Expenses
Overview
Track every business cost — from travel and permits to gear purchases and studio hire. Apex Lucis categorises expenses, tracks which are tax-deductible, and includes them in P&L reports.
Expense Categories
| Travel | Accommodation |
| Studio & Venue Hire | Crew & Talent Fees |
| Equipment Hire | Props & Styling |
| Printing & Lab | Software & Subscriptions |
| Marketing & Advertising | Professional Services |
| Permits & Licences | Meals & Subsistence |
| Insurance | Bank & Finance Charges |
| Other |
Choosing a category sets Tax deductible to that category’s usual answer on a new expense. Change it if your case is different.
Accessing Expenses
Business tab → Expenses
Adding an Expense
- Tap +, or Business → New Expense (⌘E) on a Mac
- Enter:
- Description (required)
- Amount (required)
- Receipt — on iPhone and iPad, Scan Receipt opens the camera, finds the edges of the receipt and captures it flat; Choose from Photos uses one you already have
- Date
- Category
- Supplier — who you paid
- Booking — the shoot this cost was for, if it was for one
- Tax deductible — Toggle on if this expense can be claimed against tax
- Reimbursable by client — Toggle on if the client is paying this back. See Charging a cost to a client
- Notes (optional)
- Tap Save
Choosing the booking is what puts a cost on that shoot’s Costs & Charges card, and what lets you recharge it on the booking’s invoice. A cost with no booking is still tracked and still counts towards your P&L; it just belongs to the business rather than to a job.
Charging a Cost to a Client
Turn on Reimbursable by client and two more fields appear:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Charge client | What the client pays for this cost |
| Markup | The same thing as a percentage on top of what you paid |
Fill in either one and the other follows. A cost is charged at what it cost you unless you change it — a £750 studio hire billed at £900 is a 20% markup, and you can type it whichever way round you think about it.
The expense keeps what you actually paid, so your P&L reads cost £750, revenue £900, and £150 made on the recharge.
Set a Default markup % in Settings → Business and it is applied the moment you mark a cost reimbursable. Changing it later never re-prices a cost you have already entered.
Recovered
A reimbursable cost is outstanding until the invoice carrying it is sent. The Expenses header keeps a running Reimbursable total of what is still to come back to you.
Add the cost to a draft invoice from its Items section and nothing changes yet — a draft is a proposal. Mark that invoice Sent and the cost becomes Recovered. Void the invoice and it goes back to outstanding. See Recharging a booking’s costs.
For a cost settled outside the app — one the client paid you directly, or one you billed on paper — swipe the expense and tap Mark Recovered, or touch and hold it (right-click on a Mac). Mark Not Recovered puts it back. The option appears only on costs marked reimbursable, since there is nothing to recover on anything else.
Mileage
Mileage is claimed from the travel legs of a trip. Each leg you drive is costed at the claim rate set in Settings → Business under Travel Claims, and Import Costs brings it into Expenses.
The default rate (UK: 45p/mile) matches current HMRC approved rates. Change it in Settings → Business if your rate differs in your country.
When the currency is pounds, an expense can also claim the HMRC flat rate for an overnight stay.
Importing Costs
Tap Import Costs (on a Mac, Business → Import Costs…) to pull in costs you’ve already entered elsewhere in the app — trip accommodation and travel legs, studio hire, crew fees, and permit costs — and turn them into tracked expenses. Each item can only be imported once; anything already imported is marked Imported and excluded from the list.
Expenses Overview
The main Expenses screen shows your expenses for the period you choose — Month, Quarter, Year or All Time — grouped by the booking they were for, newest first, with General Overhead last.
Across the top is Total Spend for the period. Beside it, whenever clients still owe you costs back, is To Recover … from clients — tap it to see only those expenses. Below sit the deductible total and any reclaimable tax.
The bar beneath shows how the spending splits between categories. Tap a category chip under it to see only that category, and tap it again — or Clear Filter — to see everything.
Each row is tagged with what applies: Deductible, To recover, Recovered, Imported and Has receipt.
Swipe an expense and tap Delete, or use Delete Expense on its detail. Apex Lucis asks first.
Whether a cost is claimable, and at what rate, depends on your circumstances. Always consult your accountant before making a claim.