Knowledge Base / Admin Console / Financial Management / Work Order Expenses

Work Order Expenses

3 min read Last updated: March 27, 2025

Work order expenses is an expense tracker for any team member or freelancer on a project, allowing you to monitor and manage all costs associated with specific tasks.

In This Article:

Understanding Work Order Expenses

Work Order Expenses in ActionAtlas allow you to track specific costs incurred during the execution of work orders, providing a detailed view of project-related expenditures:

Key Features of Work Order Expenses
  • Granular Expense Tracking - Track costs at the individual work order level
  • Personnel Assignment - Link expenses to specific team members or freelancers
  • Categorized Spending - Organize expenses into predefined categories
  • Receipt Management - Upload and store receipts with expense entries
  • Budget Monitoring - Compare actual expenses against budgeted amounts

Setting Up Expense Categories

Administrators can create standardized expense categories to maintain consistency across all work orders:

Creating Expense Categories
  1. Navigate to Administration > Financial Management
  2. Select Work Order Expenses
  3. Click + Add Category
  4. Enter the following information:
    • Category name
    • Description
    • Tax settings (if applicable)
    • Approval requirements
    • Budget limits (optional)
  5. Click Save to create the category
Common Expense Categories
  • Travel - Airfare, hotels, car rentals, mileage
  • Meals & Entertainment - Business meals, client entertainment
  • Equipment - Rentals, purchases for specific projects
  • Materials - Physical items required for work order completion
  • Software - Project-specific digital tools or subscriptions
  • Third-party Services - External vendor costs
  • Permits & Fees - Legal or regulatory costs

Best Practice: Create a comprehensive set of expense categories that cover all typical expenses in your operations while avoiding overly specific categories that might rarely be used.

Adding Expenses to Work Orders

Team members and freelancers can easily log expenses related to their assigned work orders:

Creating an Expense Entry
  1. Navigate to the appropriate work order
  2. Click the Expenses tab
  3. Select + Add Expense
  4. Choose the expense category
  5. Enter the amount and date
  6. Add a description
  7. Upload receipt (if required)
  8. Click Save

Important: Expenses must be added before a work order is marked as completed. Once a work order is complete, expenses can only be added by users with administrative privileges.

Need Help?

Our support team is available to assist with questions about work order expense management in ActionAtlas.

Contact Support