I have literally been blocked for weeks looking for the right label for a button in the app I build.
It's a spending tracker app. Naturally, it has the concept of an "expense", that has happened in the past. It also has the concept of a "planned expense", that the user expects to happen some time in the future. The button I am talking about changes a planned expense to an expense, when it finally took place. What is the verb or the phrase that would make that action intuitive to understand?
I will celebrate any feedback I can get, as I was stuck with this unsolved issue for quite some time :(
I'm not an accounting expert, but I'm a native English speaker and your question made me curious. I started to look up accounting terms, but some questions came to me and I'll use an example, (that's not me).
I have a small business and I track my revenue and expenses to know my profitability. I have planned for $5,000 of office expenses for the year, and now we need a new printer cartridge. I'm going to Staples to get the $300 cartridge, do I;
I think this matters as to what the term is used for your button, or I'm wrong LOL.
Record Expense?
Incur Expense?
Credit Expense?
Accrue Expense?
I like "Record Expense". It seems simple and clear to me, but I guess it also depends on who your audience is. If the user is an accountant (or similar), I would use a more technical term like "Incur". For the average person accounting jargon can be very confusing.
Thank you, this is the outside perspective I was looking for!
You "incur" or "realize" the expense.
Thanks a lot, this is very appreciated :)
There are a couple of ways to say this, but it depends on where the button shows up, how it's displayed, etc...
"Convert this expense to a transaction"
"Convert this expense"
"Convert 'Planned' to 'Expense'"
Another word for a "convert" is "transform" but it probably doesn't make sense here. Hard to tell without seeing the UI.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for taking the time to help!