Expense Master

The Expense Master is a hierarchical classification system for expenditure types in PayInvoice Next. It allows your organization to categorize spending into main expense groups and sub-expense items — such as "Capital Expenditure > IT Equipment > Laptops" — and tag these categories on procurement transactions for detailed spend analysis.

What Would You Like to Do?

Task	Description
Create an Expense Head	Add a new expense group or sub-expense to the hierarchy
Expense Master Field Reference	Every field on the Expense Master form explained

How the Expense Master Hierarchy Works

Expense Master Tree
├── Capital Expenditure               (Group)
│   ├── IT Equipment                   (Group)
│   │   ├── Laptops                    (Leaf — selectable on transactions)
│   │   ├── Servers                    (Leaf)
│   │   └── Network Equipment          (Leaf)
│   └── Furniture & Fixtures           (Group)
│       ├── Office Furniture           (Leaf)
│       └── Site Furniture             (Leaf)
├── Revenue Expenditure                (Group)
│   ├── Travel                         (Leaf)
│   ├── Professional Services          (Leaf)
│   └── Office Supplies               (Leaf)
└── Overheads                          (Group)
    ├── Rent                           (Leaf)
    └── Utilities                      (Leaf)

• Group expense heads organize the hierarchy but cannot be selected on Purchase Orders or Invoices.
• Leaf (sub-expense) items are the selectable entries that appear in the Expense Master dropdown on transactions.
• Every leaf item must belong to a parent group — root-level leaves are not allowed.

Where Expense Master Appears

The Expense Master field is available on these transaction forms:

Form	Field Name	Purpose
Purchase Order	Expense Master	Classify the expenditure type for this order
Purchase Invoice	Expense Master	Classify the expenditure for this invoice
Purchase Request	Expense Master	Tag the request with an expenditure category
Goods Receipt Note (GRN)	Expense Master	Classify the goods receipt

The field is optional. When selected, it helps your organization track spending by expense category across the Budget Utilization Report and other analytics.

Expense Master vs. WBS

Feature	WBS Code	Expense Master
Purpose	Budget allocation and control	Expenditure classification
Tied to a project	Yes	No (organization-wide)
Holds budget amounts	Yes	No
Budget validation	Yes (Stop/Warn/Ignore)	No
Used for reporting	Budget reports	Spend analytics
Structure	Tree per project	Single organization-wide tree

Use WBS for where budget is allocated. Use Expense Master for what type of spending it is.

Related Pages

• Budget Management Overview — Complete budget management guide
• WBS Overview — Budget codes that hold allocations
• Budget Utilization Report — Report that uses expense classifications