Expense tracking and categorization

Purpose

1.1. Automate tracking of all business-related expenses for an aeromodel shop in retail hobbies & toys industry.
1.2. Streamline capturing receipts, invoices, and purchase data from emails, online orders, and manual uploads.
1.3. Categorize expenses using custom taxonomy: materials, tools, maintenance, shipping, utilities, event fees, and marketing.
1.4. Sync expense records to accounting, ERP, and reporting tools for compliance and financial oversight.
1.5. Reduce manual bookkeeping, minimize human error, and enable real-time cost monitoring.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Receipt of an expense email or PDF in sales or admin inbox.
2.2. Entry of an expense in POS or ERP system.
2.3. Upload of an invoice or photo to shared drive, app, or expense portal.
2.4. New charge notification from business banking or credit card APIs.
2.5. Submission of expenses by mobile capture apps by staff.

Platform Variants

3.1. QuickBooks Online
• Function: "Create Expense" API—map parsed expense data to predefined categories.

3.2. Xero
• Function: "Expenses API - Create Receipts"—auto-categorize using merchant and GL code match.

3.3. Zoho Books
• Function: "Expenses API"—add transactions parsed from emails or files, specify vendor and category.

3.4. FreshBooks
• Function: "Create Expense" endpoint—auto-populate amount, attach files, and assign project codes.

3.5. Sage Business Cloud
• Function: "POST /ledger/expenses"—push data with category field set by matching rules.

3.6. Wave Accounting
• Function: "Create Expense Transaction"—integrate with scanned receipt OCR data.

3.7. Expensify
• Function: "API Import Expense"—push captured expenses from receipts, bank feeds, or apps.

3.8. Receipt Bank (Dext)
• Feature: Automated receipt processing—configure to export categorized expenses to accounting.

3.9. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature/Flow: Email/Attachment trigger—parse receipts, send to Excel/SharePoint/Dataverse list.

3.10. Google Workspace
• Feature: App Script/Drive trigger—when receipt is added, parse with Vision API, log to Sheets.

3.11. SAP Concur
• Function: "ImportExpense" API—auto-create expense lines from documents received.

3.12. Airtable
• Feature: Automation trigger—new record in expense table, use form or API from other systems.

3.13. Notion
• Feature: Notion API—add expense entry with dynamic categorization; notify via Slack/Email.

3.14. Oracle Netsuite
• Function: "Expense Report API"—auto-submit parsed items into expense module.

3.15. Odoo ERP
• Module: "hr_expense.expense"—create record from email or API input, categorize per shop taxonomy.

3.16. Plaid
• Function: "Transactions Get"—monitor business accounts; push new transactions for categorization.

3.17. Stripe
• Function: "Balance Transaction API"—auto-fetch merchant payments or refunds, log as expenses.

3.18. PayPal
• Function: "Transaction Search"—pull business transaction data, push to expense records.

3.19. Dropbox
• Feature: File request trigger—uploaded invoice triggers document OCR & categorization.

3.20. Zoho Expense
• Function: "Create Expense" API—auto-populate project, GST, and category for hobby retail.

Benefits

4.1. Minimizes manual data entry and human error for aeromodel shop expenses.
4.2. Ensures real-time, accurate categorization for compliance, tax, and internal tracking.
4.3. Consolidates expense data across channels: email, POS, bank, and receipt uploads.
4.4. Enables timely reporting and cost analysis for decision-making in retail aeromodelling.
4.5. Reduces administrative workload and accelerates month-end close.