Overview
Subcontractor auto expenses help you pay your subcontractors without building every cost by hand. They let Aspire generate the cost of subcontracted work automatically from the time and materials your subcontractors report, so you can create a purchase receipt, compare it against the invoice your subcontractor sent you, and send the bill on for payment.
Subcontractors aren't employees, so they aren't paid through payroll. They're paid through a purchase receipt, the same way you'd pay any vendor. Auto expenses are what get their work onto that receipt.
This article explains how the process works from setup through payment, and links to the articles that walk through each part.
Who this affects: Branch Administrators, Controllers, Accountants, and anyone who builds estimates or pays vendors.
Things to know
Auto expenses are tied to the subcontractor's company, not to an individual contact. Aspire matches reported time to an auto expense by looking at the company the reporting contact belongs to.
An auto expense only generates when a subcontractor reports time on the work ticket. If an in-house crew does the work, nothing generates, even when an auto expense is set up on the service.
T&M and Per Service expenses generate on their own. Fixed Payment expenses don't. You trigger those manually.
You can add an auto expense to a Fixed Payment opportunity service only when its catalog service is marked Multi-Visit.
An opportunity service whose invoice type is Fixed Payment requires an Hourly or Catalog Item fee type. A Flat Fee auto expense on one never generates.
Auto expenses are most common in snow operations, where subcontracted work is the norm, but nothing about the feature is snow-specific.
Tip: Set your auto expenses up and test them before your first event of the season. Run a service end to end (schedule it, report subcontractor time, complete the ticket, and check the Purchasing Assistant) so you find gaps before they cost you a payment cycle.
Requirements
Working with auto expenses depends on several permissions:
Trigger Auto Expense Creation: generates auto expenses from selected work tickets, and gives access to the Auto Expense section on the Company screen.
View Purchasing: opens the Purchasing module, where generated expenses arrive.
Add Receipt, Receive Receipt, and Approve Receipt: create, receive, and approve the purchase receipt that pays your subcontractor.
Setting up auto expenses on an estimate also depends on permission to edit opportunities and estimate items.
How it works
An auto expense is a standing instruction attached to an opportunity service: when this subcontractor works on this service, cost it at this rate. Aspire applies that instruction when the work is reported.
Two settings drive most of what auto expenses do, and they live on different objects.
An opportunity service is a single service priced for a single opportunity, and you open it from the Service Details screen of an estimate. That's what carries the Invoice Type.
The catalog service it was built from carries Multi-Visit. Catalog services live at Administration > Estimating > Service Catalog, and they carry no invoice type at all.
What has to be true before auto expenses generate
The subcontractor exists as a contact with a contact type of Sub, and that contact is associated with a company.
An auto expense is set up on the opportunity service, naming that company.
The visit is on the Schedule Board.
The subcontractor has time reported on the work ticket.
For material and equipment expenses, the catalog item is flagged Allocate from Mobile.
What generates the expense
When a subcontractor reports time on a T&M or Per Service work ticket, that time is accepted and the ticket is marked complete, Aspire generates the expense and it appears in the Purchasing Assistant.
When a subcontractor reports time on a Fixed Payment work ticket, nothing generates until you trigger it. Fixed Payment work sits on a single seasonal ticket that never completes, so there's no completion event for Aspire to react to.
When an in-house crew reports the time instead, no expense generates, whatever the invoice type.
Note: The expense generates at the moment the ticket is marked complete, not at final approval. If the catalog service is marked Requires Approval, that action moves the ticket to Pending Approval rather than Complete, and the expense is already in the Purchasing Assistant by then. This is why a ticket in either status can carry purchase receipts, and why you'll find expenses waiting against tickets you haven't finished approving.
How the fee type shapes the cost
Fee type | How Aspire calculates the cost | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
Flat Fee | One set amount each time the subcontractor performs the service. | Per-occurrence work, such as $100 per plow on a T&M or Per Service contract. |
Hourly | The hourly rate multiplied by the hours reported. | Work paid by time. Required for Fixed Payment services. |
Catalog Item | The rate you set per unit of the item applied. | Materials the subcontractor allocates, such as bulk salt, and equipment rates that differ by machine. Equipment set up as a catalog item tracks hourly. |
Note: If your subcontractor allocates a material you don't pay them for, set that catalog item's amount to $0. The allocation still records against the work ticket, and the subcontractor isn't paid for it.
Which opportunity services accept an auto expense
How you add the auto expense determines which opportunity services qualify. There are two paths: from an estimate on the opportunity service, or through the Auto Expense Wizard on the Company screen in the Properties module.
From an estimate. You can set up an auto expense on an opportunity service whose invoice type is T&M, Per Service, or Fixed Price on Completion. A Fixed Payment opportunity service also qualifies when the catalog service behind it is marked Multi-Visit. If the invoice type is Fixed Payment and Add Subcontractor Expenses isn't in the three-dot menu on the Service Details screen, that's why. Multi-Visit is set in the service catalog, not on the estimate.
Through the Auto Expense Wizard. The wizard is the narrower path. It applies only to opportunity services whose invoice type is Per Service, and it can't create Flat Fee expenses. For anything else, add the auto expense from the estimate.
