How to Use Finance and Income vs Expense Reports in CrmLeaf
All editions. The finance report, income versus expense, and the expense reports are core - no add-on is required. Vendor-side figures depend on the Purchase add-on module being enabled, and project budget…
Availability: All editions. The finance report, income versus expense, and the expense reports are core - no add-on is required. Vendor-side figures depend on the Purchase add-on module being enabled, and project budget performance is reported separately through the Budget add-on module.
Overview
The finance reports summarise money in and money out: revenue from invoices and payments, expenses from employee and company claims, and the resulting profitability picture. Income versus expense presents the same data as a period comparison, which is the fastest read on whether a month or quarter was profitable.
This article is written for Administrators and finance-responsible roles, because finance figures normally require an account-wide permission scope.
How It Works
Finance reporting is derived from the operational finance records - invoices, payments, expenses and, where the Purchase module is enabled, vendor bills and vendor payments. Nothing is entered twice.
Invoice and pay → Record expenses → Approve → Report revenue vs expense → Export
- Invoice status drives what counts as collected. Invoices move through
draft,unpaid,partial,paidandcanceled. - Payments are recorded centrally and can be linked to an invoice, order, credit note or project, so a payment always has a source document.
- Expenses move through
pending,approvedandpaid, so expense figures change as approvals are granted. - Paying a vendor automatically creates an expense recorded as a payment to the vendor, so vendor spending appears on the expense side without duplicate entry.
- Every document carries a currency, and the account can hold multiple currencies with exchange rates.
- Finance figures are still filtered by permission scope and organisation, so a limited scope produces a partial picture.
Who Can Use This Feature?
Administrator
- Open the finance report, income versus expense, the expense report and the HRMS expense report.
- Grant finance reporting access to finance roles, with a scope wide enough to be meaningful.
- Provide leadership roles with view-only summary dashboards for financial oversight.
- Keep currency and exchange-rate configuration current so multi-currency figures are comparable.
This functionality is intended for Administrators and finance-responsible roles. A regular User sees only the finance records their own permission scope allows.
Prerequisites
- Invoices and payments recorded for the periods you want to report on.
- Expenses submitted and approved, so expense-side figures are complete.
- Currency and exchange rates configured if the account trades in more than one currency.
- A permission scope covering the whole company, if you are reporting company-wide.
- The Purchase add-on module enabled, if vendor bills and vendor payments must be included.
For Administrators
Step 1: Confirm the finance data is complete for the period
What to do: Check for invoices still in draft, and for invoices marked
partial where a payment has been received but not recorded. Both distort a period comparison.
What to verify: Invoice statuses reflect what has actually been billed and collected.
Step 2: Clear outstanding expense approvals
What to do: Confirm payments are recorded against their invoices, then review expenses
waiting for approval, since pending claims are not yet approved spend.
What to verify: Nothing significant is sitting unapproved for the period you are about to report.
Step 3: Read the finance report
What to do: Review revenue, expenses and the profitability summary for the period.
What to verify: Revenue reconciles with paid and partially paid invoices for the same period.
Step 4: Compare periods with income versus expense
What to do: Use the profit and loss comparison by period to see the trend rather than a single month.
What to verify: Movement between periods can be explained by known billing or spending events.
Step 5: Break down the expense side
What to do: Review expense claims by employee, project or department. Use the HRMS expense report for the HR-side view.
What to verify: Large expense movements trace back to identifiable approved claims, including automatically created vendor payment expenses.
Step 6: Export for accounting
What to do: Use Export to take the figures out for your accountant, or use the accounting integrations if your account has them configured.
What to verify: The exported totals match the on-screen report.
Expected Result
You can read revenue, expenses and profitability for a period, compare periods in income versus expense, trace the expense side by employee, project or department, and export the result.
Why This Matters for Service Organisations
A services business earns almost all of its revenue from work its own people performed, so the finance question is never only what was billed. It is whether billing kept pace with delivery, and whether recoverable cost was actually recovered. These reports answer that at company level; the Budget module answers the cost side per engagement.
