What makes hospitality books hard
Hospitality runs on supplier invoices with mixed tax treatment. A single produce delivery can carry GST-free or zero-rated food alongside taxable drinks, packaging and cleaning products, and claiming one-eleventh or one-sixth of the total overstates the credit. Then there is entertaining: staff meals on the premises, a Christmas function, a client dinner. Each country treats those differently, and the treatment often flips depending on who was at the table.
ExpenseFlow is built for exactly that job after capture: reading each line, coding it with a reason, and putting the judgement calls in front of a person instead of guessing.
What ExpenseFlow checks on a hospitality invoice
Its hospitality check looks for explicit entertaining on the invoice and flags your country’s rule for confirmation:
- Australia. Meal entertainment is flagged as not income-tax deductible and not GST-creditable unless it is subject to FBT.
- United Kingdom. Client entertainment is flagged as not deductible with input VAT blocked. Staff functions get a separate flag with the opposite treatment, deductible and recoverable, within the £150-a-head annual function exemption.
- New Zealand. Entertainment with a private element is split 50/50 into claimable and non-claimable lines, with the GST on the non-claimable half excluded.
- Canada. Meals and entertainment are split at the 50% limit for both the deduction and the input tax credit, unless the business regularly sells food to customers and bills them.
- Singapore. Input tax on entertainment food and drink is treated as claimable, with family and private benefits flagged as blocked under Regulation 26.
Everything else it does on every invoice
- Captures supplier invoices by email forward, upload or phone photo.
- Reads line items, quantities, tax and totals, including mixed-rate invoices.
- Codes each line to an account and tax code, with a written reason and a confidence score.
- Routes uncertain lines to a review queue, with roles and per-row approvals before anything posts.
- Syncs after approval to Xero with the source document attached, or to QuickBooks Online as a coded bill.
What it does not do
It does not calculate FBT, decide who was at a function, file your BAS, VAT, GST or GST/HST return, or reconcile your POS takings. Those stay with you or your bookkeeper, and ExpenseFlow makes the evidence easy to find.
Read the guide for your country
Each guide covers the whole hospitality ledger, category by category, with sources: