When you generate the Expense Summary report, you can customize it using several filters to narrow down the results and focus on the data that matters to you.
Date Filters
| Filter | What It Does | Example |
|---|
| Start Date | Sets the earliest date to include in the report. Leave blank to include from the beginning of your business records. | 2026-01-01 |
| End Date | Sets the latest date to include in the report. Leave blank to include through today. | 2026-06-30 |
Category & Account Filters
| Filter | What It Does | Example |
|---|
| Expense Category | Narrows the report to show only expenses from one or more selected categories. Leave blank to show all categories. | "Office Supplies," "Travel" |
| Specific Accounts | If your chart of accounts is detailed, you may filter to specific expense accounts rather than broad categories. | "Office Rent," "Equipment Lease" |
Organizational Filters
| Filter | What It Does | Example |
|---|
| Department | Shows expenses by department (if your business structure uses departments). Helps you see which department is spending the most. | "Sales," "Administration," "Operations" |
| Cost Center | Filters by cost center if your business allocates costs to different centers. | "Head Office," "Branch A," "Warehouse" |
| Location | Some multi-location businesses can filter by branch or location. | "Kabul," "Herat" |
Status & Posting Filters
| Filter | What It Does | Example |
|---|
| Posted/Draft | Posted: includes only expenses that have been finalized in the system. Draft: shows unpublished expenses (not counted in accounting). Choose one or both. | Posted only, or Posted + Draft |
| Approval Status | If your business requires approval of expenses, filter by approval status. | "Approved," "Pending," "Rejected" |
Output & Presentation Options
| Option | What It Does |
|---|
| Sort by Amount | Displays expense categories from highest to lowest total, or vice versa. Helps you spot major spending areas quickly. |
| Include Percentage | Shows what percentage of total spending each category represents. |
| Show Transaction Count | Displays how many individual expense transactions contribute to each category total. |
| Currency | If your business operates in multiple currencies, select which currency to display (or "All"). |
Tips for filtering
- Empty results? Your filters may be too restrictive. Remove or broaden one filter at a time and regenerate.
- Too much data? Add more filters to focus on specific departments, categories, or date ranges.
- Comparing periods? Run the report twice (once per period) with the same category filters to compare trends.