New: Expenses import
Do you find logging and tracking your expenses one-by-one tedious? You can now easily import them into FreshBooks so you are ready for tax season and will always know your business’ profitability. This makes it really simple to import items from your bank account or credit card statement monthly to ensure your expenses are up to date.
But how do you import your expenses from a document like your bank statement? Follow along with these steps with your FreshBooks account:
- Log into your online banking account
- Export a copy of your bank statement as a CSV file for a set time period (i.e. one month), which almost all financial institutions let you do
- Log into your FreshBooks account and go to your Expenses tab and click on the hyperlink “Want to import expenses?” beside “New Expense”
- Download the sample CSV file by clicking on the hyperlink “See a Sample…” in the description on this page – you’ll need this in a second
- Open your bank statement in an application that opens a CSV file such as Excel
- Open your FreshBooks sample file that you downloaded earlier
- Copy the first row from your FreshBooks sample file and insert it into the top row of your bank statement export file – above all the other columns
- Arrange the columns of your file to match the sample from FreshBooks so that they are in the same order: Date, Vendor, Notes, Amount
- Delete any extra columns that are not included in the FreshBooks sample
- Save your file in the format Comma Separated Values (.csv) or Windows CSV (.csv) for Mac users
- Go back into your FreshBooks account and upload your bank statement CSV file by clicking the “Browse…” button and selecting the CSV file
- Next, select the date format of your file so that it matches to your exported bank statement
- Choose whether your expense values are negative or positive in the CSV file
- Click the button “Upload File”
If you run into a snag at this point, please give us a call. Also, before you save your CSV file, search out and destroy any rogue commas blocking your import – you cannot have commas in the file when uploading a CSV file.
You’ll now be brought to a page with all your expenses that are ready to be imported. You can adjust and edit them here before they’re imported:
- Adjust any of the details the expenses you just imported – Date, Amount, Vendor, Notes
- Add a category
- Add any taxes (calculated inclusively) on the appropriate expenses
- Assign the expense to a staff member if necessary by checking off the check box and select them from the drop down menu below
- Assign the expense to a client and project the same way as a staff if necessary (not needed for internal business expenses). First, assign to your client and then to a project
To stop a specific expense from being imported, just hover your cursor (mouse) over the expense and you’ll see a delete button to the right. This is important if you have personal expenses in your bank statement as well. You can also submit them individually this way by clicking submit on the right when hovering your cursor over.
Finally, click “Import all” and you’re done! If you have any feedback about this feature, please leave us a comment below.
helps invoice enough money to buy a 
2:00 pm
Haven’t tried this yet but I am SO excited – this will save be TONS of time! Thanks guys!
2:08 pm
Will attaching pics of the corresponding receipts be made possible? If so, it will be a killer bookkeeping feature!
2:37 pm
This is great! I gave up on tracking expenses in freshbooks and now do all of that in mint (mint.com).
I use mint for money management; It would be nice if I could link my mint account to freshbooks (two great tastes that taste great together?) and automatically synch my expenses form mint.
3:08 pm
@Arthurtax Attaching pics is probably deeper than we’re willing to go at the moment. But we’ll keep it in mind.
3:10 pm
@Ned – great to hear from you again. Mint is a great option for pulling together all of your banking information. I’ll talk to our integrations team about a future integration.
Casey
3:21 pm
AMEN!!!! This is AWESOME!!! I am usually WAY BEHIND on entering expenses!!
Thank you!
Duane
3:25 pm
NICE!!! Almost there! I hate to be one of those “never enough” folks but if you guys account for liabilities and credit cards…I can finally ditch Quickbooks. I pay a company to keep me on track between the two. I’d pay more for Freshbooks if it just did it all because I could ditch the consulting group. Just sayin
4:34 pm
Brilliant! It’s a pain in the neck to have to retype your bank statement… You have just saved us a hours work every month.
Keep up the good work!
6:28 pm
Perhaps you could offer bank integration? Esp for banks outside of the US. In my case New Zealand
7:51 pm
BEST news of the WEEK!!!!!
9:05 pm
I second that AMEN! Thanks Freshbooks, you guys rock!
11:05 pm
Bravo team FreshBooks! Well done.
11:11 pm
Thank Jesu Bambino! This is like a kiss from baby Jesus!
11:12 pm
For those looking for more integration with banks and attaching scanned receipts, check out Expensify. It downloads transactions from your bank, allows you to attach receipts, and then exports the expenses directly into Freshbooks. It’s saved me hours on expense reporting. There’s more info on the Freshbooks 3rd party apps page, along with other apps that do expense reporting.
1:08 am
Anyone know how to export accounts from Chase? I can’t for the life of me figure it out.
1:55 am
THIS IS AWESOME!!!! I’ve often skipped logging many of my expenses – especially the non-standard / non recurring ones due to the shear tedium of it – finally this feature is here and I can have a more complete view of my financial figures without breaking a sweat! Go FreshBooks!
S+
6:07 am
Love this as an addition to the expenses area. I would really like to see the ability to turn a line item in an invoice into an expense as well though – and being able to adjust the true cost as opposed to what you sold it at. that way you can determine true profitability per client.
