Recurring expenses

Running a martial arts club involves regular outgoing costs -- rent for the training space, insurance premiums, utility bills, equipment leases, and more. Omoplata lets you track these recurring expenses so they appear in your transaction ledger alongside membership income, giving you a complete view of your club's financial health.

What are recurring expenses

A recurring expense is a cost that your club pays on a regular schedule. Unlike member transactions that are generated from memberships, expenses represent money going out of the business. By recording them in Omoplata, you can:

• See your true net income (income minus expenses) in the transaction statistics.
• Track how much each cost center contributes to your outgoings.
• Monitor whether expenses are growing over time.
• Get a realistic picture of your club's profitability.

Creating a recurring expense

Navigate to Finance > Recurring expenses and click the create button. Fill in the following details:

• Title -- a short name for the expense (for example, "Gym rent", "Liability insurance", "Electricity").
• Description -- optional additional notes about the expense.
• Amount -- the cost per occurrence (for example, 1,200.00 for monthly rent).
• Category -- the transaction category this expense belongs to. Categories determine the expense type and default VAT rate.
• Frequency -- how often the expense occurs (weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or a custom interval).
• Start date -- when the expense begins. Transactions will be generated from this date forward.
• End date -- optional. If set, no transactions will be generated after this date. Leave blank for ongoing expenses.
• Bank account -- which bank account the expense is paid from, if your club uses multiple accounts.
• Discipline -- optional. Associate the expense with a specific discipline (for example, allocate mat costs to BJJ) for more granular reporting.

How expense transactions are generated

Once a recurring expense is created, Omoplata generates transactions automatically based on the configured frequency. The system uses a recurrence rule (similar to how membership charges work) to determine when the next transaction should be created.

Each generated transaction:

• Takes its title from the recurring expense title.
• Uses the amount, VAT rate, and category from the recurring expense.
• Is linked back to the recurring expense record, so you can trace it to its source.
• Appears in the transaction ledger alongside all other financial movements.

Omoplata tracks when the last transaction was generated for each expense, preventing duplicate charges.

Managing recurring expenses

Viewing the expense list

The recurring expenses page shows all your active expenses in a table with the following columns:

• Description -- the expense title.
• Category -- the transaction category.
• Frequency -- how often the expense occurs, displayed in a human-readable format (for example, "Monthly", "Every 3 months").
• Amount -- the cost per occurrence, formatted in your club's currency.

You can filter expenses by type using the filter controls, and search for specific expenses using the search bar.

Editing an expense

Click the action menu on any expense row to open its details in a quick view. From there you can update the title, amount, frequency, category, or end date.

Ending an expense

If a recurring cost stops (for example, you move to a new training location), set an end date on the expense. Omoplata will stop generating transactions after that date. The expense and its historical transactions remain in the system for your records.

Expense categories

Recurring expenses use the same transaction category system as all other transactions. Common expense categories for martial arts clubs include:

• Rent -- training space, office space, storage.
• Insurance -- liability insurance, equipment insurance.
• Utilities -- electricity, water, heating, internet.
• Equipment -- mats, bags, training gear, cleaning supplies.
• Software -- management software, website hosting, payment processing.
• Marketing -- advertising, social media, printed materials.
• Salaries -- trainer wages, administrative staff.

Each category has a type (expense), a name, and a default VAT rate. You can create custom categories in the transaction categories settings to match your club's specific cost structure.

Impact on financial overview

Recurring expenses feed directly into the transaction statistics shown at the top of the transactions page. The four key metrics reflect both income and expenses:

• Income -- total membership fees and other income this month.
• Expenses -- total recurring expenses and other outgoing costs this month.
• Net -- income minus expenses, showing your actual profit or loss.
• Count -- total number of all transactions (income and expenses combined).

By recording your expenses alongside your income, you get an accurate net figure that tells you whether your club is operating profitably. This is especially useful for tracking seasonal variations -- for example, if membership income dips during summer holidays while rent stays the same.