Expense Reporting Hub

Expenses reporting in ClickTime helps you understand how money is being spent across people, clients, projects, and expense categories. This hub explains the main tools you can use to report on Expenses and points you to more detailed guides for reimbursement, billing, and approvals.

Who this is for: Administrators, finance, and managers who need to run reports on expenses, reimbursements, and billable costs.

You can jump to a section:

• What counts as Expenses reporting
• Tools for Expenses reporting
• Common Expenses reporting scenarios
• Related Expenses reporting guides
• Tips for accurate Expenses reports

What counts as Expenses reporting

Expenses reporting focuses on costs entered as expense items in ClickTime, such as mileage, travel, meals, supplies, and other reimbursable or billable costs. It does not include worked time or Time Off, which have their own reporting hubs.

Typical questions you can answer with Expenses reporting include:

• How much has each person spent on expenses during a month, quarter, or year?
• What expenses are associated with each client, project, or cost center?
• Which expenses are billable vs non-billable, and what should be invoiced?
• Which expenses are submitted, approved, or still pending?
• How much are we spending by category (for example, travel vs meals)?

For worked time, see Time Entry reporting. For Time Off, see Time Off reporting.

Tools for Expenses reporting

You can report on Expenses using several tools in ClickTime. The right option depends on whether you need a quick view, a detailed export for finance/AP, or ongoing analytics.

Standard Reports (Company > Reports)

Standard Reports are the quickest way to answer common expense questions. On the Company > Reports page, look under the Reporting Essentials tab for expense-focused reports (often under Expenses or related sections).

Examples of Expenses-focused reports include:

• Expense Detail reports showing individual expense items.
• Expense Summary reports totaling expenses by person, client, project, or category.
• Reports that show submitted vs approved expenses or reimbursed amounts.

For more on using Standard Reports, see Standard Reports in ClickTime.

Expense Export (beta) (Admins only)

Expense Export (beta) is the closest option to a "builder-style" report for expense data. It allows Administrators to generate detailed export files that can be shared with payroll, accounts payable, or finance systems.

You can typically:

• Filter by date range, person, client/project, and status (such as approved expenses).
• Include key fields like category, billable flag, and amount for reimbursement or billing.
• Export to CSV/Excel for additional review, reconciliation, or import into other systems.

For details, see Expense Export (beta).

Report Studio (if enabled)

If your account includes Report Studio, you can include expense information in broader analytics alongside time and other measures. Many organizations use it to monitor high-level spend trends and keep expenses visible as part of overall project or departmental performance.

• Review expenses alongside other key metrics in interactive views.
• Give leaders self-service filters (for example, by period, client, or department) when configured.

Learn more in the Report Studio hub.

Common Expenses reporting scenarios

Use the examples below as starting points. Each scenario mentions common tools to use and how they typically fit into your workflow.

Prepare employee reimbursement

Goal: Identify which expenses should be reimbursed to employees for a given period.

• Standard Reports: Use reimbursement-focused expense reports that show submitted and approved expenses by person.
• Expense Export (beta): If available, run an export filtered to approved expenses for the pay period and share the file with payroll or AP.

Support client billing with expenses

Goal: Provide accurate billable expense details to your billing or finance team.

• Standard Reports: Use client or project-based expense reports filtered to billable expenses.
• Expense Export (beta): Export itemized billable expenses, including client, project, category, and amount fields. Share with your billing team or import into your invoicing system.
• Report Studio: If enabled, include expenses in views that help track overall billable activity by client.

Analyze spend by category or department

Goal: Understand how much is being spent on categories like travel, lodging, meals, or supplies, and which departments or projects are driving that spend.

• Standard Reports: Use summary expense reports grouped by category or department.
• Expense Export (beta): Export expenses with category and department fields for pivot tables in Excel or another analysis tool.
• Report Studio: Where configured, use dashboards and filters to review high-level spend trends over time.

Audit approvals and policy compliance

Goal: Confirm that expenses are submitted, approved, and categorized according to policy.

• Standard Reports: Use reports that show expense status, approver, and notes.
• Expense Export (beta): Export expense data with status and category fields to review for exceptions or policy violations.
• Report Studio: Use high-level views to keep an eye on unusual trends or spikes in certain categories, if you already use Report Studio.

Monitor budgets and cost control

Goal: Track expenses against internal budgets for teams, departments, or projects.

• Standard Reports: Use project or department-based reports to monitor total expenses over time.
• Expense Export (beta): Export expenses by project, department, or cost center and compare against your budget in Excel or another BI tool.
• Report Studio: If your budgets are modeled in Report Studio, include expenses as part of overall budget vs actual tracking.

Related Expenses reporting guides

The guides below go deeper into specific Expenses reports and how to use them for reimbursement, billing, and analysis.

• Expense Sheet Report – Run statement-style reports of employee expenses for reimbursement and review.
• Expense Export (beta) – Create detailed, export-friendly expense files for payroll, AP, or finance systems.
• Project and Person Summary with Expense Detail – Review project and person summaries with line-item expense details included.
• Other Expense Reports – Explore additional standard expense reports available in the Report Center.

Tips for accurate Expenses reports

• Confirm expense configuration: Make sure expense categories, billable flags, and approval workflows are configured correctly so reports match your policies.
• Align date ranges with your processes: When running reimbursement or billing reports, choose date ranges that match your payroll cycles, billing periods, or closing dates.
• Check approval status: Decide whether reports should include only approved expenses, submitted but not approved, or all statuses, and set filters accordingly.
• Be consistent with categories: Train employees to select the correct categories so category-level reports are meaningful.
• Start small when troubleshooting: If results look off, run the report for a single person, client, or project and a short date range to validate the data.

If you still have questions about a specific Expenses report, contact ClickTime Support with the report name, date range, and what you expected to see.