9:05 am
@RoyCreative: To export your account details from Chase, follow these steps:
1. Click on “My Accounts”
2. Choose the Account you want to download
3. In the upper-right hand corner under “I want to…” select “See More Choices”.
4. You will now see an option to “Download Account Activity” – choose that!
5. Click “Download Now”, and then select .CSV as your file type.
Cheers!
Casey
9:28 am
This sounds ok. Honestly, it doesn’t sound easy enough to maintain, even if it’s better than the current option.
What I wish this said was: connect your FreshBooks account to your bank account like Mint.Com, so your business expenses load automatically.
The manual bulk process is better than a manual itemized process. But an automated process would be tha bomb.
9:35 am
So instead of typing things in manually, there’s now a 14-step process? I’m sure there’s a lot of engineering effort that went into that, which is great. Unfortunately that doesn’t sound like much of an improvement. Why not support importing files in something like Quicken format?
Not as good as automatically connecting to the bank, but I’ve used several services where importing in this format is a one-step process.
9:51 am
@MichaelMior: Once you have the CSV file from your bank, its really a 2-step process to format the file properly, then set the expense categories.
@EricShutt: Heard loud and clear.
11:02 am
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Another great example of how focused Freshbooks is on providing exceptional value.
Thanks so much.
Jack
12:37 pm
Another vote for Mint.com integration. Mint does an excellent job of automatically categorizing expenses – if that could them magically be synced with Freshbooks, I’d be in heaven!
Curt
1:11 pm
[...] New: Expenses import [...]
3:39 pm
I am interested in tracking expenses by client – then by project. Each client has projects, but no time attached to it. Very much like a job costing system. Are you close to adding a feature like that?
thanks
5:37 pm
Wow, this is so awesome guys! Thanks for adding this. Now I can stop using Outright and do everything in one spot. Yay!
5:53 pm
Great update – looking forward to tracking expenses in one spot now!
8:22 pm
You guys are the best! I’m the one in charge of expenses and this will save a lot of time.
Thank you……………..:))))
10:01 pm
dudes, even this is too much work.
Wxpensify makes everything a snap logging my expenses from my cards. And I can automatically create invoices per client.
12:48 pm
I’ll up those AMEN ‘s … to a HALLELUIA! Freshbooks does it again, raising the bar and showing us all how to stay ahead of the competition.
This along with your newly added “Project Dashboard” is a very welcome addition to the freshbook service.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
1:30 pm
TADAAAA! I painfully entered each one at the end of every year before. this is GREAT!
4:50 am
I would love to see the integration that expensify has into freshbooks… it would be perfect
10:59 am
[...] a new feature that has its customers creating a positive buzz on social media. On Tuesday they announced on their blog the new feature allowing users to "import items from your bank account or credit card [...]
5:19 pm
Thanks for the feature and ongoing innovation. You guys are great!
10:57 pm
Guys, if you would like for Freshbooks to work on adding an option to add deposits or misc. income withought you having to create a dummy invoice leave your comments. I think this would be a great added feature.
8:56 am
Will this work with Paypal?
4:58 am
thanks for your effort
i have one problem with currency change
1 USD = 3.75 SAR but in your system
1 USD= 1 SAR which make problemt for us during auditing
also , you are kindly requsted to do finincial statment form and cash flow form so , it will be good for all freshbooks’s coustomer
thanks
please send me Email for the first comment
thanks again
12:55 pm
will in link with – xpenser.com – or any plans to make that happen?
8:19 am
@Nancy – job costing is not on the short list of upcoming work, but I will add your request to our requests list.
@Pashmina – Expensify is still great for people managing many many expenses. We’re not trying to replace that app, just make it easier to use what we’re already providing you.
@William – the best way to request new features is through our forums or by sending in your feedback via support@freshbooks.com. Rest assured, using those methods we track each request carefully.
@Alyssa – yes! This does work with PayPal. Follow these steps to download your transaction history:
1. Login to paypal
2. Click on “History” in the sub-menu, then “Download History” in the left-hand navigation bar.
3. Specify your date range, and choose “Comma-Delimited” from the options for file type… voila!
@kerrymyburden – we already integrate quite well with Expenser, please take a look here: http://community.freshbooks.com/addons/view/xpenser/
-Casey
1:02 pm
Well done to the Freshbooks team!
We’ve just expanded billFLO to enable sending your expenses automatically into Freshbooks and we archive the images for you.
Thanks
Ian Sweeney
CEO billFLO.com
11:07 am
@Casey If it’s two steps when the file is downloaded from my bank, then what’s with steps 4-10?
3:57 pm
@Michael – you got me! I have no defense.
8:14 pm
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12:36 pm
CONGRATS! Thank you, thank you. As a small business owner, accounting is overwelhming. Now need for Quickbooks now!!!!!
6:06 pm
Nice work guys – I hate paperwork, and this has just saved me heaps of time – and it works with PayPal as well – love it!
7:01 am
hey guys I am with bank of america…they only have the option to export PDF and Text file(that I can find)…how do I import this in to freshbooks
8:53 am
Hi Joel,
An alternative could be to just view your expenses and copy them straight into Excel. Just copy all your expenses, open excel, right click on a cell and click “Paste Special”. Then, select one of the text options. This should hopefully work.
