Overview
In Puzzle, spending refers to money paid directly to outside vendors in exchange for goods or services — things like software subscriptions, contractor invoices, or office expenses. Payroll is tracked separately and is not included in spending.
What's Included in Spending
Spending covers any money going out of your bank account or credit card that has been categorized as an expense in Puzzle. In simple terms: if you paid a third-party vendor for something and it's categorized as an expense, it counts as spending.
What's Not Included in Spending
A few things are intentionally left out to keep your spending number clean and accurate:
Payroll — salaries, payroll taxes, and benefits (such as health insurance) are tracked separately
Bank transfers — moving money between your own accounts isn't spending
Credit card bill payments — paying off a card balance isn't a new expense
Debt repayments — loan or debt payments are not included
Balance sheet transactions — anything categorized to a balance sheet account (like an asset or liability) won't show up in spending. This includes payroll payments categorized to your payroll clearing account.
Why Doesn't a Vendor's Total Match Its Transactions?
The Vendor List on the Spending page only counts a vendor's transactions that are categorized as non-payroll expenses. When you click into a vendor and view its transactions, you'll see every transaction for that vendor, whatever its category — so the transaction total can be much larger.
This is most common with payroll providers like Rippling or Gusto, which are often paid for several different things:
Payroll funding — categorized to your payroll clearing account (a balance sheet account), so it isn't spending
Benefits — tracked as payroll, so it isn't spending
Software subscriptions — categorized as an expense, so it counts as spending
For example, a payroll provider might show $500 on the Vendor List but $50,000 in Transactions. The difference is payroll, which is recorded separately through your payroll journal entries. To learn more, see How Payroll Expenses Are Recorded in Puzzle.
Where to Find Payroll Details
Since payroll is excluded from spending, here's where to find that breakdown:
Cash Activity Report — for a full picture of cash in and out including payroll
People Page — under Reports in the sidebar, for payroll broken down by employee
Payroll Tab — under Accounting, for a detailed view of payroll entries by department and account
In Advanced view
Accountants and bookkeepers see Advanced view by default. Switch views with View at the bottom of the sidebar. In Advanced view, the People page is under Analysis in the sidebar.