Expenses not related to items

Please tell me how can I enter purchase invoice for expenses not related to stock items
e.g Telephone Bills, Meals Expenses , Customer Entertainment expenses, Fuel Expenses, etc

here I have to create item every time for such expenses
e.g stationary i buy , meals ordered, etc

Journal Entry is an alternate way but not proper ways to do such thing,
other Accounting Software provide option to book multiple expense in related accounts in a single invoice
without needed to create item for it

Expense Claim will do that?

https://manual.erpnext.com/contents/human-resource-management/expense-claim

Please see
Expense Claim is made when Employee’s make expenses out of their pocket on
behalf of the company.
For example, if they take a customer out for lunch,
they can make a request for reimbursement via the Expense Claim form.

what about the purchases made by company, not by employee

You can directly create a Journal Entry, debit fuel, credit cash?

yes so far that’s i am doing

@asr1722 why don’t you sponsor a feature if you need it badly

https://erpnext.com/pricing/paid-feature-development

Right now I am testing your ERP for my Client
My expertise are in ERP implementation
So far your ERP lack in this feature, rest is good
this expense feature is provided by every accounting software and ERPs so far I have experienced (Quickbooks, Sage, Peachtree, XERO etc), that’s why i would recommend you to make is part of your ERP,
Those consumers who shift from other accounting software to yours will get confused at this point and may not continue it . because creating item every time is an headache

You should add option to enter invoice for Expense not related to item
as invoices (issued from supplier) are entered in one go, purchases from a mall may contain items that are related to different account heads e.g meals. stationary, traveling expenses,
currently there are 2 ways so far
1 is journal entry
2nd is employe expense claim

2 Likes

Hi,

I have the same question. What is the best way to enter expenses for electricity bills, phone bills, etc? Is it better to make a non-stock, service item or is it better to make a journal entry?

thanks
Sofia

@sofia Your choice. You could make a direct Journal Entry too.

An invoice of “non-items” can easily be entered. THERE IS NO NEED TO MAKE AN ITEM!! Just leave the item_code blank and enter the name and description, such as “stationary” , “electricity” , “food/meal”, “petrol”. One can enter the individual lines on the invoice, or what I usually do, lump the purchases in one line, entering the total without tax A standard Tax/Vat template can be created. The account head and cost centre has to be defined manually. After this just create a JV like always.I do this with all my invoices of stuff i do not resell, and thus no need to make it an item. Robert

5 Likes

thanks!

can you collect VAT from journal entries?

1 Like

Yes. You debit the expense account with the actual cost less vat, then debit the vat account with the vat amount. credit the bank account with total amount.

Your question and suggestion are extremely valid. You may receiving bills from a security company for security services, surely you need to process this via the invoicing option not journal entry. @ERPnext serious consider this option. We are finding it difficult to push your product on the cloud because there is no provision for proper Job Costing and the recording of expense bill via the Purchase invoice option., The purchas invoice must have options to enter GL lines and Stock lines.

2 Likes

robert thanks for this one. Sure works very well,

You can actually use the journal entry for this.

Chose Accounts Payable as the credit leg, the system will ask you for the party name and you pick the supplier/vendor you are buying from.

This will create a payable obligation on the Suplier

The debit leg will of course be the relevant expense GL.

Let me know if this works for you

1 Like

“expense GL” meaning expense account, right?

Yes account

@asr1722

To pass JV for these types expense It’s really a BAD idea. We use JV for accounting adjustments not for Petty Cash like expenses.

Why don’t you use Purchase Invoice to book these types of expenses.

Why Purchase Invoice?
You can book the expense against supplier.
You can view the liabilities for petty cash like expenses in Account Payable summary.
You’ll have reference to the PI.
You’ll be able to add taxes and charges or vat.
You’ll be able to add item or supplier discount etc.

What you need to do for booking expenses using Purchase Invoice ?
Create Service Item group under All Item Group.
Create Service Item(for instance, Travel Expense, Fuel Expenses, Customer Expenses or telephone expense) and select service item group and uncheck the option of maintain stock.
To book the expense create new purchase invoice and select the service item.

6 Likes

pleasure