Track Expenses by Project: Know Exactly Where Your Money Goes

You know how much your business spent last month. But do you know how much you spent on the Henderson project? Or how much of your team’s travel budget went toward the product launch versus ongoing client work?

For most small businesses, the answer is “not really.” Expenses get categorized by type — travel, meals, software — but not by what they were for. That’s fine until you need to invoice a client for project costs, justify a budget, or figure out which initiative is actually profitable.

Today we’re launching project-based expense allocation for Enterprise accounts.

The Problem With Category-Only Tracking

Categories tell you what you spent money on. A $45 lunch goes under “Meals & Entertainment.” A $200 software license goes under “Software & Subscriptions.” That’s useful for tax time and for understanding your cost structure.

But categories don’t tell you why you spent it. Was that lunch a client meeting for Project Alpha, or an internal team lunch? Was the software license for a specific client engagement, or shared infrastructure?

Without project-level tracking, these questions require digging through receipts and memory. At the end of the quarter, when someone asks “how much did we spend on the Acme project?” you’re stuck doing forensic accounting.

How Project Tracking Works

The idea is simple: every expense can be assigned to one or more projects, so you can see spending from both the category angle and the project angle.

Create projects with a name, optional project code, client name, and budget. Mark projects as company-wide if they represent shared overhead (like “Office Operations”) that every team member might allocate to.

Allocate expenses directly from your expense grid. Click the folder icon on any transaction to assign it to a project. Need to split a cost? Allocate it across multiple projects with percentage splits — 60% to Project Alpha, 40% to Project Beta. Use bulk allocation to assign dozens of expenses to a project in one action.

See the results in every report you generate. PDF and Excel reports now include a Project Breakdown section that shows total spending per project. Excel reports get a dedicated worksheet tab. Expense report claims include project allocation summaries so approvers can see exactly which projects the expenses relate to.

Real-World Scenarios

Consulting firms billing clients by project can now track exactly which expenses to pass through. No more guessing whether that flight was for Client A or Client B.

Construction and trades businesses running multiple job sites can allocate materials, fuel, and equipment rental to specific jobs. When the job is done, you have a complete cost picture.

Agencies managing multiple campaigns can split shared costs (tools, subscriptions, team meals) across the projects they support, giving each client engagement accurate cost data.

Product companies can track R&D spending by initiative. When leadership asks how much the new feature cost to build, you have the answer.

Split Costs Make It Honest

Real expenses don’t always belong to one project. A team dinner might be half client entertainment, half team building. A software license might serve three different projects. Forcing every expense into a single bucket distorts your numbers.

With percentage-based allocation, you assign each expense honestly. A $200 dinner? 50% Client Engagement, 50% Team Culture. A $500 software subscription? Split it 40/30/30 across the three projects that use it. Your per-project totals reflect reality instead of arbitrary assignments.

It Lives Where You Already Work

Project allocation isn’t a separate module you have to go find. It’s built right into the expense grid you already use every day. Teal project badges appear on each allocated expense so you can see at a glance which projects your expenses are assigned to. The allocation modal is one click away from any expense row.

If you’re already using expense reports for approval workflows, project allocations flow through automatically. Approvers see the project breakdown alongside the line items, so they understand the context of each claim.

Getting Started

Project tracking is available now on Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans. To get started:

1. Go to Company Settings and enable project tracking
2. Create your first projects from the Projects page
3. Start allocating expenses from your expense grid

If you’re on a Business Pro plan and want to try project tracking, you can upgrade to Enterprise from the billing page. As always, upgrades are prorated — you only pay the difference for the rest of your billing period.