Expense tracking for locums

Keeping costs together makes it easier to review what you spent, find a receipt and explain why a purchase relates to your work. Include a useful description when you record equipment, subscriptions, travel or professional fees.

Sessional's expense log is part of the Plus and Pro plans. It provides one ledger for costs across your agencies and direct work. Recording an expense does not establish whether it is deductible. Review your records with your registered tax agent alongside the tax planner and earnings dashboard.

The category picker leads with common categories under a suggested heading that reflects your profession's registration body, followed by More categories. Choose the closest category and use the description to explain the purchase. The category is an organising label, not a decision about its tax treatment.

Categories cover the spread of what a clinical contractor spends on:

• Mileage: a category for your travel records, with an optional kilometres field.
• Professional body fees: your AHPRA registration plus your college or association (RACGP, ACRRM, AMA, ANMF, PSA, APA, OTA, APS, ADA, and the like).
• Indemnity insurance: a category for recording professional indemnity costs.
• CPD: CPD home or program fees, peer review, e-learning, portfolio tools.
• Training & courses: record course, conference and exam costs for review.
• Equipment: stethoscope, clinical supplies, a tablet for clinical use.
• Subscriptions: Australian Medicines Handbook, Therapeutic Guidelines (eTG), UpToDate, specialty journals, work software.
• Other categories include Use of home as office, IT & communications, Accommodation & subsistence, Travel (public transport), Uniform & PPE, Accountancy & legal, Business insurance, Marketing & advertising and Other.

For 2026-27, the cents-per-km rate is 91c per business kilometre, with a cap of 5,000 business kilometres per car per income year. Check whether this method applies to you with the ATO or your registered tax agent.

To record a trip, choose Mileage and enter the distance in Kilometres. Enter the expense amount separately. The Mileage card shows the current Australian financial year, from 1 July to 30 June in Sydney time. It adds kilometres from expenses dated within that year and uses the same year's cents-per-km rate and cap for its displayed value. If that year's rate is not yet available, the card shows kilometres without a dollar estimate. The 5,000 km cap is per car, but Sessional does not separate cars. Changing the log filters does not change the card.

You can model a single trip first with the public ATO cents-per-km calculator before you commit it to your log.

Use the Add expense form on Expenses and fill in:

• Category: choose from the suggested group or More categories.
• Description: a short note, for example "Fuel for Dubbo clinic cover" or "Avant indemnity renewal".
• Amount: the dollar cost in AUD.
• Date: when you incurred the cost.
• Kilometres, receipt ref, notes, and link to shift: all optional, covered below.

After saving, check that the expense appears in the log. If a receipt upload fails, the expense can still be saved with a warning; attach the file from the row afterwards.

The optional Link to shift dropdown lists recent shifts from the past 90 days onwards, labelled with their date and workplace. Linking a cost gives you context when you review it:

• Travel context: record the route and purpose in your notes so you can explain the distance later.
• Cost review: compare the expense with the agreed shift rate when considering similar work.
• Workplace discussions: check any reimbursement agreement before adding costs to an invoice.

Linking is optional. Overheads such as AHPRA fees, indemnity, and subscriptions are not shift-specific and should be left unlinked. Travel and consumables usually should be linked.

Attach a receipt when adding an expense or use the receipt button on its row. Keep the original file somewhere you can find it again and check that the attachment opens after upload.

As the log grows, narrow it with the built-in tools: free-text search on the description, a category filter, and a From and To date range that combine. You might view only indemnity costs for the 2025-26 financial year, then switch to 2026-27 to audit the year in progress.

Click CSV to download expense rows for your date range. Search, category and GST filters do not carry into this export. It includes up to 500 rows and adds a truncation notice if there are more; narrow the date range to export the rest. Receipt files are not included.

Before using expense totals in tax planning, review the dates, amounts and supporting records with your registered tax agent. Separate any personal component in your own review and explain unusual purchases. The tax planner guide explains the planning tools; saving a cost in the ledger does not determine its tax treatment.