Every payment the association makes should end up here. It takes less than a minute, and it is what makes the balance, the budget comparison and the year-end report trustworthy.
Steps
- Open Expenses and start a new expense.
- Give it a name your neighbours will understand ("Lift maintenance — March"), not an invoice code.
- Enter the amount actually paid.
- Choose a category: electricity, insurance, cleaning, maintenance, professional services, lift, telecoms or admin.
- Set the date the money left the account.
- The form tells you which financial year the expense will be included in. Check it is the one you expect.
- Attach the invoice or receipt if you have it. You will see a "file attached" note; the file is uploaded when you save, not before.
- Optionally, link the expense to a document you keep in flatnumber — a contract or a quote, for example.
- Save.
Name, amount, category and date are all required.
What happens next
- The association's balance drops by the amount straight away.
- The category's actual spending for the year increases, so you can compare it with your budget.
- Members who have expense alerts turned on receive an email.
- Owners can see the expense and its attachment. That transparency is the point.
Good to know
An expense belongs to the year in which it was paid, not to the period it covers. An insurance policy paid in December for the following year is a December expense.
If the date falls outside the current financial year, you get a warning — not a block. Press cancel if it was a typo. Confirm if it is deliberate (for example, you are loading older invoices when you first start using flatnumber). Either way the expense is counted in the current financial year.
Photos are compressed automatically when you attach them, so you do not need to shrink them first.
Common questions
I made a mistake. Can I fix it?
Yes, while the financial year is open — see Edit or delete an expense. Once a year is closed its figures are final, and you correct the mistake with a new entry in the current year.
Do I have to attach the invoice?
No, but do it whenever you can. It answers most questions from owners before they are asked.
Can I record an expense without typing anything?
Almost — see Scan an invoice with AI.