How this connects to subcontractor reporting
An auto expense is what makes a service available for your subcontractors to report against, and what they report is what Aspire prices.
Important: When a subcontractor tells you a service is missing, the cause is usually a missing auto expense rather than a problem with the Subcontractor Portal or Aspire Mobile. Check the opportunity service first.
What your subcontractors report becomes the expense
The work your subcontractors submit is what Aspire prices.
An Hourly expense multiplies your rate by the hours they submit.
A Catalog Item expense prices the material quantities they allocate.
A Flat Fee expense counts the times they performed the service.
Submitted entries display on the Time Entry screen for your review, and accepting that time is what releases the expense.
Rejecting an entry stops the expense with it. The subcontractor corrects and resubmits, and the expense generates from the corrected figures.
Where the reporting documentation stops
The Subcontractor Portal and Aspire Mobile documentation follows a subcontractor's work as far as submission and review. Everything after that (pricing the work, generating the expense, and paying it) happens in the Purchasing module and is covered here and in Paying Subcontractors from Auto Expenses.
Workflow
Auto expenses sit at two points in the wider process. They're set up on the opportunity service before any work is scheduled, and they generate cost after the work is reported and accepted. Between those two points, the process belongs to scheduling and subcontractor reporting.
Before the work
The subcontractor exists as a contact with a contact type of Sub, associated with a company.
An auto expense is set up on each opportunity service they might perform.
The Subcontractor Portal is turned on and they've been invited.
For Aspire Mobile, Enable sub access to Aspire Mobile at Administration > Configuration > Time Reporting lets subcontractors log in without an Aspire user account. Subcontractors who already have one can log in whether the setting is turned on or not.
During the work
The visit is scheduled to their route.
They report time and materials in the Subcontractor Portal or Aspire Mobile.
You accept the time.
After the work
The expense generates and arrives in the Purchasing Assistant.
You create the purchase receipt to pay against their invoice.
For more information on creating and approving the purchase receipt, visit Paying Subcontractors from Auto Expenses.
Behavior notes and exceptions
Fixed Payment accumulates; T&M and Per Service don't. A Fixed Payment opportunity service uses one work ticket for the whole season, so hours build up on that single ticket across every visit. An expense showing 17.08 hours may represent a dozen visits. T&M and Per Service opportunity services generate a separate ticket each time the work is done, so each expense covers one occurrence.
Re-triggering Fixed Payment work is safe. Aspire won't generate a second expense for a visit it has already processed. If a subcontractor reports work you've already paid out, adding the time and triggering again picks up only the new visit.
Triggering Fixed Payment work has a cutoff date. The date in the Trigger Auto Expense Creation window is the date expenses generate up through. It isn't the opportunity's start date. Setting it back limits a run to a single event.
Costs allocated after a ticket completes can post to warranty. When a cost reaches a work ticket with a date later than the ticket's completed date, Aspire can post it to warranty rather than to the job. For a purchase receipt, the date that matters is the received date. This is why a receipt covering several days of an event takes the first day of the event as its received date, not the last.
Important: Warranty tracking has a documented scope that may not cover every auto expense.
The subcontractor needs two records. Auto expenses key off the company. Purchase receipts key off the vendor list. Maintain the subcontractor in both, or you'll set up the auto expense successfully and then have no vendor to receive against. Vendors are maintained at Administration > Application > Lists > Vendor, or synced from a connected accounting system.
Where auto expenses are added, edited, or displayed in Aspire
On the opportunity service. Opportunity services with auto expenses set up show the vendor, item, fee type, and amount. One with several auto expenses shows one line for each.
On the Company screen. The Auto Expense section appears on the Company screen, which you open from the Companies tab in the Properties module. This applies only to companies that represent subcontractors. The section lists every auto expense established for that subcontractor where the date at the top of the section falls between the opportunity's start and end dates. Amounts for opportunities that have already ended display as read-only. You can filter, sort, or group the list using standard search list capabilities.
In the Auto Expense report. Found at Reports > Standard Reports > Sales > Auto Expense. This shows every auto expense in one place, with the vendor, item, fee type, and amount, and it can be exported.
In the Purchasing Assistant. Generated expenses appear alongside material purchases. The vendor name column doesn't populate for auto expenses. The subcontractor's name appears in the item name instead, along with the service type and the fee. That's because several subcontractors may perform the same service, so the vendor can't be assumed from the service.
Why this matters
Auto expenses give you a costing record built from what your subcontractors actually reported, rather than from what they invoiced you. That's a real check and balance: when the invoice arrives, you have Aspire's own number to compare it against before you pay. It also puts subcontractor cost on the job it belongs to, which keeps job costing and margin reporting honest.
Related articles
For more information on paying your subcontractors once expenses have generated, visit Paying Subcontractors from Auto Expenses.
For more information on why an expected expense didn't appear, visit Troubleshooting Auto Expenses That Didn't Generate.
For more information on setting up individual auto expenses and using the Auto Expense report, visit Sub Auto Expenses.
For more information on giving subcontractors access to report their own time and materials, visit Setting up and using the Subcontractor Portal.
For more information on subcontractor setup for snow operations, visit Snow Subcontractor Setup.
For more information on how warranty costs are tracked, visit Warranty Costs in Aspire.