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Spend analytics, from the receipt to the tax return

See where money is going, which budgets need attention and what is holding up the close. The answers come from the receipts, invoices and transactions your team already captures.

Three executives review figures together at a meeting table

Pick a period to see spend against the last one, budgets used, bills coming due and whether the month is ready to close.

Spend analytics by category, vendor, person and department

The spend report breaks the period down by category, vendor, employee and department, with the change from the previous period beside each line. It also shows who paid (the company, or employees out of pocket), how expenses came in and how much of the spend has a receipt behind it.

  • Change against the previous period on every line
  • Receipt coverage and the share held by your top five vendors
  • Export transactions to CSV or the report to PDF

Budgets projected before they run over

Every budget shows what was budgeted, what's been spent and what's left, then projects where it will end the period at the current pace. Monthly, quarterly, yearly and one-time budgets sit side by side, each marked on track, at risk or over.

  • Budget against actual, month by month
  • Projection based on the share of the period elapsed
  • At-risk budgets flagged while there's still time to act

How long expense reports take, step by step

The expense cycle report times each stage, from expense to submission, submission to approval and approval to reimbursement, with the median and the 90th percentile. It names the approvers who take longest and the employees who submit late, and shows what's waiting right now.

A close checklist that knows what's still open

Close and controls lists what stands between you and month end: expenses not on a report, reports awaiting approval or reimbursement, bills awaiting approval, overdue bills, uncategorized expenses, missing receipts, tax lines to review and open policy violations. Blockers are kept apart from warnings, and the month's estimated accrual sits beside them.

Sales tax totals, laid out for the return

The taxes report sorts every tax line into collected, claimable or not claimable, for each registration, by month, quarter or year. For GST/HST and QST it sets out the amounts the return asks for so you can copy them, and once a period is filed you mark it filed so later changes land in the next open period.

How spend analytics works

  1. Spending flows in

    Card charges, receipts, mileage and supplier bills are captured and coded as they arrive. Every report reads that record.

  2. Pick a period

    This month, last quarter, year to date or a custom range, compared with the period before.

  3. Break it down

    By category, vendor, employee, department, budget or tax registration, down to the tax lines behind a return.

  4. Export and close

    Export to CSV or PDF, copy return amounts, mark the tax period filed and clear the close checklist.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before they sign up.

Spend analytics is the practice of breaking a company's spending down by category, vendor, person, department and period so finance can see where money goes, what changed and what to act on. It is only as good as the data under it, which is why Smartbills builds its reports on itemized expenses and receipts rather than on card descriptors alone.

Seven: an overview, accounts payable, spend analysis, expense cycle, budgets, close and controls, and taxes. They sit together under Reports in the Smartbills web app and share one period picker.

Open and overdue payables, aging in buckets (not yet due, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days), aging by vendor, bills coming due in the next 7 and 30 days, days payable outstanding, the share of bills paid on time and how many days bills take to approve and to pay.

Yes. The spend report exports its transactions to CSV and the report itself to PDF, and the taxes report exports its tax lines to CSV.

Yes. Tax lines are grouped by registration and split into collected, claimable and not claimable. For GST/HST and QST the report sets out the amounts the return asks for, including GST/HST collected and input tax credits, and flags purchases where the supplier's tax number is missing.

Yes, through the Smartbills MCP server. Once it's connected to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, the assistant can total your spend by category, vendor, department, employee or month, using the same data and the same permissions as your account.

At a minimum: spend by category, vendor, person and department, budgets against actuals with a projection, and the sales tax you'll need to remit. Smartbills includes seven reports in the web app, and each one can be exported.

Get started

Open last month's numbers without rebuilding them.

Connect a card or forward a few receipts, and the reports fill in as expenses arrive.

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