# Expenses & cost tracking

> Where every O&M dollar lands - automatic cost posting from work orders, expenses, purchase orders, invoices, and budgets - building each asset's total cost of ownership.

Source: https://app.assetlab.ca/docs/cmms/expenses-and-costs

Cost data in AssetLab is a by-product of doing the work, not a separate bookkeeping chore. If work orders are closed honestly, the spend picture assembles itself - and what it assembles into, asset by asset, is **Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)**: what a thing really costs over its life, not just what it cost to buy.

## How costs enter the system

| Path | What it captures |
|---|---|
| **Work order completion** | Labour hours × rates, parts consumed, contractor amounts - posted to the asset automatically |
| **Expenses** | Costs not tied to a single work order (utilities allocations, one-off purchases) |
| **Purchase orders** | Committed spend - parts restocks, contracted purchases - tracked from issue to receipt |
| **Invoices** | The billed reality, linkable to POs and [projects](/docs/projects/budgets-and-financials) |
| **Manual asset costs** | Historical or external cost events entered directly on an asset |

Every cost event carries a **cost category** (labour, materials, contract, utilities…) - the editable catalog that gives spend reports their rows.

### What completion actually posts

When a [work order](/docs/cmms/work-orders) completes, the total of its **actual cost**, **parts cost**, and **labour** posts automatically - but only when that total is greater than zero, so a zero-cost close leaves no noise in the ledger. The total is split **evenly across every asset linked to the work order**: a $600 job on three assets posts $200 to each. The category is inferred from the work order's type, or from a name match on its work category - so "Plumbing Repair" work lands under the right report row without anyone tagging it.

### Labour rates

Labour converts to money through **hourly rates**: each user can carry an **effective-dated** rate, with a **tenant default** for everyone unrated. Administrators manage both under **Settings → Labour rates**. Rate changes take effect from their date forward - a work order completed last year keeps last year's rate, so historical costs never rewrite themselves.

At completion, the work order's hours are **split evenly across its assignees**, and each share is costed at that person's rate in force on the completion date (the tenant default where they have none). Rates are compensation data: the per-person breakdown is visible to Managers and above.

## Where costs roll up

A cost lands on an asset and is immediately visible:

- On the **asset's cost history** - the lifetime O&M story, next to its replacement value
- By **location** - building and site totals ([hierarchy](/docs/asset-management/locations))
- By **system class** - "what does HVAC cost us portfolio-wide?"
- On the [dashboard](/docs/asset-management/dashboards) - trend, variance, and category breakdowns

## Total cost of ownership

The point of all this capture is TCO. An asset's cost history - acquisition, every repair, every PM visit, parts, contractor calls - accumulated against its replacement value turns gut-feel questions into arithmetic:

- **Repair or replace?** An asset burning 40% of its replacement value in repairs every year makes its own [replacement case](/docs/projects/replacement-planner).
- **Which make lasts?** Lifetime cost by manufacturer or [asset type](/docs/asset-management/classifications) is a filter, not a debate - and it sharpens the next tender's evaluation.
- **What does ownership actually cost?** Budget submissions grounded in "this building's mechanical plant costs $X/year to operate" survive scrutiny that estimates don't.

TCO only works if capture is habitual - which is why costs ride along with work order completion instead of living in a separate ledger someone has to remember to feed.

## Budgets

Annual funding budgets are set per **year**, per **funding source**, and per **module** (organization-wide, facilities, or infrastructure), and the dashboard's budget tab tracks actuals against them through the year - see [Budget](/docs/asset-management/budget). Capital project budgets are separate and richer - see [Budgets & financials](/docs/projects/budgets-and-financials).

## Currency

All money displays in your organization's configured currency ([organization settings](/docs/manage/org-settings)) - including exports and reports.

## Habits that keep the data honest

1. **Costs at completion, every time.** A 30-second estimate beats a blank; blanks compound into "we have no idea what this building costs".
2. **Use categories consistently** - five clean categories outperform twenty vague ones.
3. **Don't double-post.** If a contractor invoice is entered against the work order, it doesn't also go in as a standalone expense.

## Programmatic access

`invoices:read/write`, `purchase_orders:read/write`, plus asset-cost tools on the [REST API](/docs/reference/rest-api) and [MCP](/docs/ai/tools-and-scopes).