How do I count only part of an expense as business?

Open the expense and type a percentage in Business use (%), for example 50 for fuel for a car you also use privately. The expense keeps the total printed on the receipt. Under the field you see the Business share, and that share is what your reports, exports and tax forms count.

Use Business use instead of changing the amounts. If you halve the line items, the expense no longer matches the receipt or the bank transaction. Force total in the mobile app does the opposite of what you want here: it sets the expense back to the figures on the receipt.

Set Business use on one expense

1. Open the expense in the web app or the mobile app.
2. Find Business use (%) below Subtotal, Tax and Total.
3. Type a number from 0 to 100. Decimals work too, such as 33.33.
4. Leave the field. The percentage is saved, and Business share shows the amount that counts, with its tax.

An expense with no percentage counts in full, and the field shows 100. To go back to that, empty the field. If the expense's Category has a default business use (see below), emptying the field puts the Category's default back.

In the list of documents, an expense that is only partly business shows its business share, such as Business 20.01, under the receipt total.

Business use is for expenses only. Income and statements do not have the field.

Give a Category a default

If all your fuel is 50% business, set it once on the Category instead of on every receipt.

• Web app: open Account settings → Categories, choose Expense and fill in the Business use column on the Category's row.
• Mobile app: open Account settings, tap Document categories, open the Category and fill in Business use (%).

An expense takes the Category's default when it gets that Category: when it is scanned, when a rule sets the Category, or when you pick it yourself. A percentage you typed on the expense yourself is never replaced by a default. Changing a default does not change expenses that already have that Category. To update them too, filter the list to that Category and use the bulk action below.

Every role except Contributor can set Category defaults.

Change many expenses at once

• Web app: select the documents, open Actions and choose Set business use. Type the percentage and click Apply, or click Reset to default to put each expense back on its Category's default. Check the change in the dialog and click Apply.
• Mobile app: tap Select on the Documents tab, pick the documents, tap More in the bar at the bottom and choose Set business use for all. Leave the field empty to reset each expense to its Category's default.

Only the expenses in your selection change. Income and statements are left as they are, and documents in a closed accounting period are skipped. See How do I change the Category or other details of many documents at once?

You can also ask SparkAgent, for example "Set business use to 50% on my fuel receipts from March".

Find the expenses that are partly business

• Web app: add the Business use filter and choose Partly business, or Fully business for everything else. A saved search keeps the filter.
• Mobile app: open Filters on the Documents tab and pick Partly business or Fully business under Business use.

What counts the business share

These use the business share of a partly business expense:

• The totals at the bottom of the documents list, and the Overview.
• SparkAgent's totals and summaries.
• Reports in Excel, CSV and PDF. Each row still shows the receipt amounts. When a report has a partly business expense, Excel and CSV add business use and business share columns. The PDF listing adds a business share column, with the percentage on the expense's detail page. The totals and Category summaries count the business share.
• The Schedule C worksheet. Business meals are counted at 50% on top of the business share.
• HMRC Making Tax Digital quarterly updates. Self-employment updates send the personal share as a disallowable amount, and UK property updates send only the business share.

Tax follows the same percentage. A 40.01 receipt with 3.64 tax at 50% business use has a business share of 20.01, with 1.82 tax.

What keeps the receipt total

• Publishing to accounting software. The full receipt is published, with a note such as "Business use 50%" so your accountant sees the split. The same note goes into the accounting import files. The tax is published in full as well, so your accountant should adjust the VAT or GST you reclaim for the personal share. Expense claims work differently, as the next point explains. See Accounting software export templates.
• Expense claims. A claim pays back the whole receipt. The claim, its PDF and its spreadsheet show the business use percentage so the approver sees it. An expense set to 0% business use is a personal purchase and can't go on a claim. When you publish the claim to QuickBooks, Xero or Procountor, only the business share of the tax on the receipt is booked as tax you can reclaim. The rest of the receipt goes on its own line with no tax, marked as the non-business share, so the claim still adds up to the whole receipt. Tax you account for yourself under the reverse charge is still reclaimed in full, so your accountant adjusts that part.
• Matching to bank transactions and duplicate detection, which compare the receipt total with the bank and with other documents.