> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.vehiso.com/blog/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Introducing Expense Management: Know What Your Dealership Really Costs to Run - URL: https://www.vehiso.com/blog/introducing-expense-management/ - Published: 2026-11-06T08:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-06T08:00:02.000Z - Description: Record every dealership overhead in the Vehiso DMS with the receipt attached, put costs against a stock vehicle, and send each expense to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage. - Author: Blessing Dube - Tags: Dealer Management System, Payments & Finance, Product update Somewhere on your premises there is a receipt for a valet. It might be in the door pocket of the van. It might be on the spike in the office, or folded inside the service book of a car you sold last month. [Expense management](https://www.vehiso.com/features/expense-management) in the Vehiso DMS gives receipts like that a proper home. That valet was spent on one particular car. And unless someone remembers to do something with that bit of paper, it will never be counted against that car's profit, and it will reach your accounts weeks later, if it reaches them at all. Multiply that by every overhead a dealership pays in a quarter. Rent, business rates, the electricity bill, the radio advert, the diesel for the trade plates run. Most dealers have a rough feel for what the business costs to run. Very few can say, in seconds, what last quarter cost them and where the money went. That is the gap [expense management](https://www.vehiso.com/features/expense-management) closes. It is new in the Vehiso DMS, and it sits under Administration, right next to Invoices. ## Record any overhead, with the paperwork attached Adding an expense takes about a minute. Each one carries the details you would want if your accountant ever asked about it: **The basics.** The date, the supplier, the reference, the category, the net amount, the VAT and the total. **The receipt.** Attach a photo or a PDF of the receipt or supplier invoice. The paperwork lives with the expense instead of in a drawer, so when someone asks "what was that £312 to Brightline?" the answer is one click away. **Paid or unpaid.** Mark an expense as already paid, with the date and how you paid. Or, if the supplier gave you terms, note the due date and mark it paid later. **The VAT treatment.** For each expense you choose standard rate, zero rated, exempt or no VAT. Which one applies to a given cost is a question for your accountant, not for us. What Vehiso does is keep a record of the choice and add up the VAT you can reclaim for any period. What counts as an expense? Any overhead your dealership pays: rent, business rates, utilities, insurance, advertising and marketing, software, vehicle preparation and valeting, premises repairs, fuel and travel, phone and internet, professional fees, bank and card charges, staff costs and office costs. One thing that does not belong here is the cars themselves. The vehicles you buy are still recorded as stock, as they always have been. ## Categories that fit your business You start with 15 ready-made categories built for a dealership. They are a sensible starting point, not a straitjacket. Rename any of them to match the words your team already uses. Add your own if you have a cost that does not fit. Retire the ones you never use so they stop cluttering the list. That matters more than it sounds. Categories are what turn a pile of receipts into an answer, and they are also what decides where each expense lands in your accounting software. More on that below. ## Put a cost on a car This is the part that changes the numbers you actually run the business on. When you record an expense, you can link it to a stock vehicle. The amount is then added to that vehicle's costs, so it counts against that car's profit. Back to the valet in the van door. Record it, pick the car, and that car's profit now reflects what you really spent on it. The same goes for a set of tyres, a smart repair or a windscreen you paid an outside supplier for. Linking a vehicle is optional. Rent and the electricity bill stay as general overheads, on their own, which is where they belong. If you prepare cars in-house as well as sending them out, our post on [in-house prep costs and vehicle margin](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/in-house-prep-costs-vehicle-margin/) covers the other half of that picture. And the new [Preparation board](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/introducing-vehicle-preparation-board/) shows the prep cost so far on every car on its way to the forecourt. ## See where the money goes The Expenses page totals whatever you filter. That is the whole trick, and it is a useful one. **Pick a period.** This month, last month, this quarter, this year, or your own dates. **Narrow it down.** Filter by category or by paid and unpaid, and search by supplier, reference or registration. **Read the totals.** For everything that matches, you see the total spend, the net figure and the VAT to reclaim. **Spot the big lines.