The expenses list

The List View is the register of every expense across your jobs — invoice number, supplier, description, job, dates and value.

Reach it from the floating List View button.

It is built to answer four questions at a glance, which is why it opens with them rather than making you go looking.

The warnings along the top

Warning	What it means	Why it matters
N without a file	No document attached	The one thing you cannot reconstruct later
N duplicate references	Two expenses share an invoice number	Usually the same invoice entered twice
N do not match Xero	Xero’s total disagrees with the expense	A bill short a line, a duplicate, or edited in Xero
N not in Xero	Never exported	Nothing has been sent for payment

These are counts across everything your filter currently covers, not just the page you are looking at. A page of twenty-five showing no problems does not mean there are none.

The duplicate warning is the one that pays for itself

Suppliers re-send statements, and the same invoice gets entered twice more often than anyone expects. A duplicate caught here is thirty seconds. A duplicate paid is a credit to chase.

Looking at an expense

Click a row and the expense opens in a panel over the list — the same information as the Expenses screen: number, dates, description, supplier, the related order, every line with its job and cost code, what it adds up to, the attached files, who created it and whether it is in Xero.

It is for reading. To code a line, attach a file or export, use Open the full expense at the bottom of the panel. Ctrl+click the reference goes straight there.

Searching

Type in the search box in the page header. Results narrow as you type — there is no Look Up to press, though it still works if you press it.

It searches invoice number, supplier, description and job together, so you can type a supplier name or part of a reference without choosing a field first.

Sorting

Click a column heading. Click it again to reverse it.

Sort by	Answers
Due	What is due for payment this week
Invoice #	Has this been entered twice
Supplier	Everything from one supplier, together
Ex GST	The largest costs on the job

Sorting applies to the whole filtered set, not the visible page — sort by value and the biggest expense comes to the top wherever it was.

The totals

The line under the grid totals everything the filter covers — ex GST, GST and inc GST — not the rows on screen.

That is the number to check against a supplier statement, or to answer “what has this job cost in materials”. Filter to a supplier or a job first, then read it off.

Row markers

Small labels sit at the left of each row.

Marker	Means
credit	A supplier credit note. Every figure on the row is negative
PDF	A document is attached — click to read it without leaving the page
no file	Nothing attached
dup	Another expense uses this invoice number
Xero / paid	Exported to Xero; paid once Xero says it is settled
≠ Xero	Xero’s total disagrees with this expense
Nd	Days overdue
deleted	Deleted, showing because Show Deleted is on

PDF opens the supplier’s document in a panel over the list. It is worth using before querying anything with a supplier — the answer is usually on the invoice.

Choosing columns

Columns adds and removes columns. Your choice is remembered on your machine.

Off by default, and worth turning on when you need them:

• Whole invoice — the full invoice value, where an invoice is split across several jobs and the main figure shows only this job’s share
• Xero and Owing — the bill’s status in Xero and what is still outstanding
• Lines — how many lines the expense has
• PO — a PDF mark where the expense is linked to a purchase order. Click it and the order opens in a panel over the list, so you can check the invoice against what was ordered without leaving the page
• PO value — that order’s total, ex GST. It is red when the invoice is more than the order and green when it is less; hover over it for the difference in dollars

An invoice over its order is the one to query before it is paid. One under it is usually a part delivery or a progress claim — expected, but worth a glance.

The order’s value, and the prices on its PDF, need the Show Order Value permission, the same as on the Orders screen. Without it the column is blank and the PDF shows no prices.

CSV downloads the columns you have chosen, for the rows on screen.

Sending expenses to Xero

Tick the expenses you want and choose Export to Xero.

Before anything is sent you get a list of what would happen, with a reason beside anything that cannot go — an unmapped supplier, a line with no cost center. Fix those and try again, or send the rest and come back to them.

Bills arrive in Xero as drafts, for you to authorise there.

Selection does not survive turning the page

Ticks are cleared when you change page, sort or filter. This is deliberate: a bulk send should only ever act on expenses you can actually see.

Keeping up with Xero

Once an expense has been exported, SmarteBuild reads its status back from Xero — so the register knows what has been authorised, what has been paid and what has been voided, without you checking in two places.

• The Xero marker on a row becomes paid when Xero says it is settled
• The Owing column shows what is still outstanding
• Clicking the Xero marker opens that bill in Xero, in a new tab
• Sync Xero pulls the latest now; it also happens on its own when the figures have gone stale, and straight after a batch send

When a bill does not match

≠ Xero means Xero’s total is not the same as the expense here. It has three usual causes, and all three are worth knowing about:

1. The bill in Xero is missing a line.
2. The bill was entered twice — once by the export, once by hand.
3. Somebody edited the bill in Xero after it was sent.

Open the bill and compare. If the difference is real and you have decided to leave it, click ≠ Xero and accept it — the expense stops being counted, so the warning list can get back to empty.

A warning list that is never empty is one people stop reading

That is the whole reason accepting a difference exists. Use it for the ones you have genuinely dealt with, not to clear the number.

Credit notes

A supplier credit — a return, a rebate, an overcharge put right — is recorded as a credit note, not as an invoice with a minus sign in front of it.

Create one with the teal − button beside New. If you have an invoice open when you press it, the credit is linked to that invoice and the supplier is filled in already.

Enter the quantities as ordinary positive numbers. SmarteBuild knows it is a credit and takes the money off.

A credit note:

• reduces the job’s cost to date, so budgets, cost centres and cost-vs-allowed all reflect it without you doing anything
• shows in the register with a credit marker naming the invoice it credits
• is netted into the totals — the count at the top of the list says how many credits are in the figure and what they come to, so a total lower than the invoices add up to explains itself
• goes to Xero as a credit note, not a bill

Use a credit note rather than a negative line on the invoice

Both reduce the cost. Only the credit note reaches Xero as a credit note, keeps the supplier’s own credit reference, and shows on the register as money coming back rather than an invoice that looks oddly small. It is also the version your bookkeeper can reconcile.

Credits and duplicates

A credit note usually carries the reference of the invoice it credits, which is correct. The register knows, and will not report the pair as a duplicate.

Deleted expenses

Show Deleted brings deleted expenses back into view, marked deleted. Useful when something has gone missing and you need to know whether it was removed or never entered.

A monthly routine

1. Clear without a file — chase the missing documents while people still remember them.
2. Check duplicate references before a payment run.
3. Sort by Due and look at what is coming.
4. Check the totals against any supplier statements.
5. Send anything not in Xero.
6. Deal with anything flagged ≠ Xero, and accept the ones you have settled.

Steps one and two are the ones nobody does unprompted, and they are the two that cost real money when skipped.