A single invoice may cover work for three projects, with a different amount assigned to each. In Busabase, should I keep one expense record and create separate allocation records linked to the projects? I need to preserve the original invoice total while making sure project reports count only each project’s share. What would a sensible table structure look like?
Yes: keep one Expense record for the original invoice and one Allocation record per project share. In Busabase, an Expenses Base can hold invoice ID, supplier, total, currency, date, attachment and approval state. An Allocations Base links an Expense to a Project and stores the amount assigned to that project, the allocation reason and reviewer. One invoice can then have three allocations without being counted three times in a project report. Each project's report sums its Allocation amounts, while the Expense retains the untouched original total.
For a 1,000-unit invoice split 400/350/250, the expense total remains 1,000; the three project allocations are 400, 350 and 250. Add a sum of related allocations and a difference from the invoice total so a reviewer can spot an incomplete or over-allocated invoice. Decide the currency, tax basis, rounding and who approves reallocations before importing real invoices. A formula or Lookup can highlight a mismatch, but Busabase does not automatically enforce a cross-record “sum must equal invoice total” rule for every write, so do not mark an invoice reconciled solely because an agent filled three rows.
Ask the agent to create one sample invoice with three project shares, show both the invoice-level and project-level views, then submit the allocations for finance review. Do you sometimes split an invoice by percentage rather than by fixed amounts, or allocate only part of an expense to projects?
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