If not, look for some sort of “Excel” export – I did a quick search and that was what it might be called.
9:26 am
Like Nancy, I need to bill by client and project. FB expenses lack the concept of a “trip” that I can attach to a project invoice. On any given statement I may have multiple trips for multiple clients. I’m sticking with my ancient copy of Expensible for the moment.
2:26 pm
Please Please Please.
Let me pass through detailed expenses from my subcontractors when I bill my customer!!!
I have been waiting over a year to finally ditch Harvest and become a Freshbookser.
Please and thank you!
9:09 pm
I agree mint.com integration for expenses would be the bomb.
Lest I sound greedy, integration with Shoeboxed where scanned receipts could be associated with expenses as well, would be the ultimate nuclear smart bomb.
Thanks for a great product Freshbookers!
8:27 am
worked it out…you need to go to my portfolio then budgeting & reports then select your account then select the time period of report then at the bottom there is export completed transactions…however have to edit the csv file..this is a pain…
2:59 pm
Where is the sample? I must be missing it!!
Thanks.
6:35 pm
Can you implement a template mapping that is stored as part of my freshbooks account? That way I can define the mapping between the CSV downloaded from my bank and the expenses in my freshbooks account. I only need to do this once and then Freshbooks would import and remap the CSV file from the bank. It would save me the step (and reduce the human errors) in having to manually do the rearranging of columns every time.
2:59 pm
Any plans to import categories in to FB when importing expenses?
5:45 pm
The mere mention of the possibility of Mint.com integration made me swoon. I heart you FreshBooks. I heart you hard.
11:32 am
A groan of tedium escapes me…
12:44 pm
Big improvement but not that exciting. Automatic Bank feeds is what we need!!!!
3:39 pm
Casey, it seems from your comments, that a lot of your readers/users would benefit MORE from using Expensify or one of your other 3rd party integrations, rather than this not-quite-2-steps process.
I understand that surveying just your comments on is a skewed sample. But….working backwards you have requests from: 1) Antonine: automatic bank feeds, 2) Ron: import categories 3) Randy: mapping, human error 4) Joel: this is a pain 5) Chris: mint integration 7) Diana: bill by client, “trip”
Joel: with BoFa, how? 9) Nancy: by client, 10) mint 11) Michael: automatically connecting to bank 12) Eric: Mint.com, automatic bank 13) Barry: bank integration
13 out of 57 so far is a decent indicator. Why not show how all of the above 13 requests can be met with Expensify or your other expenses add-ons?
3:55 pm
@Pashmina – you’re right. Expensify is a great option for these folks. Shoeboxed is also great.
That said, my goal is to make FreshBooks more awesome, and whenever we launch something new, I like to hear what people think about it regardless of other options available to them.
While FreshBooks might not build some of these advanced expense functions themselves, it is great to hear the feedback about where folks would like to see the product further enhanced.
10:59 pm
Keep making it awesome, it is. You and the folks over at Mailchimp are great companies, and the 2 web apps I most admire.
I guess this post just has me a tiny bit concerned about an underlying issue, which is how your company and Freshbooks service matures. I’d hate to see Freshbooks become too complex and become Frankenstein bloatware. I’m being overzealous.
It’s not like you suddenly decided to also become a CRM service. If anything I’m more curious to see how the project management and time management aspects of your service offering evolves. I talked at length about that with one of your customer service reps. I still need to do a sketch and email to Mitch about that one…
10:56 am
+1 for allowing manual import of expense data
+10 in favor of auto-update integration with my credit card data for expense tracking! Mint.com does it, Outright.com does it, Expensify.com does it.
I’ve already left Quickbooks in the dust in favor of Freshbooks + Outright. All I need now is this last piece of the puzzle to convert me entirely to Freshbooks.
Can you at least say you’re working on it?
11:19 am
@Brian,
Unfortunately, and much to some folk’s chagrin, we don’t talk publicly about what we’re working on.
These integrated expense trackers like Expensify are currently your best bet for more full-featured expense tracking.
Regards,
Casey
2:19 pm
Freshbooks needs to work on automated bank transactions. I track my expenses in Quickbooks because they offer that feature, I have no time to play with CSV files. So I think once that feature is implemented (very soon I hope) I can feel better about my finance being in one place.
Freshbooks: Just think about the market share you will grab once this is done. That should motivate you guy$$
2:33 pm
REALLY NEED daily bank downloads automatically, will pay for downloads!
2:15 pm
Thanks Antoine and Anne, this is great feedback.
9:46 am
How can I set the default to have the tax checkmark and the one tax I use to ON. 99.9% its what I have to click on every item……
9:52 am
Hi Rob,
Unfortunately, you can’t do that right now. We will take this into consideration as we plan future improvements to expenses.
Casey
2:18 am
Where’s the beef? I mean, err, where’s the sample .CSV? I can’t seem to locate it. Was it removed or am I just challenged?
Thanks!
2:29 am
Found it. Please ignore the previous comment. The sample CSV is located in the application, not the blog article.