You can add many expenses at once from a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file in the same columns as the Expenses list's Download CSV. Hand the file over on Hand over files, check its rows, then press Add to your books.
- Start from Download a sample expenses file on Hand over files, or from a file you downloaded from the Expenses list. Keep the first row, the column names, exactly as it is. The sample's rows are dated in your current VAT quarter.
- Fill in one row per invoice, then save the file as CSV or Excel (.xlsx).
- On Hand over files, press Choose files, pick the file and press Hand over these files. It appears under Expenses files, with every row listed by its row number in your spreadsheet. Only the first sheet of an Excel file is read, and the note names any other sheets as "Other sheets not read".
- Untick any row you don't want, then press Add to your books. The confirmation counts what will be added, and its button reads "Add 4 expenses" for four. Nothing is saved before you press it.
The columns
- date: 2026-05-14 or 14/05/2026.
- supplier, description: as you want them on the expense.
- category: the name of one of your categories, in any capitals. A new category is never made for you.
- gross_amount: the total paid, VAT included, such as 48.00 or £1,234.56. A refund is negative, such as -24.00.
- vat_amount: the VAT on the invoice. Leave it empty to have it worked out from vat_rate. A refund's VAT is negative too.
- vat_rate: such as 20.00. Leave it empty, with a vat_amount, for a receipt with several rates.
- currency: GBP, or empty. For an invoice in another currency, put its amount in original_amount, its currency in original_currency and the rate in fx_rate.
- paid_by: company, or director if you paid it personally (it goes on the director's loan). Empty means company.
- capital_asset: true, false, yes, no, or empty for false.
- entry_type: standard, or empty. corrects_date stays empty. receipts is not read: attach receipts on each expense afterwards.
Cases
- A row that matches an expense you already have, or an earlier row of the file, on its date, total and supplier is a possible duplicate. It is left unticked; tick it to add it anyway.
- A row that can't be added has no box, and says why: a date in a VAT quarter you have filed, a category you don't have, an amount with more than two decimal places, a date that does not exist, a mileage or use-of-home claim, a correction, an amount in another currency, or a figure the expense form would also refuse.
- A file of more than 1,000 rows is refused. Split it into two files.
- An .xls, .xlsm or .xlsb file is listed as skipped with the reason, and so is a password-protected one. Save a copy as .xlsx or CSV.
- An expenses file is never added by itself: it always waits for you to press Add to your books.
- After the press, each added row links to its expense, and a row that couldn't be added keeps its reason. Pressing again adds nothing more.
Good practice
- To fix a refused row, correct it in the file and hand the file over again. The rows already added come back as duplicates, left unticked.
- An added expense is deleted like any other, from its own page.