How do I use tags to organize expenses?

Tags let you group expenses across categories — for example, a "Las Vegas Trip" tag would include meals, flights, hotels, and Uber rides all under one tag. You can create unlimited tags — there's no cap.

How tags work:

1. Review high-confidence suggestions — ExpenseBot can propose a likely trip or recommend an existing client/project tag for a group of matching expenses. Suggestions appear in Review expenses with the exact rows included. You choose Apply or Dismiss; ExpenseBot never tags them automatically.

2. For projects or trips — Go to Settings > Expense Organization > Expense Tags > Manage Tags. Under Quick setup, choose Projects or Trips. Enter one or more names, review the proposed tags, and save them. ExpenseBot uses the matching Project – Name or Trip – Name format; it does not guess between the two.

3. For another expense group — Expand Create a different tag with AI for one specific group, such as propane deliveries or medical purchases. If a broad profession or business description cannot produce an established, useful expense set, ExpenseBot asks what specific group you want to track instead of creating a generic tag. This is an optional custom path beneath the direct Clients, Projects, Trips, and manual controls.

4. For clients — Use Bill Clients Back in Settings. That focused flow creates one client tag per client and explains how to tag expenses, create the client report, and invoice or reimburse the client. Creating a normal tag does not turn on Bill Clients Back.

5. Tag as you go — When you take a photo of a receipt, select a tag before processing. You can also write tag:tagname on the receipt, such as tag:Vegas Trip.

6. Tag existing expenses — After creating a tag, choose Tag existing expenses to open Review Expenses. Select the rows that should use the tag. Creating a tag never changes old expenses automatically.

7. Create your report — After the relevant expenses are tagged, choose By Tag under Create Expense Report and select the tag.

Tag prefix conventions

ExpenseBot recognizes several prefix conventions in tag names. The prefix tells the system how to interpret the tag and which reports to surface under My Reports. The separator is an en-dash with a space on each side: Prefix – Name.

Why prefixes: they let you have multiple tag families without ambiguity. Acme could be a client, a project, or a trip — but Client – Acme is unambiguous. Specialist reports may use their established prefixes, but ordinary Client tags do not activate a specialist role.

All tag setup paths use the same Tags sheet. Tags created during onboarding, with Bill Clients Back, in the AI or calendar tag wizard, or manually in Manage Tags are immediately available anywhere that accepts tags. This includes Review Expenses, report filters, monthly client reports, project and trip workflows, and receipt entry. You do not need to recreate a tag for each feature.

The Expense Tags Settings card shows the number of active custom tags and a short preview. Business, Personal, and Invoices are omitted from that count because they are built-in system tags. The neighbouring Bill Clients Back card previews client names, so Expense Tags shows non-client groups first when both kinds exist.

Activating the Wedding or Realtor use case creates its established tag bundle. The tag manager shows when either setup is active. If all tags in one of those bundles already exist, Create a different tag with AI does not offer to create the same bundle again; it asks for a specific wedding, listing, client, project, trip, or another group instead. This check uses the actual tag registry as well as the visible persona state, so it remains safe when an older account uses a regular hyphen or em dash in the bundle names.

What happens to unused tags

An active tag that has not been used by any expense for 90 days may be marked inactive automatically. This only keeps future tag pickers tidy: ExpenseBot does not delete the tag, change historical expense rows, or rewrite existing reports. A newly created tag gets the full 90-day grace period, and you can restore an inactive tag from Manage Tags. Business, Personal, and Invoices are never automatically deactivated.

New client, project, and trip tags use the forms Client – Name, Project – Name, and Trip – Name. Existing typed tags made with a regular hyphen, em dash, or colon remain supported and are treated as the same identity, so another entry point cannot silently create a punctuation-only duplicate. The same identity protection applies to the fixed Wedding – and Realtor – bundles, including older regular-hyphen and em-dash rows.

Sub-names within a prefix: you can go one level deeper by adding another – separator. Realtor – Gifts – Alice Johnson means "a Realtor Gifts receipt for Alice Johnson". The Realtor Gift Limit Checker uses the sub-name as the recipient.

Custom prefixes: you can invent your own (Region – , Department – , Crew – ) — they show up the same way in reports and in the spreadsheet, they just don't trigger any specialized report.

One primary tag per expense: today each expense stores one tag. If an expense could belong to both Trip - Denver and Client - Acme, ExpenseBot shows alternatives rather than hiding a second tag. Choose the grouping that matters for the report, or create the report from the exact selected expenses without changing the existing tag.