes reporting easier than dozens of categories used only once.

Review project expenses

The Expenses table in the project’s Billing tab shows:

Spent date
Category
Description
Amount
Billing status

Use the date filter to review expenses from a specific range or across all time. For a retainer project, the expense date determines the period in which the expense is reported.

How expenses affect project reporting

Open the project’s Report tab to review its financial summary.

Expenses appear in the following areas:

Billable expenses under Revenue
Non-billable expenses under Cost
Overall project profit
Profit margin

This provides a more complete picture than measuring profitability from hours alone.

Example: A project may appear profitable based on worked hours, but its actual margin may be lower after accounting for advertising, travel, or contractor costs.

Expenses and retainers

Expenses recorded in a retainer project belong to the period containing the selected expense date. For example, an advertising expense dated August 10 will appear in the July 31–August 30 retainer period.

This makes it possible to review the complete financial result of each cycle:

Worked hours
Billable value
Billable expenses
Internal time costs
Non-billable expenses
Profit and margin

For more information, see Manage recurring projects with Retainers.

Expenses and invoicing

Billable expenses can be used as part of the invoicing workflow together with billable project hours.

Before closing a billing period:

Confirm that expenses were assigned to the correct project.
Verify the date and amount.
Check whether each expense should be billable.
Attach supporting documentation when necessary.
Review its billing status.

This reduces the risk of forgetting client-related costs during billing.