Expenses and Stock Purchases

Everything your business spends goes in one place: the thrift haul you bought on Saturday, the dry cleaning for a coat, a roll of mailers, your photo app. RelistKit sorts it the way the CRA counts it, so your profit comes out right and your accountant gets a tidy list at tax time. You'll find it under Trackers → Expenses. The expense tracker is on every plan, and sorting into categories comes with Starter, Growth and Pro.

Three kinds of spending

When you add something you spent, RelistKit asks what it was for:

• Stock to resell: things you bought to sell, like a thrift haul, an estate sale, or a single item. RelistKit saves it as a stock purchase.
• Getting stock ready: cleaning and repairs, and the shipping you paid to have stock sent to you.
• Running the business: supplies, software, fees and advertising.

It asks because the CRA counts each kind differently:

• Stock counts against your income as it sells, not when you buy it.
• Getting stock ready is part of what an item cost you, so it also counts when the item sells.
• Running the business comes off your income in the year you spend it.

On the Free plan, there are two kinds instead: Stock to resell and Something else.

See what you've spent

Click Trackers in the top menu. The Expenses tab opens first. Choose a period from the dropdown at the top, such as This month or This year. The summary shows:

• Total spent: everything together, including tax.
• Stock bought: your stock purchases.
• Getting stock ready
• Running the business

On Starter and up, the By category chart shows where your money went. Click a bar to see just that category in the list below.

Log a stock purchase

1. Click Add what you spent.
2. Under What was it for?, click Stock to resell.
3. Enter the Date bought and What you paid.
4. If you like, enter Where you bought it and How many items you got.
5. Click Add. To log another right away, click Add and add another.

That's all you need. The purchase counts as stock you bought, whether or not you ever say which items came from it.

Say which items came from it (optional)

Each item keeps the cost you entered for it on its own page. RelistKit never splits a purchase's total across its items. You can still tie items to the purchase, so you can see what's left to list:

1. In the list, click the purchase's Items cell. It says Add its items until you've added some.
2. In the panel that opens, search for an item, choose it, and click Add. You can choose several at once.
3. To enter or change an item's cost, click its amount under Bought for (or Add its cost), then click Save.

The panel shows what you paid, what its items cost so far, and how much isn't on an item yet. An item you add takes the purchase's date as its Date bought.

You can also start from your inventory:

1. Open Inventory and click the Items tab.
2. Tick the items that came from the purchase.
3. Click Add to a stock purchase.
4. Choose A purchase you logged and pick it, or A new one to log the purchase now.
5. Click Add.

Log other spending

1. Click Add what you spent.
2. Click Getting stock ready or Running the business.
3. Enter the Date and What you paid.
4. Choose a Category. Not sure which? Click What goes where? at the top of the window.
5. If you spent it on one item, choose the item under Item.
6. Click Add.

The categories are:

• Getting stock ready: Cleaning and repairs, and Shipping to you (shipping you paid on something you bought to resell).
• Running the business: Shipping and packaging, Platform fees not on a sale, Advertising and promotion, Software and subscriptions, Office and supplies, Professional fees, and Other.

Tying a cost to an item matters most for Getting stock ready. Tied to an item, the cost counts when that item sells. Not tied, it counts with your stock on the day you paid it. A Running the business cost tied to an item also comes off that item's profit on your Sales report.

The GST/HST you paid

If you're registered for GST/HST on the regular method, the window has an HST in it (or GST in it) field. Enter the tax shown on your receipt, or click the percentage beside the field to work it out from what you paid. Leave it empty when there was no tax, like at most charity thrift stores.

That tax becomes your input tax credits, the GST/HST you paid that you get back. It's added up on line 106 of your GST/HST return figures.

Change or delete an entry

Click the pencil on a row to change it, or the bin to delete it. Deleting a stock purchase doesn't change its items: they keep their costs. To delete several at once, tick them and click Delete selected.

Send it to your accountant

Click CSV or Excel at the top of the page. The download follows the period and the What for filter you've chosen, so choose a whole year and Everything for tax time.

Common questions

I spent $500 on stock. Why didn't my profit go down?

Stock isn't an expense when you buy it. Each item's cost comes off your profit when that item sells. Your stock purchases show as Stock bought on the Expenses page, and under your profit and loss as stock bought in the period.

Do my items' costs have to add up to what I paid?

No. Not on an item yet shows the difference, and RelistKit never changes your costs to match.

The store didn't charge tax. Where do I say that?

If you're not registered for GST/HST, or you use the quick method, RelistKit adds the tax you paid to your item costs, because you can't claim it back. When a store charged no tax, tick No tax paid on the stock purchase, and its items carry no tax on their cost.

Can I attach a receipt?

Not in RelistKit. Keep your receipts as you normally do, and add a note to the entry, like where you bought it, so it's easy to match them up.

What does Not sorted mean?

The entry has no category. That happens with entries made on the Free plan, or saved without a category. On Starter and up, click Sort them, then edit each entry and choose a category.