Expenses — Dentora user guide

The Expenses page

Open Expenses from the sidebar, in the Finance section. The page opens on the current month.

At the top is the period bar, then four cards: Period total with its change vs previous period, Top category with its amount and share of the total, Expenses (how many) with the Average expense, and the Previous period total.

Below them is Breakdown by category, then the Expense log: each expense shows its date, category, description, vendor, payment method, amount and who recorded it.

The Expenses page for October: the period bar, four cards and the breakdown by category with its coloured bars

Recording an expense

Click New expense at the top of the page.
Choose the Category: Rent, Salaries, Materials, Lab, Equipment, Utilities, Marketing, Maintenance, Taxes & fees or Other.
Type the Amount and check the Date (today by default).
Write a Description, for example: September electricity bill.
Add the Vendor if you like, and choose the Payment method (Cash by default).
Click Save expense.

The New expense dialog filled in: category Utilities, amount, date, description, vendor and payment method Cash

Choosing the period and comparing

The page works month by month: the month’s name sits in the middle of the bar, with the Previous month and Next month arrows on each side. The number of days in the period shows at the end of the bar.

The cards compare the month with the one before it. For a custom range they compare it with a range of the same length that ends the day before it starts.

Click the arrows to move between months.
For another stretch of time click Custom range and choose the start and end dates. It starts on the last 30 days.
To go back to months click Monthly, then This month if you are on another month.

The period bar on a custom range: start and end dates for the last 30 days, and the number of days at the end of the bar

Where does the money go? Breakdown and search

Breakdown by category starts with a coloured strip that splits the period total between the categories, then one line per category with its number of entries, its amount and its share of the total, largest first.

Click a category line in the breakdown to show only its expenses in the log. Click it again to show everything. Clicking the Top category card works the same way.
Type a word from the description or the vendor in the search box above the log.
Or choose a category from the All categories list next to the search.

The breakdown by category with Lab selected, and the log below showing only lab expenses with the total of results

Editing, deleting, automatic expenses and export

Click an expense’s row or its pencil button to open Edit expense, change what you need, then click Save changes. To delete it, click its bin button and confirm with Delete.

Some expenses are recorded by Dentora itself: when a lab order with a cost is received (or fitted), an expense is recorded under Lab and marked From a lab order; it follows the order’s cost, and is removed if the order is cancelled or deleted. When you record a stock purchase with the expense switch on, its total is recorded under Materials. See Lab and Recording a purchase.

The Export CSV button saves the log as you see it, with its period, search and category, as a spreadsheet file that Excel opens with Arabic intact.

The edit window of an expense recorded from a lab order, with a note at the top asking to change the cost on the Lab page

Expenses on the phone

On a phone the log is grouped by day: “Today” and “Yesterday”, then dates, each with the day’s total. Tap an expense to edit it, or the ⋮ button next to it for Edit or Delete. The period total closes the list.

The export button at the top of the page is the download-arrow icon.