A Direct Expense represents money that should count toward your budget’s Actuals, but isn’t tied to a vendor invoice.

Direct Expenses are ideal for costs that are real and important to track, but don’t involve a formal vendor relationship or payment schedule. Common examples include:

Once added, a Direct Expense immediately contributes to the Actual Spend for the budget item it’s attached to.

From the project Budget page, click the Actual box on a Budget Item row. In the dropdown, select New Direct Expense.

1) Enter the Amount of the expense. This amount will be applied to the Budget Item as its "Actual" spend.

2) Transaction Type is optional, but lets you track expenses in greater detail. Some transaction types you can select are: Online Purchase, Retail Purchase, Gratuity, Professional Service.

3) Track who handles the payment for this expense. Both options are described in more detail below...

Choose this option when you are paying the expense and will be reimbursed by your client. You then have the options to "Mark as Paid" and set "Reimbursed" when you've received funds from your client.

Choose this option when your client is paying this expense on their own.

Once you've created a Direct Expense, it's amount will be applied to the "Actual" box for its Budget Item. In the example below, clicking the Actual box shows the $500 expense.

If the Direct Expense has not been marked as paid, it will show in the Next Payment column until it's marked paid.

The previous section showed a Direct Expense on the Budget Tracker. Planpage has a separate view just for Direct Expenses (a quick way to see all expenses at once).

Click the Expenses tab at the top of the Budget page.