Welcome — this is the moment Simple-C goes from “set up” to actually useful. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect on your first try; you can always come back and edit. Here’s how to get your first expense on the books.
First, you’ll need a client
Every expense in Simple-C is tied to a bank, and every bank belongs to a business, and businesses are linked to clients. So before you can record an expense, you need at least one client and one business with a bank account set up.
- Open Clients from the sidebar.
- Click Add New Client.
- Pick the client type:
- Individual (Personal) — for personal tax filings
- Business — for Schedule C and other business filings
- Fill in the client information (name, contact, address, office). For a business you’ll also add the business name, owner, EIN, NAICS code, and start date.
- Save.
If your client is already in Simple-C, you’re good — skip ahead. See the Managing clients article for the full field list.
Now pick how you want to enter the expense
There are two ways to add expenses, and you can mix and match them however you like.
If you have a bank statement (the fast path)
This is the workflow most people use. Open Entry Workflow, upload the bank statement (PDF or CSV), and Simple-C reads the transactions for you. From there you’ll classify, reconcile, and review the period step by step.
The full process has 11 steps, in this order:
- Upload — bring in the bank statement
- Expenses — review and classify the expense transactions
- Cash Receipt — record cash receipts
- Reconcile Expenses — match expenses against the statement
- Income — review and classify income transactions
- Cash Income — record cash income
- Reconcile Income — match income against the statement
- Complete — finalize the period
- Summary Report — review the summary
- Reports — open the reports for the period
- Vehicles — bridge step that links to the Vehicles module
Don’t let that scare you — each step is short, and the numbered stepper at the top of the page lets you jump around. See the Entry Workflow article for a tour of all the steps.
On the Expenses step you can click Auto-Classify to let Simple-C suggest a category for every unclassified transaction. It matches each transaction’s description against the classification rules your company has built up over time, so the more you use it, the smarter the suggestions get. You confirm or change each suggestion before it’s saved.
If you only have a receipt or a cash purchase (the simple path)
For a paper receipt, a cash payment, or a one-off correction, use Manual Entry. Pick the business and bank, fill in the date, provider, amount, method, and any method-specific fields (like a check number or the card’s last 4 digits), plus the category, then save. That’s it. See the Manual Entry article for the full field list and a few power-user tips.
A few tips for your first expenses
- Be specific in descriptions. “Office supplies from Staples” tells future-you (and the IRS) more than “Supplies.”
- Pick a category as you go. It’s much easier to classify expenses while the context is fresh than to come back to a pile of uncategorized rows later.
- Use Auto-Classify and the suggestions. When you upload a statement, Simple-C suggests a category for each transaction; you can accept the suggestion with one click or change it. Picking a category also auto-fills the description for you — take a second to review it and edit it if it’s too generic, so your descriptions stay specific and accurate.
- Lock fields that repeat. In Manual Entry, fields like Month, Provider, Method, Category, and Card last 4 have a small lock toggle. Lock one and its value stays in place after each save, perfect for a stack of receipts that share the same provider or card. Unlock it any time to change the value.
- Use the right method. In Manual Entry, the Method field drives what else you must fill in: Check asks for a check number, Credit Card asks for the last 4 digits, and a categorized method (like most Schedule C categories) requires a Category and a Description.
- Don’t aim for perfect. You can edit any expense later. The goal of your first session is just to get started.
When an expense is really an asset
If you’re buying something that lasts more than a year — equipment, a computer, a vehicle — it may need to be entered as a depreciable asset instead of a regular expense. In Manual Entry, choose the Depreciation category (it shows up as 1 | Depreciation in the category list), then fill in:
- Asset Description — what the asset is
- Useful Life (Years) — how many years it will be depreciated over
- Asset Type — pick from the list, which also suggests a useful life:
- Vehicle / Computer / Office equipment → 5 years
- Furniture, fixtures, machinery → 7 years
- Qualified improvement property (QIP) → 15 years
- Residential rental property → 28 years
- Commercial property → 39 years
- Other → you enter the years yourself
If the asset is a vehicle, check the “This is a vehicle” box (only available for the Vehicle / Computer / Office equipment type) and Simple-C will create a matching vehicle record for you.
When you save, Simple-C creates the asset, the expense, and the depreciation schedule in one step. You’ll see the asset later in the Assets Report and the Depreciation Report.
Tip: for items under $2,500, Simple-C shows a de minimis reminder. The $2,500 threshold is only a prompt to review the de minimis safe harbor, not a blanket rule that the item can be deducted immediately. Deductibility depends on your preparer’s determination and the applicable eligibility and accounting-policy requirements, so follow your tax/accounting policy or ask your accountant which treatment applies to you.
Note: the Years field is a reference for the useful life only. The actual tax depreciation method is decided by the preparer.
Stuck?
If something isn’t behaving the way you expected, take a look at the Knowledge Base index — there are dedicated articles for each step of the workflow, every report, and your account and billing. And if you’re still stuck, our support team is happy to help.
Welcome aboard.