# Create Expense Plan

Source: https://sites.veevavault.help/gr/sitevault/ctms/expenses-create-plan/

**Who can complete this task?**
- Administrators and Site Staff with the Financial Management Extended Permission

The **Expenses** tab provides tools to plan for and track costs associated with running a study. These tools serve two purposes:

- To help you understand the cost of running the study, so you can make informed decisions when negotiating budgets
- To help you track expenses you incur and payments you make as you run the study.

## Create Study Expense Plan

Create an **Expense Plan** to gather and estimate study expenses on a per-visit and per-participant basis; this will help you understand the cost of running the study so that you can make informed decisions when negotiating budgets. As visits are completed, **Payable Items** are generated based upon the costs entered in the Expense Plan; this will help you track your expenses as you run the study. As accounts are settled, you can later update these items to the _Paid_ or _Void_ statuses.

- In the Expense Plan, you can create costs and expenses under the following categories: 
  - **Activities:** Costs associated with study activities.
  - **Personnel:** Costs related to staffing or personnel (ex. pay rates).
  - **Stipends:** Fixed payments made to participants.

- The system supports multiple versions of an Expense Plan. If revisions are needed, you can create a new version built off of the prior version.
- Once a plan is moved to _Current_, it cannot be altered. To make changes, you must create a new version.
- Schedules, Budgets, and Expense Plans are versioned independently; **if a schedule change impacts the costs and expenses associated with the study, you should update the Expense Plan**.
- The Effective Date of an Expense Plan determines which version is used when visits are moved to the _Completed_ status.

### Report to Compare Expenses to Budgets

From the Reporting tab, create a report with the type **Participant Visit (with Visit Definition)**. Add the following columns to the report:

- Budget Per Visit Total Revenue
- Expense Plan Per Visit Total Cost

[![Compare Expenses to Budget](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-budget-report.png) ](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-budget-report.png)

## Access or Create the Expense Plan

To create an Expense Plan, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to **Finance \> Budgets & Billing**.
2. Select the study.
3. Select **Expenses**.
4. Select one of the following: 
  - Select a version to view or a Draft version to edit.
  - If a Draft version exists and you select **Create New Draft** , the existing minor version will increase to the next minor version.
  - If no plan exists, select **Create New Draft.**

[![Create Expense Plan](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-create.png) ](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-create.png)

## Complete Expense Plan Overview

The Overview provides the plan’s version, status, and system details. It also includes an editable field for the effective date of the plan.

[![Expense Plan Overview](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-overview.png) ](/gr/uploads/sitevault/images/help/sv-expenses-overview.png)