Tracking Expenses
Record money spent from a group and see what is left.
Raised, spent and balance
Every group can track money going out as well as money coming in. Expenses are kept on their own Expenses tab, separate from contributions. Once a group has its first expense, its summary shows Raised, Spent and Balance. Expenses are optional: a group that never records one looks exactly as before.
Four ways to record an expense
- Record Expenseon the group's Expenses tab, for cash and anything without an SMS.
- From the inbox: open an item and switch it from Contribution to Expense before approving. Payments KapuLetu recognises as money out ("sent to", "paid to", "debited") are switched to Expense for you.
- On WhatsApp: forward the M-Pesa message to the KapuLetu bot, pick the group that paid, then pick a category.
- Change a contribution: open a contribution and choose "This was money out". It moves to Expenses with a note in the activity log.
Categories
Each expense has a category such as Transport, Food & refreshments, Venue & hire or Welfare payout. You can add your own in Settings → Expenses. Anything without a category is recorded as "Other".
Cash withdrawals
Withdrawing M-Pesa to cash is not spending yet. When you forward a withdrawal, the bot asks whether the cash was spent for a group. If you plan to record the cash spending separately, skip the withdrawal so nothing is counted twice.
Sharing with members
Expenses always appear in your PDF and Excel exports. On the WhatsApp report and the public report link they are off until you turn on Show expenses on reportsin the group's report template. You can show category totals or list each expense. Payee phone and account numbers are never shown to members.