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Zoho Expense

Expense by Category Report

A report in Zoho Expense that summarises total spending grouped by expense category, such as meals, travel, or accommodation, for a selected period.

What Is an Expense by Category Report?

The expense by category report in Zoho Expense aggregates all approved expenses across your organisation and groups them by the expense category they were assigned to. Common categories include meals, accommodation, airfare, ground transport, and entertainment. The report shows the total spend and number of claims for each category, making it easy to see where money is going.

How to Use the Report

Finance teams typically run this report at month-end or quarter-end to review spending patterns. You can filter by department, employee, or date range to narrow the view. The report helps identify categories that consistently exceed budget or policy limits, enabling targeted policy changes or additional training for employees who frequently violate guidelines in a specific area.

Category Reports and Budget Allocation

By reviewing historical category spending, finance teams can set more accurate category-level budgets for the following period. Zoho Expense can enforce these category budgets in real time, preventing employees from submitting expenses that would exceed the category limit without a specific override approval.

Can I compare category spend across two different time periods?

Yes. Zoho Expense’s reporting tools allow you to set date range filters and compare reports for different periods side by side. This is useful for quarter-over-quarter comparisons or for assessing the impact of a new travel policy on specific spending categories.

Are rejected or unapproved expenses included in the category report?

By default, the expense by category report in Zoho Expense includes only approved expenses to reflect actual company spend. You can filter the report to include submitted or pending reports as well, which is useful for forecasting expected future cash outflows.

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