I have to file an expense report every week. I wanted to stop dreading it.

A note from Max Duerr, who built Expense Horizon and still files his own report in it every Friday.

The New Expense dialog on a phone with a receipt attached and the date, amount and category filled in from it, plus Adjust Crop, Pick from receipt and Split Cost

The This Week screen on a phone: total, miles and receipts, the Expense, Mileage, Bulk and Report buttons, and the week's expenses and a mileage trip grouped by day

The story

Forced to track my expenses. Against my will.

I use expense software every day for my job. Not because I want to: my employer requires a weekly expense report, and I have to produce one whether I feel like it or not. For years I loathed it. Receipts in the glove box, the camera roll and the inbox. A mileage log I reconstructed on Friday from memory. A spreadsheet that had to be filled in one cell at a time, then attached, then sent.

I tried the apps that are out there. Plenty of them scan a receipt. None of them tied the whole thing together the way my week actually runs: the receipt, the drive to get it, who I was with, and the report it all has to land on. So we built that.

Now I scan the receipt and it classifies it. Most days I do not change anything. My regular stops are saved, so the day's mileage is a tap per stop. When the report is due, everything is already laid out. It is honestly the first time in years I have not dreaded Friday, and that is the whole reason this exists.

We use it ourselves every week. We are the first to notice when something is slow or a field guesses wrong, and we are working to get more of our time back with every release. It is built by people who actually file the report, for people who actually file the report.

Max Duerr, founder, Second Horizon. Little Rock, Arkansas.

Every week

What it does for me, Monday to Friday.

The four things that changed. Each one is a screen in the product; the links go to the details.

01
Scan it. It classifies it.
I point the phone at the receipt. Vendor, date, amount, category and address are suggested from what it reads. Most days I save without changing a thing; when it misses, I tap the number off the receipt.
See capture on the go
02
My regular stops are saved.
Home, the office, the places I visit every month. The day's mileage is a tap per stop, the legs are computed, return home is a toggle. I stopped reconstructing my week from memory on Friday.
See mileage
03
One place, not four.
The receipt, the trip, the note about who was at lunch, and the week they belong to all live together. I do not go to a photo roll, a maps app, a notes app and a spreadsheet to build one report.
See how it works
04
Friday is already laid out.
The week comes out as the Excel my accountant asked for, with a PDF of every receipt behind it. I sign it, it goes. The part I used to dread is a button.
See reports

yourcompany.expense.secondhorizon.app

The This Week screen in Expense Horizon: the week total, miles and receipts up top, then expenses and mileage trips grouped by day

Honest about setup

It takes a little setup. So does every expense app.

A few things are set once: the workbook your accountant expects (or the house one), the mileage rate, your home address and the places you go, and who approves. We do that with you when the workspace is created, or whoever runs your books can. It is a short conversation, not a project. And if any of it was set wrong, it is changed, not lost: a category can be changed on any expense, the workbook can be re-mapped, and a signed week can be amended with the record kept.

Who is behind it

A small company in Little Rock that runs on its own software.

Expense Horizon is made by Second Horizon, which builds the tools it uses to run its own business and sells them to other small operators. Replies to the contact form come from a person. So does the setup.

yourcompany.expense.secondhorizon.app