Expense Management & Profit and Loss

Rent, salaries, electricity, licence fees, aggregator commission — recorded against a chart of accounts built for your kind of business, and turned into a profit and loss statement you can actually read.

Included in the ₹2,999/year plan•1-month free trial•No card required

What is expense management, and how is it different from purchases?

An expense is money your business spends on running itself — rent, staff salaries, the electricity bill, licence fees, the plumber. It is not the same as buying stock. Stock becomes inventory and sits on your books until you sell it; an expense is gone the moment you pay it.

That distinction is the whole point, because it is the difference between gross profit and net profit. What you paid for the rice is cost of goods. What you paid the cook is an operating cost. Setuverse keeps them apart so both numbers mean something.

Expense management is part of the ₹2,999/year plan — not an add-on — and it draws on the same suppliers as purchases and the same sales as your billing, so the profit and loss statement is built from what already happened rather than from data you re-enter.

Recording what you spend

Fast enough to do on the spot, complete enough to hand to your accountant at year end.

Numbered automatically

Every expense gets its own sequential number, so nothing goes missing and nothing is entered twice under a different name.

Amount and tax, kept separate

The base amount and the tax on it are recorded as distinct figures, so the total is never a number somebody had to work out by hand.

Attach the receipt

Photograph the bill and keep it with the entry. The paper can go in a drawer and stay there — the record that matters is in the system.

Tied to a supplier

Expenses use the same supplier records as purchases, so your landlord or your electrician is one entry in the system rather than three spellings of the same name.

Paid, and how

Record the payment method and reference — cash, UPI, bank transfer, cheque — so an expense can be matched back to the bank statement later.

A clear status

Draft, submitted, approved, rejected, paid or cancelled — you can always tell what has been settled and what is still waiting.

A chart of accounts that already knows your business

Most software hands you a blank list and expects you to invent your own categories. Setuverse sets up a core chart the day you start, then adds a pack for your kind of business — so the categories on screen are the ones you actually spend money on.

Every business

A 19-category core covering the things every business pays for.

Rent · Utilities · Personnel · Repairs & maintenance · Insurance · Professional fees · Bank & payment charges · Licences & taxes · Marketing · Travel · Freight · Packaging

Restaurants add

Eight more that only a food business needs.

Food cost · Non-alcoholic beverage cost · Kitchen fuel · Crockery & smallwares · Linen & laundry · Cleaning & pest control · Aggregator commission · Staff meals

Bars add

Six more, including the ones the excise department cares about.

Liquor cost · Beer cost · Wine cost · Excise licence fees · Glassware breakage · Music & entertainment

Aggregator commission is its own line. If you take orders through a delivery platform, that commission is one of the largest numbers in your business and it is not rent, not marketing and not cost of goods. Putting it anywhere else makes your food cost look wrong and your profit look like a mystery.

You can add your own categories on top, and the chart is set up automatically — there is nothing to configure before you record your first expense.

Approvals, if you want them

A single-owner shop records an expense and moves on. A business with a manager and an accountant wants a second pair of eyes on anything large. Both work.

Submit, approve, reject

An expense is submitted for approval and either cleared or sent back. Whoever submitted it can also withdraw it before a decision is made.

A full audit trail

Who submitted it, when, who approved it and when — recorded against the expense rather than remembered by somebody. The approver's name is always shown.

Approve several at once

A week of small expenses does not need a week of clicking. Clear a batch together when you sit down to do the books.

Reimbursements

When a staff member has paid out of pocket, an approved expense can be turned into a reimbursement to settle rather than a note on a piece of paper.

Profit and loss, without an accountant in the room

Built from your sales, your purchases and your expenses — three things already in the system. You choose a period; the statement is there.

The statement

Monthly, quarterly or yearly. Revenue, cost of goods, operating costs, and the gross, operating and net profit that fall out of them — each with its margin.

Two periods side by side

This quarter against last. The comparison is usually more useful than the number, because it tells you which way things are going.

Where the money went

Your largest expense categories ranked, spend by cost centre, and the trend month by month so a slow creep is visible before it becomes a problem.

Gross profit and net profit are different questions

Gross profit asks: is what I sell priced right?

Revenue minus what the goods cost. If this is thin, your prices or your suppliers are the problem — and the answer lives in purchases.

Net profit asks: is the business viable?

What is left after rent, salaries and everything else. A shop can have healthy gross profit and still lose money, and this is the number that tells you so.

Cost of goods is filled in from your purchases, so the more accurately purchases are recorded against real products, the more the gross margin means.

What the business spends is the owner's business

Expenses, salaries, rent and supplier payments are visible only to owner and admin accounts. Your cashier can take payments all day without ever seeing what you pay your staff or your landlord.

Frequently asked questions

Expense management and profit & loss in Setuverse.

Is expense management included in the ₹2,999 plan?
Yes. Expense recording, categories, approvals and profit & loss reporting are all core features of the plan. There is no separate charge and nothing to switch on first.
What is the difference between an expense and a purchase?
A purchase is stock you buy to sell — it becomes inventory and counts as cost of goods. An expense is money spent running the business, like rent, salaries or electricity, and counts as an operating cost. Keeping them apart is what makes gross profit and net profit two different, useful numbers.
Do I have to create my own expense categories?
No. A 19-category core chart is set up automatically for every business, and a pack is added for your type — restaurants get food cost, kitchen fuel, linen and laundry, aggregator commission and staff meals; bars additionally get liquor, beer and wine cost, excise licence fees, glassware breakage and entertainment. You can add your own categories on top whenever you need to.
Can I attach a photo of the bill?
Yes. A receipt can be attached to any expense, so the entry carries its own proof and the paper copy stops being the only record.
Do expenses need approval before they count?
Only if you want them to. An expense can be recorded and paid with no approval at all, or routed for approval with the submission, the decision, the approver and the timestamps all recorded. Several can be approved together when you sit down to do the books.
Can my staff see what I spend?
No. Expenses, salaries, rent and supplier payments are restricted to owner and admin accounts. Cashiers, waiters and kitchen staff cannot see any of it.
Where does the profit and loss statement get its numbers?
Revenue comes from your sales and invoices, cost of goods from your purchases, and operating costs from your expenses. Nothing is re-entered — the statement is built from what has already been recorded during the month.
Can I compare this month with last month?
Yes. The statement runs monthly, quarterly or yearly, two periods can be shown side by side, and expense trends show spend month by month so a gradual increase is visible before it becomes a problem.
Why does my gross margin look wrong?
Usually because purchases have not been recorded against real products from your catalogue. Cost of goods is built from purchases, so a bill entered as free text is counted as a cost but cannot be tied to what you sold. Entering purchase lines against catalogue items fixes it.
Does it handle reimbursing staff who paid out of pocket?
Yes. An approved expense can be turned into a reimbursement to be settled, with the payment recorded against it like any other.

Find out what your business actually made last month

Included in the ₹2,999/year plan, with a free month to try it. Your categories are set up the day you start.