Capturing Expenses

You need to record all expenses for your property business in Provestor. This includes repairs, mortgage interest, professional fees, insurance, and other costs incurred wholly and exclusively for your rental properties.

This guide covers how to add and categorise expenses in Provestor, whether you're entering them manually or reviewing transactions imported from bank or letting agent statements. The categorisation steps are the same regardless of how the transaction gets into Provestor.

Two ways to add expense transactions

Manual entry

Enter transactions one at a time by choosing Add cash out from your account. Use this when:

  • You pay for expenses in cash
  • You have receipts for costs paid outside your bank account
  • You need to add a one-off payment or correction
  • You're working with a cash account in Provestor (no dedicated business bank account)

Import from statements

Upload bank statements or letting agent statements, and Provestor extracts transactions automatically. You then review and categorise them. This is usually faster if you have regular statements.

See Uploading bank statements or Recording from agent statements for details on importing.

The categorisation process is the same for both methods — whether you manually enter a transaction or import it, you'll follow the same steps to categorise it and link it to a property.

How to add and categorise expenses

For manual entry: Add cash out

If you're manually entering expenses:

  1. In your Property Business workspace, select the account where you want to record the expense (Cash, Business Bank Account, or Letting Agent)
  2. Choose Add cash out from the account screen

For imported transactions: Review extracted expenses

If you've uploaded a bank or letting agent statement, Provestor extracts transactions automatically. Select the transaction you want to review and categorise.

See Uploading bank statements or Recording from agent statements for the import process.

The next steps are the same whether you manually entered or imported the transaction.

Step 1: Confirm transaction details

On the first screen, confirm or enter:

  • Date — The date you paid the expense (see When to record expenses below)
  • Description — Brief description (e.g. "Roof repairs - 12 Church Lane")
  • Amount — Total amount paid

Do you need to break this down into multiple items?

  • No, it's a single item / category — Choose this if the entire payment is one type of expense (most common)
  • Yes, it's multiple items / categories — Choose this if a single payment contains different types of expenses (e.g. you bought items for multiple properties, or a mix of different categories)

Choose Next to continue.

On the second screen, select:

  • Category — Choose the expense category (e.g. "Property repairs and maintenance")
  • Property — Link this expense to the specific property it relates to

See Which expense category should I use? for guidance on categorisation.

Tip

Expenses for jointly owned properties
If you're recording an expense for a jointly owned property, enter the full amount paid. Provestor automatically applies your ownership percentage when submitting updates to HMRC.

Step 3: Advanced options (if needed)

Provestor offers additional fields for handling common scenarios. You only need these in specific situations:

Mortgage payments

If you selected "Mortgages and property finance costs" as your category:

  • Capital repayment — Enter the capital portion of your mortgage payment. For interest-only mortgages, this is usually zero. Only the interest portion is allowable as an expense.

See Mortgage interest and costs for detailed guidance on recording mortgage payments.

Personal use amount

If you bought something used partly for personal reasons (e.g. laptop used for property business and personal use):

  • Personal use amount — Enter the portion (£) used personally. This amount will be excluded from your tax return. For example, if you bought a £1,000 laptop and use it 50% for personal use, enter £500.

See Personal use and mixed expenses for detailed guidance on HMRC's wholly and exclusively test and how to calculate business portions.

Capital amount

If you're recording a cost that's capital rather than revenue (e.g. major improvements, equipment, initial furnishing):

  • Capital amount — Enter the portion (£) that's capital. Capital costs aren't claimed as day-to-day expenses in your Making Tax Digital tax return, but can be useful for your Capital Gains Tax return when you sell the property.

See Capital vs revenue expenses for guidance on what counts as capital.

Original item cost

If you're replacing a like-for-like domestic item (furniture, appliances) under replacement of domestic items relief:

  • Original item cost — Enter the cost (£) of the old item you're replacing. Provestor will claim the lower of the two values in your year-end tax return.

For example, if you replace a £400 sofa with a £550 sofa bed, enter £400 as the original item cost. Provestor will automatically claim £400 (like-for-like replacement), not the full £550.

See Capital vs revenue expenses for details on replacement of domestic items relief.

Choose Save to complete.

When to record expenses

Provestor uses cash basis accounting, which means you record expenses when you actually pay them, not when you're invoiced or when the work is done.

Record the expense on the date the money leaves your account or you pay cash.

For more on cash basis timing rules, see Cash basis accounting.

Splitting a single payment into multiple items

Sometimes a single payment needs to be split across different categories, properties, or advanced options.

