Reading and interpreting the Expense Detail report

The Expense Detail report displays your spending transactions in a table format, one row per transaction. Understanding each column helps you verify expenses, audit spending patterns, and catch errors.

What you see in the report

Date: The day the expense was recorded. This determines which reporting period the expense appears in.

Description: The name or brief details of what was purchased or paid for (e.g., "Office lease June," "Taxi to client meeting").

Account: The expense account that was charged. Examples include Travel, Office Supplies, Utilities, or Meals. This tells you the category of spending.

Amount: The cost of the transaction in your base currency. Negative amounts may indicate reversals or corrections.

Contact (if applicable): The vendor, employee, or other party involved in the expense.

Reference: An optional internal code or invoice number for cross-reference.

Why this matters

The Expense Detail report gives you a complete audit trail of spending. You can:

• Verify that expenses were recorded in the correct account and amount.
• Identify unusual transactions or duplicate entries.
• Support budget reviews by showing where money actually went.
• Provide evidence to management or auditors of how expenses were classified.

How it connects to accounting

Each expense transaction creates a journal entry. When you review the Expense Detail report, you are looking at the debit side of transactions in your expense accounts. The offsetting credit (where the money came from—cash, payable, etc.) is shown in the Journal report.

Common questions

Why do I see a negative amount? Negative expenses usually represent refunds, returns, or corrections to previous entries.

Are expenses grouped by account? The table shows all expenses in the selected date range in the order they were entered. You can sort by account using the column header.

Can I see who created the expense? The standard Expense Detail report shows the expense itself; user audit trails are available in separate audit reports if your role permits.