Expense Tracking

Tracking expenses is important for understanding your true profit. Many Nigerian business owners know how much they sell, but do not track how much they spend. Without tracking expenses, you cannot know your real profit. SabiBooks lets you record business expenses so you can see where your money goes.

Why Track Expenses?

Know your real profit. Sales minus expenses equals profit. Without tracking expenses, you do not know if you are actually making money.
Find where money is leaking. When you see ₦15,000 going to transport every week, you might find a cheaper delivery option.
Prepare for tax season. If FIRS (Federal Inland Revenue Service) asks for your business records, you have everything ready.
Get loans easier. Banks want to see that you track your money carefully. A clean expense history helps your loan application.
Budget for the future. When you know what you spend each month, you can plan ahead.

Recording an Expense

Navigate to Expenses

Open Expenses from the menu or Settings.
Tap Record Expense

Tap “Record Expense”.

Fill in the details

Field	Required?	Description	Example
Amount	Yes	How much you spent, in Naira	₦5,000
Category	Yes	Type of expense	”Rent”, “Transport”, “Supplies”
I have not paid this yet	No	Tick this to record a supplier bill you still owe	(leave unticked for money already spent)
Date	Yes	When the expense occurred. For an unpaid bill this becomes Bill date — the date on the supplier’s bill	Today’s date (pre-filled)
Supplier	No	Who you owe. Appears when recording an unpaid bill	”Ade Cement Depot”
Description	No	What the expense was for	”Bought plastic bags for packaging”
Receipt Image	No	Photo of the receipt	(upload from camera or gallery)

Save the expense

Tap “Record Expense”.

Recording a Bill You Have Not Paid Yet

Suppliers often give goods on credit — you collect the stock today and pay in 30 days. Record that bill the day you receive it, not the day you pay it, and SabiBooks keeps “money you owe” separate from “money you spent” until you settle it.

Start a normal expense

Tap “Record Expense” and fill in the amount and category as usual.
Tick “I have not paid this yet”

The form explains what happens: “Records a supplier bill you still owe. It counts from the bill date, and you mark it paid when you settle it.”
Set the bill date

The date field becomes “Bill date”. Enter the date on the supplier’s bill — not today’s date, unless they are the same.
Name the supplier (optional)

A Supplier field appears, asking “Who do you owe?”. Naming them makes the bill easy to recognise later.
Record it

The button now reads “Record Unpaid Bill”. Tap it.

The bill appears in your expense list with an Unpaid badge, and the Expense Summary shows an Outstanding bills strip — for example, “You still owe ₦250,000.00 across 1 unpaid bill”, with a note of how much of it was billed in the selected period.

Here is what an unpaid bill does, and does not do, to your reports:

Report	While the bill is unpaid	After you mark it paid
P&L on the Accrual basis	A cost in the bill-date month	Unchanged — the cost stays in the bill-date month
Total Spent and Cash Flow	Nothing — you have not spent yet	Spending on the day you paid
Expense list banner	Counted, with “of which ₦X is unpaid” shown	Counted as normal

Marking a Bill Paid

Open the bill

Tap the expense in your list. An unpaid bill shows an “Outstanding bill” card: “You still owe [supplier] for this bill dated [date].”
Set the date you paid

The “Date paid” field starts on today. It cannot be earlier than the bill date, and it cannot be in the future.
Tap “Mark as paid”

The bill leaves the outstanding pile and becomes spending on the date you chose.

Tapped it by mistake? Open the expense again and tap “Mark as unpaid” — the card asks “Not actually paid yet?” and clears the payment date.

Expense Categories

SabiBooks comes with common expense categories for Nigerian businesses:

Category	Examples	Typical Monthly Range
Rent	Shop rent, warehouse rent	₦30,000 - ₦500,000
Utilities	Electricity (NEPA/PHCN), water bill	₦5,000 - ₦50,000
Generator/Fuel	Diesel, petrol for generator	₦10,000 - ₦100,000
Transport	Delivery costs, bus fare, fuel for vehicle	₦5,000 - ₦50,000
Supplies	Packaging materials, plastic bags, receipt paper	₦2,000 - ₦20,000
Salaries	Staff wages and bonuses	₦30,000 - ₦500,000
Communication	Phone credit (airtime), internet data bundles	₦3,000 - ₦15,000
Maintenance	Repairs, painting, equipment fixes	₦5,000 - ₦100,000
Stock Purchase	Buying inventory from suppliers	Varies widely
Levies/Taxes	Market association levy, local council fees	₦1,000 - ₦20,000
Insurance	Shop insurance, goods insurance	₦5,000 - ₦50,000
Other	Anything that does not fit the above	Varies

You can create custom categories to match your business needs. For example:

A restaurant owner might add “Food Ingredients” and “Kitchen Equipment”
An electronics shop might add “Warranty Replacements” and “Display Materials”
A provision store might add “Spoilage/Expired Goods”

Attaching Receipt Images

For record-keeping and accounting, you can attach photos of receipts to your expenses.

Tap the upload area

When recording an expense, tap the receipt image upload area.
Take or choose a photo

Choose “Take Photo” to photograph the receipt, or “Choose from Gallery” to pick an existing photo.
Image saved

The image is saved with the expense record. You can view the image later when reviewing the expense.

Viewing Expense History

Go to the Expenses page
You see a list of all recorded expenses, most recent first
Filter by:
- Date range — Choose from this week, this month, last month, or a custom range
- Category — Select one or more categories to see only those expenses
Each expense shows the amount, category, date, and description
Tap on any expense to see its full details and receipt image (if attached)

Expense Summary Report

The expense summary shows:

Total Spent for the selected period — settled expenses only, counted on the day the money actually left. Unpaid supplier bills are not spending yet, so they never inflate this figure, and it always agrees with the Cash Flow report for the same period.
Outstanding bills — everything you still owe suppliers (across all time, not just the selected period), with a note showing how much of it was billed in this period. See Recording a Bill You Have Not Paid Yet.
Breakdown by category (a pie chart or list showing how much you spent on rent, transport, etc.)
Top expense categories (which categories take the most money)

This information feeds directly into your Profit and Loss report.

Best Practices for Expense Tracking

Record every expense, no matter how small. Small expenses like ₦200 for a cold drink or ₦500 for airtime add up. Over a month, “small” expenses can total ₦20,000 or more.
Use the right category. This makes your reports more useful. Do not put everything in “Other”.
Record expenses daily. Do not let them pile up. Spend 2 minutes at the end of each day recording what you spent.
Separate business and personal expenses. Only record business expenses in SabiBooks. If you buy lunch for yourself, that is personal. If you buy lunch for your staff, that is a business expense.
Keep receipt photos. Even if you never look at them again, having the photos gives you proof if you are ever audited or need to apply for a loan.
Review expenses weekly. Every week, look at your expense summary to spot anything unusual. Did transport cost more this week? Why?