Track expenses and see your profit

Stacks does light bookkeeping without the accountant. Log what you spend, and the built-in Profit & Loss report compares it against the money you've actually collected — so you can see your real net profit and margin for any date range, in a couple of clicks.

Before you start

• The Invoicing module needs to be on for your workspace. It's included — every tool in Stacks is free.
• To log or edit expenses you need create/edit permission — admins, managers and members have it by default. View-only users can open the expense list and the P&L report, but can't add to them.
• Income on the report is money collected through Stacks — invoice payments and payment links. If you're not yet collecting payments in Stacks, income will read $0 and the report will simply show your expenses. Logging expenses still works either way.

Step by step

1. Open Expenses. In Stacks, go to Invoicing → Expenses, then click + Log Expense.
2. Enter the expense. A description, amount and date are required (the date defaults to today). Pick a category — Advertising, Contractors, Fees, Insurance, Meals, Office, Rent, Software, Supplies, Travel, Utilities, Taxes or Other — and a currency (USD, EUR, GBP or CAD). Optionally add a vendor, link it to a contact, paste a receipt link, and any notes. Click Log expense.
3. Review and filter. You're back on the Expenses list, newest first. Narrow it by category and a date range and Stacks shows a running Total for what's on screen. Click a row to edit it, use Delete to remove it, or tap the 🧾 icon to open a receipt link.
4. Open the Profit & Loss report. Click 📊 P&L Report at the top of the Expenses page (or go to Invoicing → Reports). It opens on this year to date.
5. Read your profit. Four figures sit up top: Income (cash collected), Expenses (what you logged), Net profit (income − expenses) and Margin (net ÷ income). Below that you get income by source, expenses by category, and a monthly income-vs-expenses chart. Change the window with the presets — This month, This year, Last 12 months, Last year — or a custom date range.

Good to know

• It's cash-basis. Income counts payments you've received in the period — not invoices you've merely sent. An unpaid invoice adds nothing to income until it's paid.
• Where income comes from. Stacks adds up invoice payments and payment-link payments collected in the date range. Revenue isn't re-typed anywhere — it's read straight from your payment records, so the report can't drift out of sync.
• Expenses group by category. The report ranks your spending by category (largest first), which makes it obvious where the money's going.
• Receipts are links, not uploads. The receipt field stores a URL (to a file in your Drive, Dropbox, etc.) — Stacks keeps the link, not the file itself.
• Mixed currencies. You can tag each expense with its own currency, but the P&L totals display in a single currency. If you trade in several, file each currency separately.
• The list shows up to 500 expenses at a time — use the category and date filters to zero in on what you need.

Frequently asked