** Spend by category shows at a glance where most of your money goes. So the question "what did advertising cost us last quarter?" stops being a job for Friday afternoon. Choose last quarter, choose the category, and the number is there. Search a registration and you see every cost booked against that car. ## Straight into your accounts Recording an expense in the DMS is useful on its own. It gets better when your accounting software is connected. With Xero, QuickBooks or Sage linked through the [accounting integrations](https://www.vehiso.com/features/accounting-integrations), every expense you record goes across as a supplier bill. Nobody types it in twice. It works in three steps: **Choose where each category posts.** Once, you pick the account in your accounting software for each expense category. Any category you leave unset posts to your overheads account. **Record the expense.** Add it in the DMS with the supplier, the VAT and the receipt. It is sent to your accounts as a bill from that supplier, with the VAT you recorded. **Stay in step.** Each expense shows whether it has reached your accounts. Edit it in Vehiso and the bill is updated. Delete it and the bill is voided. That last step is the one bookkeepers will like. There is no second copy to keep in line by hand. If you are weighing up which package to use, our guide to [Xero and QuickBooks for car dealers](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/xero-quickbooks-for-car-dealers/) walks through it, and [accounting and MTD for car dealerships](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/accounting-mtd-car-dealerships/) explains how the integrations fit together. ## Even less typing: the document reader Typing in a supplier invoice is quick. Not typing it in at all is quicker. The [AI document reader](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/introducing-ai-document-reader/) reads uploaded supplier invoices and preparation bills, matches each line to a car in stock by its registration, and shows the result beside the original. Nothing is filed until someone in your team checks it and presses File. Costs and overheads are then filed as expenses, and from there they go to your accounts like any other. Expenses is the ledger. The document reader is a faster way to fill it. ## Who can see it Expenses has its own permission in the DMS. Managers have it by default. You can give it to other roles if you want, say, your workshop manager logging their own supplier bills. Or you can keep it to management. Your sales team does not need to see what the rent is. ## A few honest limits **It does not pay your suppliers.** Vehiso records the cost and sends the bill to your accounts. You pay the supplier as you do now, and your bank feed matches the payment to the bill in your accounting software. You can still mark an expense as paid in the DMS to keep your own list up to date. **It is not tax advice.** You choose the VAT treatment for each expense, and Vehiso totals the VAT to reclaim from what you entered. Whether a cost is standard rated, zero rated or exempt is for you and your accountant to decide. **Stock is not an expense.** Cars you buy are still recorded as stock, not here. **Sync needs a connection.** Bills only go to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage when your accounting software is connected through the accounting integrations. **The figures are only as good as the habit.** A receipt that never gets recorded is still a receipt in a door pocket. The tool makes it quick; someone still has to do it. ## Which plan it is on **Recording expenses is on every plan, including Free.** Expenses, receipts, categories and linking costs to vehicles are part of the dealer management system, with nothing extra to pay. **Sending expenses to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage is paid only.** It uses the accounting integrations, which are included on every paid plan, from £49 a month. The full plan comparison is on the [pricing page](https://www.vehiso.com/pricing). If you have ever finished a quarter with a good month of sales and no real idea where the margin went, start here. Have a look at [expense management](https://www.vehiso.com/features/expense-management), record the next receipt that lands on your desk, and see what your dealership really costs to run. ## More from the Vehiso blog - [Introducing the new Invoices page](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/introducing-invoicing/) - [Introducing the AI document reader](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/introducing-ai-document-reader/) - [In-house prep costs and vehicle margin](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/in-house-prep-costs-vehicle-margin/) - [Xero and QuickBooks for car dealers](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/xero-quickbooks-for-car-dealers/) - [Accounting and MTD for car dealerships](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/accounting-mtd-car-dealerships/) - [Stock and sales reports for car dealers](https://www.vehiso.com/blog/stock-and-sales-reports-car-dealers/)