ExpenseBot gives you several tools for describing a purchase. Most expenses only need a category. Splitting and tax review are for exceptional payments.
Choose the right tool
| Tool | Answers | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Category | What the money was spent on (Office supplies, Meals) | Every expense |
| Tag | Which project, client, property, or event the whole transaction belongs to | You report by job/client/property |
| Business % | A reusable default for a category that's usually part-personal (e.g. internet) | The same mix applies to that category every time |
| Split | One payment divided into two or more allocation lines by amount or percentage | This one payment mixes personal + business, or covers several categories |
| Set aside for tax review | Whether this one unsplit purchase should contribute $0 to current-year deductions until reviewed | A large purchase, improvement, or other item may need capitalization instead of an immediate deduction |
| Exclude from future reports | Reversibly removes a transaction from future report projections — without deleting it | A transaction shouldn't count toward reports, but you want to keep the record |
Category answers what was purchased. Tag answers which project it belongs to. Business % is a reusable default for a whole category. A split divides one exceptional payment. Tax review keeps a whole unsplit purchase visible but out of current-year deductible totals until its final treatment is confirmed.
You no longer need to create separate rows. Older guidance said to split a purchase by adding extra rows to your spreadsheet and deleting the original — that is out of date and you should not do it. Splitting is now built in: use Review expenses → Split and ExpenseBot keeps one transaction with allocation lines underneath.
One payment stays one payment
Splitting never duplicates your bank or card charge. ExpenseBot keeps one parent transaction and one receipt, then adds allocation lines beneath it. The allocation lines must add up to the original total exactly — you can enter amounts or percentages, and ExpenseBot assigns any final cent so nothing is lost or double-counted.
When to split
- Business and personal in one payment. A $100 warehouse-store run is $70 Office supplies and $30 Personal. The Personal part is an explicit non-business allocation — it is not deleted or excluded, just marked as the part you can't claim.
- Several business categories in one payment. A $150 hardware-store receipt is $110 Repairs and maintenance and $40 Small tools, all under one property/project Tag.
In this version, one Tag applies to the whole transaction, and every allocation line inherits it.
How to split
- Open Review expenses and find the transaction.
- Choose Split.
- Pick amount or percentage.
- Choose the categories (these come from the ones already set up in your Expense Accounts).
- Balance the lines so they equal the receipt total. If they don't, Apply remainder assigns the exact difference.
- Save.
How Business % interacts with a split
An explicit split wins once, for that transaction only. Example: internet defaults to 60% business. You split one $100 bill into $75 Business and $25 Personal. Future reports use the $75 you set — ExpenseBot does not multiply that $75 by 60% again.
What happens to your receipt, reports, and spreadsheet
- One receipt stays attached to the parent transaction.
- New reports use your current split.
- Reports you already generated stay as they are — they're snapshots and don't silently change.
- Your Google Sheet remains the durable record. Open it any time with Open Google Sheet.
Exclude and restore
Exclude from future reports reversibly removes a transaction from future report projections without deleting its row or receipt. Restore returns it to future reports. Excluded and Personal are different things: Personal is one allocation of a payment you made; Excluded is a whole transaction you've set aside from reporting.
If a split needs review
If a transaction's total changes, or an allocation's category is no longer one of your configured categories, ExpenseBot shows Split needs review and pauses using it in affected reports or exports until you rebalance the lines or pick a valid category.
Accounting treatment
For a whole unsplit purchase, open Review expenses, expand the transaction, choose More actions, then Set aside for tax review. The row and receipt stay intact, but new tax reports show $0 current deduction and Capitalized / review. Existing reports remain snapshots, so regenerate Year-End after changing the treatment.
To handle several matching unsplit purchases, use Select, narrow the list with filters or search, choose the rows (or Select all matching), and then choose Set aside. ExpenseBot previews the eligible count and skips split parents because their treatments belong to the individual allocations.
When you split, each allocation can instead be a current expense, personal, or set aside for tax review. ExpenseBot surfaces the choice so nothing is lost. You can review the treatment yourself or with a tax professional.
How a split shows up at tax time (Year-End and tax reports)
This is the part people worry about: if I split a receipt, what does my tax report do with it?
Each allocation is taxed on its own category. A split doesn't produce one blended number — every allocation line carries its own category, so a $150 hardware receipt split into $110 Repairs and maintenance and $40 Small tools contributes to two deduction categories, and each lands on the tax line its category maps to (Schedule C in the US, T2125 in Canada). The payment is still one payment with one receipt.
Personal allocations are left out of the claim, not deleted. By default the personal portion of a split simply isn't part of your deductible total — only the business portion is counted. If you deliberately generate a report that includes personal activity, that portion appears separately as Personal – not claimed and can never enter the business or claim total. Either way the money and the receipt stay visible in your records.
An allocation set aside for tax review contributes $0 this year. If one allocation
might need capitalizing rather than deducting immediately, set that allocation aside for
tax review: it shows a $0 current-year deduction and is marked Capitalized / review, so
it's visible for you or your accountant to decide, instead of silently inflating this
year's deductions. ExpenseBot doesn't decide depreciation, basis, or which year the
deduction belongs to.
Year-End reads your whole year, including rows already used in another report — so splitting a transaction that appeared in an earlier monthly report doesn't double-count it or hide it.
⚠️ The one thing to remember: regenerate. Reports you already generated are snapshots and never change retroactively. If you split (or re-split) a transaction after generating a Year-End or tax report, generate it again so the new allocations are used. A stale report is the single most common surprise here.
Bulk Set aside deliberately skips split parents — their treatment belongs to the individual allocations, so set those aside one at a time.
Estimates only — confirm the final treatment with your tax professional.
<span data-chat-question>Not sure how yours will land? Ask: How are split expenses handled in my Year-End tax report?</span>
Do split expenses work with accounting exports?
Yes for QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Wave, and for supported generic/CSV export files. ExpenseBot keeps one parent transaction and sends its allocation categories as multiple lines under that single parent, with the receipt attached or referenced once. The allocation lines are not separate card or bank charges, and they don't get separate receipt copies. Supported generic/CSV import files include the projected allocation lines, preserve the parent's identity, and keep the exact totals.
FreeAgent direct paid Expense/Bill pushes are not supported for split parents — they fail closed, because the current adapter can't safely preserve the payment. Direct the export to QuickBooks Online, Xero, Wave, or a supported generic CSV instead.
Reports you've already generated stay as they are — they're snapshots. After you change a split, create a new report so the export reflects it. Not every accounting package or file format supports splits; the destinations above are the verified ones.
Who can split expenses
Anyone with an active free trial or a paid (or paid-equivalent) ExpenseBot account can review and split expenses. Access is checked on the server.
Need help?
Contact support@expensebot.ai, or open Review expenses to see your transactions.
🔗 Full picture: Personal & omitted transactions — effects on reports and tax