How to Log & Manage Expenses on Houzz Pro

In the Expenses section of Houzz Pro, you can log expenses for projects, as well as manage expense rates and services for your team. This article will cover how to create, edit and manage entries.

To access your main Expenses page, click on All Expenses under the Management section found under the search icon in the left navigation.

You can access Expenses for a specific project by clicking Expenses under the Management section in the left menu on any project overview page. This will only show you entries from the corresponding project.

Create a New Expense Entry

To create a new expense entry, navigate to the Expenses section of the relevant project, or to the All Expenses page. From there, click the New Entry button in the top right of the page.

Note: The expense entry modal will have different fields depending on your permissions. The following are examples of what the super admin, team members with Expense Management permissions, and team members without Expense Management permissions will see. Learn more in Team Permissions section below.

Super Admin / Team Members with Expense Management Permissions

In the modal that pops up, enter the relevant details, including project name (if logging from All Expenses), reported by (team member), service, vendor, payment method, cost, taxable/billable, reference number, date and any description necessary.

If there are no existing services, or you wish to add a new service, simply type the name of the service and hit Enter. This will create a new service for the team member selected in the Reported By field.

Team Members without Expense Management Permissions

In the modal that pops up, enter the relevant details, including project name (if logging from All Expenses), service, vendor, payment method, cost, taxable/billable, reference number, date and any description necessary.

If there are no existing services, or you wish to add a new service, simply type the name of the service and hit Enter. This will create a new service for the team member logging the expense.

Attach Files to Expense

The option to upload relevant files will appear once a project is selected. You can use this to attach supporting files, or upload a receipt and let our AI scan and fill out the expense entry for you. Learn more about this in the following section, Upload & Scan Receipts with AI.

Upload & Scan Receipts with AI

You can quickly create expenses by uploading files, photos or receipts and letting Houzz AI fill in the details for you, including date, expense amount and company. This can be done from an Expenses page or from a Files & Photos page.

From Expenses

On an Expenses page (project specific or All Expenses) open a new expense entry. If you're creating an expense from the main Expenses page, you will first need to select the relevant project. Next, you will see an Upload Files section appear at the top — click to upload files.

On the next screen you will be prompted to choose how you want to add your files for AI scanning. You can upload from your device's local files, choose from your existing project or company files, or upload from Google Drive. You can upload or select multiple files to save time, with the option to create multiple expenses or attach all files to a single expense.

If you select multiple files, you will be prompted to choose how to process them:

• Create Separate Expenses: Each file becomes its own expense entry. Best when files are separate receipts or transactions.
• Create One Expense with Multiple Attachments: All files attach to a single expense entry. Best when files belong to the same purchase.

Next, review the AI generated expense entry from each file you added and make adjustments as needed. Click Finish to save the expense (if it's a single expense) or Save and Review Next File if you added multiple expenses.

You can find your saved expenses in the Expenses section, along with the scanned file(s) attached in the Files column.

From Files & Photos

On any project's Files & Photos page, you can easily scan a file to create an expense from a few places. First is by using the three dots menu, or right clicking, on a file and selecting Create Expense. You can also use the checkbox to select multiple files, then click Create Expenses at the top of the page.

The second method is clicking the Houzz AI menu when in a file preview, and selecting Log Expenses.

Both methods will automatically direct you to the project's Expenses page and start scanning the file(s) to generate the expense(s). Review the AI generated expense entry from each file you added and make adjustments as needed. Click Finish to save the expense (if it's a single upload) or Save and Review Next File if you added multiple expenses.

You can find your saved expenses in the Expenses section, along with the scanned file attached in the Files column.

Sort and Filter Expense Entries

You can filter your expenses by project, team member (Super Admin or Expense Management permission only), date, type of service provided or vendor by using the dropdown menus at the top. You’ll see a summary of the total billable dollar amount, total invoiced dollar amount, and total cost (non-billable), and this will adjust according to the filters you apply.

To adjust the order your entries are sorted in, use the arrows on the column you wish to sort by (Project, Date, Service, Vendor etc.)

Edit, Delete, or Create Services 

You can create, edit and delete expense services directly from the Manage Services screen. To access these options, click Manage Expense Services from the Expenses page.

From here, you can click the pencil icon next to a service to edit it, or select the checkbox to the left of one and click Delete in the top right to delete it. By default you will see the expense services assigned to yourself. Super admin and team members with Expense Management permission can use the Team Members dropdown to view expense services for other team members.

Note that for proper record-keeping purposes, a service cannot be deleted once it’s linked to an entry.

To add a new service, click New Service in the top right and fill in the relevant information, then click Save. The new service will now be available for you, or the team member you set it up for, to select when logging an expense.

Note that expense services are tied to a specific team member. If you want each team member to have the same expense service option, you will need to create a separate service for each person.

Team Permissions

To enable expense-related permissions for team members, navigate to the Team Members page under your Company section. Click a team member to view or edit their permission.

Under the Projects Permissions, you will see two expense permissions:

• Expense Entry: Allows the team member to create expense entries and services for themselves only.
• Expense Management: Allows the team member to manage expense services, log expenses, and edit or delete expense entries for other team members.

Create an Invoice From Expense Entries

From the Expenses page, you can create an invoice from your entries simply by checking off the ones you want to include and clicking the Create Invoice button in the top right.

Select Create from Scratch to create a new invoice. If the project has open invoices, Add to Existing Invoice will also be an option.

Export Expense Entries to Excel

You can export expense entries to Excel for accounting purposes. To do so, click the Export button in the upper right of and Expense page.

This will export all entries that are currently shown on the screen, so if you would like to download entries for a specific project or team member, make sure you filter the entries beforehand.