Costs & expenses

Track what you spend so your P&L and tax liability stay accurate.

Add a cost

1. Go to Costs and click Add cost. 2. Enter the date, supplier, amount, and VAT treatment (standard, reduced, zero, VAT-exempt, reverse charge for EU B2B). 3. Categorise it (e.g., software, travel, contractor fees) — this groups your spending for P&L. 4. If you're VAT-registered and the cost is VATable, Solvent recovers VAT automatically.

Bulk import costs

1. Go to Costs → Bulk import and upload a CSV with columns: date, supplier, description, amount (excl. VAT), VAT amount, category. 2. Review the preview, then Confirm. 3. Costs appear in your P&L immediately.

CSV template: You can download a template from the import screen to see the expected format.

Bank feed auto-import

Connect Wise or upload a bank statement (CSV/CAMT/OFX) to auto-import and categorise transactions. See Bank reconciliation & imports and Connecting bank feeds.

VAT recovery

If you're VAT-registered:

UK & EU: input the VAT amount on costs with invoices → Solvent adds it to your VAT recovery claim.
VAT-exempt: check the box so Solvent doesn't expect VAT recovery.
Reverse-charge supplies (EU B2B): mark the cost as "Reverse charge" — you account for VAT, not the supplier.

Multi-currency costs

Enter the cost in any supported currency; Solvent converts to your base currency using mid-market rates (daily). FX gains/losses are tracked separately in your P&L for tax reporting.

Pre-company costs

If the active entity is a pre-company workspace, Costs switches to founder-paid formation expenses:

1. Add each expense with vendor, date, description, amount, classification, and optional receipt. 2. Review the suggested US v1 classification: Section 195 startup, Section 709 organisational, capital expenditure, or unclassified. 3. Generate the reimbursement report when the company is formed. 4. Select reported expenses and record the reimbursement into the target company books.

Solvent keeps the pre-company history separate. The current transition/reporting workflow is US-only; for non-US entities, keep the receipts as evidence until jurisdiction-specific treatment is implemented.