Cost Inbox Overview | Buildertrend Help Center
1/1/25, 10:32 PM
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Financial Management
Cost Inbox Overview
Cost Inbox Overview
Create an efficient expense submission workflow with
Cost Inbox.
Written by Ciara Samento
Updated over a year ago
The Cost Inbox serves as a hub to store Receipts,
efficiently streamlining expense management for the
bookkeeping experience. Field Crew and Project
Managers can simply upload receipts to one centralized
location, allowing bookkeepers and accountants to review
all expenses in one place before creating a Bill.
Additionally, the Cost Inbox features Optical Character
Recognition (OCR), enabling scanned receipts and digital
financial documents to automatically extract data and fill
in details like dates, material line items, costs, etc.
https://helpcenter.buildertrend.net/en/articles/9491930-cost-inbox-overview#h_48ddd6c933
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Cost Inbox Overview | Buildertrend Help Center
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Scanning Receipt with Mobile
To begin the process to upload a receipt to the Cost
Inbox with your mobile device, click on the (+).
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Next, click on Scan Receipt/Bill.
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Click on Upload to Cost Inbox.
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Next, scan receipt to capture all important information
provided in the blue box. This will ensure the Optical
Character Recognition (OCR) can read and process all
information from the receipt.
Click the camera icon to capture the receipt.
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Next, click Done.
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Update Title, assign to Job, then click Done.
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Receipt saved will populate at the top of your screen.
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Creating a Bill from the Cost Inbox
Once the Receipt has been scanned and sent to the Cost
Inbox, you can view all details and create a new Bill.
To begin, click on the Financial tab, then select Cost
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Inbox.
Once the receipt has been uploaded to the Cost Inbox,
you will see a Status of Processing.
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Once scanning is complete the status will move from
Processing to New. Click on the title of the receipt to view
uploaded details.
Important information such as Line Items and Purchase
Date is now visible. Modify as needed, including
assigning the correct cost code for each line item.
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Once the receipt information has been successfully
updated, allocate this cost to a Job by clicking on the
New Bill tab located in the bottom right corner.
Update the information specific to that Bill, then click
Save. This expenses will now be visible on your Budget.
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*If you are integrated with QuickBooks
Online*
When creating a bill from a receipt using the cost
inbox, it is best practice to:
1. Adopt a special bill numbering convention. Our
best practice is to indicate the credit card or bank
account used for the purchase paired with the date
of the purchase.
In the example: VI (Visa Card was used) +
081224 (Date of purchase)
2. Make sure the Invoice date is the date of the
actual purchase.
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By adopting this naming convention, you will have
an easier time matching these bills to the
QuickBooks Bank Feed.
For more information on how to push the bill
created from the receipt to QuickBooks Online,
review this article.
For more information on how to match a bill to
the bank feed in QuickBooks Online, review this
article.
For more information on how to push the bill
created from the receipt to QuickBooks
Desktop, review this article.
For more information on how to match a bill to
the bank feed in QuickBooks Desktop, review
this article.
https://helpcenter.buildertrend.net/en/articles/9491930-cost-inbox-overview#h_48ddd6c933
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Tax Inclusion
Automatic tax inclusion allows for the Cost Inbox to be
utilized by international customers.
To find this setting, navigate to the User Profile Icon and
select Company Settings.
Scanning Receipt
with Mobile
Creating a Bill from
the Cost Inbox
Tax Inclusion
Interested in
Learning More?
Then, select Bills / POs / Budget under Financials.
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Scroll to the bottom to find the Automatically include tax
items on receipts checkbox. Leave this unchecked if you
would NOT like Buildertrend to add the tax information
automatically.
To ensure notifications are sent upon upload, ensure
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Receipt Uploaded & New Receipt Comment are enabled.
Adjust User Permissions with the people icon on the top
right of your Buildertrend account.
Interested in Learning More?
The Buildertrend Learning Academy is your one-stopshop for your online education, whether you're new to
Buildertrend or an experienced user looking to learn more.
If you have any questions or require additional support,
feel free to chat with us, send an email:
support@buildertrend.com, or give us a call at 1-888-4157149. We’re always happy to help.
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Buildertrend Learning Academy
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