How to Add an Expense Manually in AskBiz
A step-by-step walkthrough of the manual expense entry form in AskBiz — covering every field, how to choose the right category, and how to save successfully.
Key Takeaways
- Tap the Add Expense button in the top right of the Expenses tab to open the entry form.
- The five fields are Vendor, Date, Amount, Category, and Notes — Vendor, Date, Amount, and Category are required.
- Tapping Save instantly updates the expense list and all dependent CFO metrics.
Opening the Manual Entry Form
To add an expense manually, begin by navigating to the Expenses tab. From anywhere in AskBiz, tap the Intelligence icon in the bottom navigation bar. On the Intelligence screen, select the Cash Flow tab at the top of the page. Then tap the Expenses sub-tab. In the top right corner of the Expenses tab you will see a button labelled Add Expense with a plus icon. Tap this button. A form slides up from the bottom of the screen containing five input fields.
Filling In the Vendor Field
The first field is Vendor. Type the name of the company or person you paid. Be consistent with how you spell vendor names — if you sometimes write 'AWS' and sometimes 'Amazon Web Services', the search feature will treat them as different vendors. A good practice is to decide on one canonical name for each supplier and stick to it. The Vendor field accepts up to 120 characters. Examples of well-formatted vendor names: Shopify, Google Ads, WeWork London, John Smith Consulting.
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The Date field defaults to today's date. Tap it to open a calendar picker if the expense occurred on a different day. Always use the actual payment date rather than the invoice date, because AskBiz uses the expense date to calculate daily burn figures. The Amount field accepts numeric input only. Enter the total amount you paid in your account currency. Do not include currency symbols — just the number, for example 1250.00. The dashboard will display the correct currency symbol based on your account settings.
Choosing a Category and Adding Notes
Tap the Category field to open a scrollable list of the 14 available expense categories: Rent/Lease, Payroll, Utilities, Software/SaaS, Marketing and Ads, Supplies, Travel, Meals and Entertainment, Shipping, Professional Services, Equipment, Insurance, Taxes and Fees, and Other. Select the one that best matches the nature of the expense. If you are unsure, use Other rather than leaving the category blank. The Notes field is optional but useful for context. Examples of helpful notes: 'July invoice', 'team lunch with client Acme Ltd', 'domain renewal for 2 years'. Notes are searchable, so brief descriptive text helps you find the expense later.
Saving and Verifying the Entry
Once all required fields are filled, tap the Save button at the bottom of the form. The form closes and you will see the new expense appear at the top of the expenses list, sorted by date descending. The Category Breakdown bar at the top of the tab updates immediately to reflect the new spending proportion. If you made a mistake, tap the expense row in the list to reopen the edit form, make corrections, and tap Save again. To discard an unwanted expense entirely, open the row and tap the Delete button, then confirm the deletion in the prompt that appears.