Rebillable expenses: charge back what you paid for a client

A rebillable expense is something your company paid for on a client's behalf and charges back to them: the flight to visit their plant, the printing for their event, the license you bought for their project. To collect it, you have to record it under the client's name on the day it is paid and keep it flagged as pending until their next invoice. If it only lives on the card statement, it usually never comes back.

Think of a production company shooting a corporate video. During the shoot someone pays for a lighting rental, the crew's lunch and two taxis. The approved budget said those costs would be charged separately. A month later, the person preparing the invoice has the project hours and the proposal, but the receipts are in the email of whoever paid, and one stayed in a jacket pocket. The invoice goes out with what is known, and the production company absorbs the rest.

What counts as a rebillable expense and what does not

Not everything you spend while working for a client gets charged to them. The useful rule is that the expense follows directly from their engagement and that the client agreed to it in writing, in the proposal or the contract. Some common examples in service businesses:

• Travel and per diems to work at their premises.
• Suppliers hired for their project: printing, equipment rental, translation, a photographer.
• Licenses, domains or services bought in their name or for their sole use.
• Shipping and paperwork you handled for them.

What usually stays out is what it costs to run your company in general: your office, your internal tools, your own advertising. That lowers your margin, but it is not passed on to any client. How each case is treated for tax depends on your country; check that part with your accountant.

Why rebillable expenses go uncharged

The expense and the invoice are almost never handled by the same person, or at the same time. Whoever pays is at the shoot, on the visit or buying the license. Whoever invoices does it weeks later, from whatever they have at hand. If the expense was not recorded with its client, for the person invoicing it does not exist.

Other reasons pile on. Someone decides "we'll add it to the next one" and the next invoice is prepared by someone else. An expense gets charged twice because nobody knows whether it already went on the previous invoice. Or the receipt is lost and, without it, the amount is hard to justify to the client.

Recording the expense with its client from day one

In AgentticCRM expenses each record carries a description, amount and date, and you can add the supplier, their tax ID and the receipt number. You pick one of six fixed categories (Software, Contractor, Marketing, Office, Travel and Other), which are the same for the whole team all year, so one month's spending can be compared with another's.

When you record it, you link the expense to the client and, where it applies, to their project, and tick Billable to client. From then on it sits as To bill, waiting, without anyone having to note it on another list. If you recorded it without ticking the box, you edit it, add the client and tick the box; as long as it has not gone onto an invoice, it is still available for the next one.

From waiting expense to invoice line

When you open a draft invoice for that client, a notice at the top tells you how many expenses are waiting and what they add up to. You click Add to invoice and every waiting expense becomes a line, with its description and amount, in one go. The invoice can also carry the lines from the accepted proposal or the project hours, as we describe in from proposal to payment without switching tools.

Once loaded, each expense is linked to that invoice and cannot be charged again. If the invoice is discarded or voided, the expenses go back to waiting for the next one, so none gets lost along the way or charged twice. You can see more about how invoices are issued, sent and tracked to payment in invoices.

What the net per client tells you

When expenses carry the name of the client who caused them, each client's record shows its expenses tab and its net result. That figure answers an awkward question: which of the clients who bill you the most is, by year end, the one that leaves you the least. Without assigned expenses, that question has no answer.

If your company works with large corporate accounts, where the expenses of each site or program build up over the month, see how a laboratory with corporate accounts organizes it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a rebillable expense?

It is an expense your company paid for a client's engagement and charges back to them on their invoice, usually because the proposal or contract said so.

Can I mark an expense as billable after recording it?

Yes. You edit the expense, assign the client and tick Billable to client. As long as it has not been loaded onto an invoice, it goes onto the next one.

What happens if I void the invoice the expense was on?

The expense goes back to waiting and shows up again when you prepare that client's next invoice.

Can I use it for bookkeeping or paying suppliers?

No. Expenses records what goes out and what comes back to the client. Supplier payments, payroll and general bookkeeping stay in the system where you already keep them.