Features · Expenses & fees

What the job cost, and what you charge for it.

The quote prices what you expect the expenses to come to. The job’s Expenses tab records what they actually came to — parking, fuel, catering, a rented lens, a courier — each with a date, a category and who paid, measured against the figure you quoted.

Enter the sandbox →See pricing
app.kitslate.app · job · expenses
The KitSlate reports hub, where expenses feed the money reports
Expenses feed the job's profit and the money reports.
01 · RECORD — date, category, amount

Nineteen categories, and the same nineteen on the way in.

Camera & gear rental, crew & labour, travel & transport, catering & craft, art & props, accommodation, permits, expendables, post-production, shipping and the rest — the categories a production actually spends against.

The same list the importer usesAn expense you type and an expense imported from Wave or QuickBooks land on the same category, so they add up instead of sitting in two vocabularies.
Yours alongside KitSlate’sSettings lists what KitSlate ships and what you have added, separately. Add your own, rename any of them, and archive the ones you do not use.
Archived, not deletedArchiving takes a category off the list you are offered and leaves it on screen with a plus to bring it back. Only one of your own can then be deleted for good.
It asks what happens to the expensesRe-file them under another category — which is how two categories merge — mark them Uncategorised, or leave the wording alone. Nothing is deleted either way.
Rename in one stepRenaming a category re-files every expense under the new name at the same time, instead of leaving you to do it by hand.
Or suggest one for everybodyType a category that is not on the list into a job’s category field and it can be offered for every KitSlate customer, through the same review the shared lists already use.
DatedEach expense carries its own date, which is the day the money went out — not the day of the shoot.
ExportThe job’s expenses go out as CSV, for whatever your accountant wants.
02 · ESTIMATE, THEN ACTUAL — quoted first, spent after

The quote prices the expenses. The tab reports them.

An expense estimate is an ordinary line on the quote, so the client reads the figure before the job and agrees to it. What is actually spent is itemised on the Expenses tab underneath it, and the two are shown side by side.

Estimated against actual, at the top of the tabWhat the quote priced, what was actually spent, and the difference between them — over or under, in the job’s own currency.
The estimate travels with the quoteIt reaches the invoice inside the copy the invoice is made from, like every other quote line. Change it afterwards and the quote offers to push the change across.
Itemised underneathEach actual keeps its own date, category, supplier and who paid, so the total is a list you can read rather than a figure to take on trust.
The quote is left as it was agreedReceipts arrive after the agreement was made, so an actual never rewrites the quote. One you charge on goes to the invoice, which is the document still being settled.
03 · WHO PAID — three states, because there are three

Absorbed, charged on, or never yours.

Out of pocket means you paid and the job carries it. Rebill to client means you paid and you are charging it on. Client paid direct means they paid that supplier themselves.

Charged on becomes a lineA rebillable expense goes under Other costs on the invoice — or on the quote when there is no invoice yet — carrying its own identity, so editing the expense updates that line rather than adding a second one.
A passthrough leaves profit where it wasYou spent it and you charged it, so it lands on both sides and the job clears what it always cleared.
Nothing is forgottenAn expense marked to rebill that was never charged on is money you are owed and have not asked for, so the job board says so.
Taking it off rebill takes it off the documentThe line goes with it. A cost you decided to absorb does not stay on an invoice.
04 · PRODUCTION FEE — a percentage, as a line

A fee the client can read.

None, 10%, 20%, 30% or your own number, taken on equipment, crew, studio, expenses, or any combination of them.

Its own row, not a markup on ratesA percentage buried in equipment rates is counted as equipment revenue, which inflates what your gear looks like it earns. As a line, equipment earns what equipment earned.
It never charges a fee on itselfThe fee’s own line is excluded from the base it is calculated on.
One line, if you preferThe section can print as a single row with the fee inside it. Your own copy keeps the split either way.
It does not move behind youThe figure it was worked out on is stored with it. When the sections change, the quote says so and offers to recalculate — it never quietly alters a total you have already sent.
A default for new quotesSet it once under Preferences; every quote can still change its own.
QUESTIONS — the ones people ask first

Before you try it.

Does an expense change what the job made?

Out of pocket comes off it. A rebilled one lands on both sides and leaves it where it was. Client-paid does neither, because it never left your account.

Can I put expenses on an invoice that has already gone out?

They go on the quote, and the invoice offers to take the change with a version kept first. An invoice already sent is not altered without you asking.

Where do the categories come from?

A shared list of nineteen production categories. You can add to it, and the expense importer snaps imported rows onto the same names.

Is the production fee visible to the client?

That is your choice. It is always its own line in your copy; the section can print as one row if you would rather the client read a single number.

A job that already cost something.

The sandbox has jobs with expenses on them — one absorbed, one charged on, one the client paid — and a quote carrying a production fee.

Enter the sandbox →See pricing