The short answer
Open Spending and click New Entry, enter the total you paid including VAT, pick a category, and Walnut works out the VAT. Tick Paid and choose how you paid, check the ledger preview, then click Add Expense, and it posts to your accounts automatically.
The £0 plan holds 30 expenses. Advanced removes the limit. See every limit
In this video
Step by step
Everything said in the video, chapter by chapter. Each time opens the video at that moment on YouTube.
0:00By the end of this video, you'll log an expense, see how it posts to your accounts, and find it in your list, so your reports show your real profit.
Describe the expense
0:39Give it a description. We're logging some leaflet printing. Enter the total you paid, including VAT. Walnut works out the VAT for you, and shows the net amount here. Pick a category. This one is Marketing. The category fills in its usual VAT rate, twenty percent here, so the net is a hundred pounds. Change the rate if this bill was different, or tick VAT exempt.
1:04The expense date starts as today. Change it if the bill is from another day.
Mark it as paid
1:15If you've already paid, tick Paid. The paid date starts as today too. If you still owe it, leave Paid unticked, and it shows as unpaid. Then choose how you paid. We paid this one by bank transfer.
Check, then save
1:35The ledger preview shows exactly how this will post to your accounts: the cost to marketing, the VAT you can claim back, and the money out of your bank. It balances. It posts automatically when you save, and you'll find it in Accounting, under Journal Entries.
1:51Click Add Expense.
Find it in your list
2:03There it is, with its net amount, VAT and total. It's linked to its ledger entry, and marked as paid by bank transfer. And all of this works on the Free plan, which includes up to thirty expenses.
Recap
2:17To recap. Open Spending and click New Entry. Enter the total, pick a category, and Walnut works out the VAT. Tick Paid and choose how you paid. Check the ledger preview, then click Add Expense.