How It Supports Professional Services
- Invoice status governs the picture, so a firm can separate what has been issued from what has been collected - the usual cash problem in a book billed in arrears.
- The Expense Report breaks cost down by employee, project or department, which is how a firm checks that billable expenses were passed on rather than absorbed.
- Paying a vendor creates an expense automatically, so subcontractor and associate cost appears without a second entry.
- Income vs Expense gives the period trend, which matters more than a single month when revenue moves with milestone and retainer timing.
- Per-project revenue and cost views exist through the Budget module's derived actuals and its reports, so the engagement-level picture is available - reported in a different place from the company-level one.
- A per-engagement margin figure combining revenue with a fully loaded consultant cost is not a shipped report. No employee cost rate is stored, so a firm reporting margin per engagement derives it from exported invoice, timelog and expense data.
Typical Service Workflow
Deliver → Bill time and expenses → Collect → Report revenue and cost → Export
Billing from billable timelogs and expenses is a product capability, and vendor payments post to expenses automatically. Consolidating revenue against loaded delivery cost into an engagement margin is work the organisation performs outside the shipped reports.
Other Product-Type Use Cases
The same reports serve a manufacturer reconciling order revenue against material and vendor spend, and any organisation running a monthly profit and loss review.
Related PSA Capabilities
- How to Use Budget Reports and Threshold Alerts — the per-project cost view.
- How to Bill Tracked Time on an Invoice — how delivered hours become revenue.
- How to Manage Expenses and Reimbursements — recoverable engagement cost.
Important Notes
- Menu names and their position can differ between product editions and can be customised for your account, so your sidebar may not match these paths exactly. Use Search or your Quick Access items if you cannot find a screen.
- Finance reports read from operational records. Unrecorded payments and unapproved expenses change the result, so close the period's data before circulating figures.
- Two users with different permission scopes will see different finance totals. Give finance reporting only to roles that should see company-wide figures.
- Vendor payments create an expense automatically. Do not also record the same spend manually, or it will be counted twice.
- Add-on modules are plan-gated. Purchase-side and budget figures require their modules to be enabled.
- CrmLeaf produces finance reporting outputs; it is not a substitute for advice from your accountant.
Common Scenarios
Example: a month-end review. The Administrator clears draft invoices, records the bank payments received, approves outstanding expenses, then reads the finance report and income versus expense together - one for the level, one for the trend.
Example: unexplained expense growth. The expense report shows a jump in a project's costs. Drilling into the claims shows several automatically created vendor payment expenses from bills settled that month.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Possible Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue is lower than expected | Invoices are still in draft, or payments were received but not recorded | Send the draft invoices and record the payments, then re-open the report. |
| Expenses are lower than expected | Claims are still pending approval | Complete the approvals for the period. |
| Vendor spending is missing | The Purchase add-on module is not enabled, or the vendor payment has not been recorded | Enable the module subject to your plan and record the vendor payment. |
| A cost appears twice | The same spend was recorded manually as well as through the vendor payment, which creates an expense automatically | Remove the duplicate manual expense. |
| Multi-currency totals look inconsistent | Exchange rates are not current | Refresh the exchange rates in localisation settings. |
| A finance role cannot open the report | The role lacks the reporting permission or has a narrow scope | Grant the permission with an appropriate scope. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a draft invoice count as revenue?
No. Invoice status governs the picture, and a draft has not been issued. Collected revenue relates to paid and partially paid invoices.
Are vendor payments included in expenses?
Yes. Recording a vendor payment automatically creates an expense for that payment.
What is the difference between the expense report and the HRMS expense report?
The expense report covers expense claims by employee, project or department. The HRMS expense report is the HR-side expense view.
Can I report project profitability?
Expenses can be allocated to a project, and project budget performance is reported through the Budget add-on module's budget-versus-actual reports.
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