Common reasons to split:

  • You bought items for multiple properties in one transaction
  • A single receipt includes both business and personal purchases
  • You bought items that need different categorisation (e.g. repairs plus capital improvements)
  • You're replacing domestic items for multiple properties

Example 1: Multiple properties

You buy three dishwashers from AO.com for £1,200 — one for each of three properties. One is a new dishwasher (capital), the other two are replacements.

Example 2: Mixed personal and business use

You buy a laptop (£800, 50% personal use) and a printer (£200, 100% business use) in one transaction.

How to split transactions

  1. On the first screen, enter the total amount paid
  2. Select Yes, it's multiple items / categories for "Do you need to break this down?"
  3. On the second screen, you'll see an Amount field at the top
  4. Enter the amount for the first item, then categorise it and choose the property
  5. Choose Save — you'll be taken to a summary screen showing how much is left to allocate
  6. Choose Add another item and repeat for each remaining item
  7. Continue until the full amount is allocated

Provestor tracks the remaining amount and won't let you save until everything is allocated correctly.

Recording expense refunds

If you receive a refund paid back to you:

Record it as cash in, and choose the expense category from the "Refund" section in the category dropdown.

For example, if you get a refund for repairs, record it as cash in and select "Refund → Property repairs and maintenance" from the category list.

If you receive a refund as part of a purchase:

For example, you go to a DIY shop, get a refund for an incorrect item, and buy something else in the same transaction.

  1. On the first screen, enter the net amount you actually paid (after the refund)
  2. Select Yes, it's multiple items / categories
  3. On the second screen, enter the refund amount and categorise it as income (using the refund category)
  4. You'll see the summary screen showing how much is left to allocate
  5. Add the new purchase(s) and categorise them as expenses

This ensures the refund and new purchase are both recorded correctly within a single transaction.

Common expense categories

Most property expenses fall into these categories:

Property repairs and maintenance Repairs that restore property to its original condition — painting, fixing appliances, roof repairs, decorating supplies. See Capital vs revenue expenses for guidance on repairs vs improvements.

Rent, rates, insurance and ground rents Council tax, business rates, insurance premiums, ground rent, rent you pay on leased property.

Legal, management and other professional fees Letting agent fees, accountancy fees, legal fees for renewing short leases or evicting tenants.

Mortgages and property finance costs Mortgage interest (not capital repayments), loan arrangement fees, alternative finance payments. See Mortgage interest and costs for detailed guidance.

Costs of services provided, including wages Cleaning, gardening, communal utilities, wages for staff supporting the property.

Travel costs Travel incurred wholly and exclusively for your property business. See Travel costs and mileage for guidance on claiming vehicle expenses and HMRC mileage rates.

Other allowable property expenses Stationery, phone costs, bank charges, miscellaneous costs that don't fit elsewhere.

See Which expense category should I use? for the complete list with examples.

What you cannot claim

Some costs are disallowed and cannot be claimed for tax purposes:

  • Income tax, capital gains tax, or inheritance tax payments
  • VAT paid to HMRC (unless you're not VAT registered and cannot reclaim it)
  • Personal expenses unrelated to the property business
  • Fines and penalties
  • Client entertaining
  • Donations and gifts
  • Depreciation

You can still record these in Provestor using the "Disallowed expenses" category. This keeps your records complete but ensures they're excluded from your tax calculations.

Best practices for recording expenses

Keep receipts

Save receipts for all expenses. You don't upload them to Provestor, but HMRC may ask to see them if they review your records.

Record regularly

Update your records weekly or monthly rather than waiting until quarterly deadlines. This reduces errors and makes reconciliation easier.

Use clear descriptions

Include what the expense was for and which property (e.g. "Roof repairs - 12 Main Street"). This makes it easier to review transactions later.

Match against bank statements

Regularly check that expenses recorded in Provestor match your bank statement. This helps spot missing transactions.

For more tips, see Record keeping best practices.

If you made a mistake

If you recorded an expense incorrectly, you can edit or delete the transaction in Provestor.

Because quarterly updates are cumulative (they always show totals from 6 April to the end of the quarter), corrections made to your records will automatically flow through in your next quarterly update. There's no need to resubmit previous quarters.

If you've already submitted all four quarterly updates:

Once you've filed your Q4 update (6 April to 5 April), corrections may not flow through automatically. You'll need to either resubmit Q4 or correct the error in your final declaration.

If you've already submitted your final declaration and discover an error, you'll need to file an amendment.

See the Amendments and corrections section for detailed guidance on fixing errors after quarterly updates or final declarations have been submitted.

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