How do I track and bill reimbursable client expenses?

When you pay expenses on a client's behalf, ExpenseBot organizes them by client, matches receipts against your card transactions, builds a client-specific report, and turns that report into an invoice.

What counts as a reimbursable expense

A reimbursable expense is a cost you paid out of pocket on someone else's behalf and expect back. The test is not what the thing is but who it was for: a flight taken for a specific client engagement is reimbursable, while software you would run across every client is your own overhead. Commonly reimbursable — engagement travel, software or licences bought for one project, materials and shipping, ad spend placed for the client, project subcontractors. Usually not — your commute, travel to win the work, cross-client tools, general office supplies, your own insurance and professional fees.

Reimbursable vs billable expenses: in everyday use they overlap, and most tools treat them as one thing. The useful distinction is intent — a reimbursable expense is a cost you paid on someone else's behalf and expect back at cost, while a billable expense is any cost you pass on to a client, sometimes with a markup, as part of what you charge. Both need the same underlying record (receipt, client, date, amount), which is why one tagging workflow covers both.

Two cases to decide up front: mileage produces no receipt, so it needs its own dated log of trip, purpose, and distance; partial-use purchases you will reuse on other work are genuinely ambiguous — bill a share or absorb it, but apply the same rule to every client. Whether a cost you absorb is deductible on your own return is a separate question from whether a client will pay it back — confirm that with your tax professional.

The full explainer, including how employee reimbursement differs from rebilling a client, is at Reimbursable Expenses.

The workflow:

1. Create client tags

1. Open Set up or manage clients.
2. Choose Create a Tag with AI.
3. Enter your client names.

ExpenseBot creates tags such as Client - Acme — one per client. Tags are what tie an expense to a client, so this step comes first.

2. Bring in expenses

• Existing receipts: upload them manually (photo, PDF, or forward the email).
• New receipts: the monthly subscription scans Gmail daily for new receipts from activation onward.
• Receipts from the last completed calendar year: a one-time historical Gmail scan is available ($20, included free with an individual annual plan purchased for your own account). Team and sponsored subscriptions do not include the historical entitlement. The monthly plan does not include historical scanning — daily scanning starts when you activate.

3. Connect cards and find missing receipts

Open Card Reconciliation and connect every card you use for client purchases. Card transactions that have no matching receipt are flagged, so you can spot client charges that are missing documentation and add the receipt. Transactions you don't want flagged again can be dismissed.

4. Assign expenses to clients

Select the client tag while submitting a receipt, or use Assign existing expenses to clients afterward. That Review Expenses view includes rows with no tag and rows still using the default Business tag; it does not mix in Personal expenses or expenses already assigned to a more specific group.

The client tag determines which expenses appear in that client's report. Creating a client does not guess that every unassigned business expense belongs to that client — you choose the exact rows.

5. Create the report and invoice

1. Open Create a client report.
2. Choose the client tag and the date range.
3. Create the report.

The finished report card shows a Bill Client button that turns the report into a Google Doc invoice with every receipt as a line item — markup, business details, and PDF delivery are covered in the billing guide.

You can also do steps 4-5 conversationally:

• Guide me: ask “How do I bill Client Acme?” and ExpenseBot gives you the correct next link for client setup, assigning existing expenses, or creating the report.
• Do the grouping with me: ask “Group my July Acme travel expenses under Client Acme and create a report.” ExpenseBot searches for the exact rows, shows a preview, and waits for your approval before changing anything or creating the report.
• Create from an existing client group: ask “Create a report for Client Acme this quarter.” ExpenseBot uses the existing group and asks for confirmation before creating the report.

Chat never assigns every untagged or default-Business row to a client by assumption. When the client is not clear, use the filtered Review Expenses link and choose the rows yourself.

6. Correct a report

Delete the incorrect report and create it again with the right tag or date range. Deleting a report does not delete or modify any expenses in your spreadsheet — a report is a grouping, not the data itself. The existing report must be deleted before recreating it from the same underlying expenses.