Every document in SparkReceipt has a type: Expense (money out), Income (money in), Statement (a bank or credit card statement) or Other document (kept for your records, not counted as money in or out). If a document came in as the wrong type, for example an invoice you sent that was imported from email as an expense, you can change it at any time.
- Web app: open the document and change the Document category field.
- Mobile app: open the document, tap ⋯ and choose Change document type....
- Many documents at once (web): select them in Documents, open Actions and choose Set document type.
Change the type of one document
In the web app
- Open the document.
- On the Details tab, find the Document category field.
- Pick the new type: Expenses, Income, Statements or Documents (Other document).
The change saves on its own.
In the mobile app
- Open the document.
- Tap the ⋯ menu and choose Change document type....
- Pick Expenses, Income, Bank statements or Documents.
Change the type of many documents at once
In the web app:
- Open Documents in the left sidebar.
- Tick the documents you want to change. A filter, such as the Type filter, helps you list the right ones first.
- Open Actions, choose Set document type and pick the new type. Expenses come in two variants, Expense (Receipt) and Expense (Invoice), for receipts and supplier invoices.
- Check the list of changes and click Apply.
What changes when you switch between Expense and Income
- Merchant becomes Payer. The name on the document stays; on an income document the field is labelled Payer instead of Merchant.
- The Category is reset. Expenses and income use separate Category lists, so the old Category no longer fits. SparkReceipt clears it and picks a new Category from your income (or expense) categories automatically. Check it afterwards and change it if needed.
- Refunds stay expenses. A document marked This is a refund must be an expense. Untick it before you change the document to Income, or the change is not saved.
- Totals move. The document now counts on the other side of your Overview and reports.
Which type should I choose?
| The document is… | Choose |
|---|---|
| A receipt or a bill you paid | Expense |
| An invoice you sent, or a payment you received (for example a payout from a booking platform) | Income |
| A bank or credit card statement you want transactions extracted from | Statement |
| Something to keep that is not money in or out (a contract, a warranty, an ID) | Other document |
Pay stubs and payslips. SparkReceipt has no separate payslip type. Pick the type by which way the money went for the account you keep in SparkReceipt:
- A payslip you received as an employee records money paid to you, so Income is the natural fit.
- A payslip you issued to someone you employ records a wage you paid, so file it as an Expense.
- If you only want to keep it on file, choose Other document.
SparkReceipt reads payslips like any other document. Deductions such as withheld income tax are not always read as separate lines, so check the line items and add any missing ones by hand, see How do I edit, add or remove line items on an expense or income?. Ask your accountant how payslips should be recorded in your books.
Keep a document without counting it in your books
If you want to keep a document but not have it count as an expense or income (for example a personal purchase), you don't have to move it to the Trash bin:
- Change it to Other document. It stays in your documents and keeps its file and data, but it is no longer counted as an expense or income in your Overview totals, and it can't be published to accounting software.
- Move it to a separate linked account. If you keep personal and business documents apart, move it with Move to linked account. See Can I separate business and personal expenses?.
Stop wrong types from coming back
SparkReceipt decides the type when it scans a document. If documents from the same Merchant or Payer keep arriving with the wrong type, an Auto-assign details automation can switch them for you: match the name (or a Tag), turn on Document category under Assign details and pick Expenses or Income. It switches between Expense and Income only. See How to set up automations in SparkReceipt. For documents you already have, change them in bulk as described above.
When SparkReceipt sees that the other party on a document matches your own account name, which often means an income document was read as an expense or the other way round, it marks the document Needs attention and explains why in the Comments. See What does Needs attention mean on a document, and how do I see why?.
I don't want to track income at all
There is no setting that turns income off. If you only record expenses, simply don't add income documents. If a few documents were imported as Income by mistake, change them to Expense as described above.