Construction Site Expense Tracking in Turkey

In a construction company, most spending happens on site, not at head office. The site manager buys materials from a hardware store, pays for a crew meal, fills the generator with fuel; the paperwork arrives days later, or never. At month end, the accounting team is left with a pile of costs that cannot be tied to a project. This article explains how construction companies in Turkey can set up site-based expense tracking: which fields to capture, how to settle business advances, what to watch on the document and account side, and a month-end checklist.

Why is site expense tracking different from head office?

Site expense tracking is different because spending happens far from head office, often from advances and with missing documents, and is spread across several projects.

At the office, an employee's meal receipt goes to one cost centre and that is the end of it. On a construction site, things look like this:

• Number of projects: The same company runs several sites at once, and each site's costs must be tracked separately.
• Payment method: Small purchases are mostly paid in cash from a business advance or the site's petty cash.
• Documents: Purchases from street vendors, small tradespeople or tax-exempt individuals require an expense voucher (gider pusulası) instead of an invoice; this step is often skipped.
• Distance: The project manager who approves and the accounting team are not in the same place; paper documents get lost on the way.

The way to close these gaps is to link each expense to the right project the moment it is entered. Classifying costs retroactively at month end is slow and error-prone.

Which fields should site-based expense tracking capture?

Site-based expense tracking should capture at least a project code, cost centre, category, payment type and document type on every expense.

The project code links the expense to the site; the cost centre links it to the unit inside the company. With both in place, "What did we spend on Housing Project A?" and "What is the total cost of the Field Operations unit?" are answered from the same data. The table below shows a few sample entries; amounts and codes are examples.

The most common mistake in this setup is making the project code optional. If the field is not mandatory, people on site skip it, and at month end someone has to guess.

How are business advances managed and settled on site?

A business advance given to a site manager should be tracked as an open balance in that person's name until closed with documents, and settled before period end.

Under Turkey's Uniform Chart of Accounts (Tekdüzen Hesap Planı), business advances are tracked in account 195 (İş Avansları, business advances). As documents come in, the net expense goes to the relevant class-7 expense account and deductible VAT to account 191; the unused portion is returned or carried over to the next advance. Sample settlement entry (amounts are examples; VAT is assumed at 20% for illustration):

A few practical rules keep advance balances from piling up:

• Link every advance to one project. If a manager runs two sites, opening two separate advances makes settlement easier.
• Check the open balance before issuing a new advance. Issuing a new advance on top of an unsettled one carries the balance for months.
• Set a settlement deadline; a few days before month-end close is enough.

Which document and legal rules apply to site expenses in Turkey?

Site expenses in Turkey are subject to the Tax Procedure Law's document rules; spending without an invoice or expense voucher becomes questionable when booked as an expense.

• Invoice: Tax Procedure Law No. 213 (Official Gazette: 10 January 1961), Article 229 onwards, sets when and how an invoice is issued.
• Expense voucher: Article 234 of the same law requires an expense voucher (gider pusulası) for purchases from tax-exempt tradespeople or from people not obliged to issue invoices. Porterage and small service purchases on site are typical examples.
• Multi-year construction contracts: Income Tax Law No. 193 (Official Gazette: 6 January 1961), Article 42, states that for construction and repair work extending over more than one calendar year, profit is determined when the work is completed. For such work, costs are usually accumulated per job in account 170 (Yıllara Yaygın İnşaat ve Onarım Maliyetleri, multi-year construction and repair costs). That is why it matters to know from the start which job each site expense belongs to.
• Spending without valid documents: Spending based on informal slips or screenshots may be treated as KKEG (non-deductible expenses).

The structure of your chart of accounts and whether a job counts as multi-year differ from company to company. Always confirm the tax classification with your certified public accountant (mali müşavir).

Month-end checklist for site expenses

The list below covers the minimum steps for pulling site expenses together before month-end close:

1. Are there any expenses left without a project code?
2. Was a new expense entered against a closed project?
3. Have settlement documents arrived for every open business advance, and was the remaining balance returned?
4. Was an expense voucher issued for purchases that require one?
5. Was the same receipt entered twice?
6. Were shared costs of two sites (for example, carrying materials to two sites with the same vehicle) split at the right ratio?
7. Was a document uploaded for every corporate card transaction?

How does it work in Masraff?

In Masraff, a site expense is tagged with a project code and cost centre the moment it is entered; advances, approvals and accounting transfer run from the same record.

• Project code and cost centre: Project Code, Cost Centre, Category, Tag and Payment Type fields are available on expense entry. The company decides which of these are mandatory.
• Entry from the site: Employees enter expenses from the mobile app (App Store, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery) or the Web Portal. For e-invoices, creating an expense from the invoice QR code takes the data directly from the QR code.
• Advance Request & Settlement: Sub-types such as Business Advance can be defined, each with its own account, approval flow and expense policy. An approved advance is settled against the related expenses and the balance is tracked in real time.
• Expense Policy Engine: Rules are set on fields such as cost centre, category, payment type and amount; a breach triggers a warning or blocks the entry. The duplicate check in the expense report prevents the same expense from being claimed twice.
• Advanced Approval: With approval by organisation and threshold values, a report can go first to the site manager and, above a set amount, to the project manager.
• Splitting: Easy Split (Tahsis) divides a single expense between two cost centres manually; Composite Split defines recurring allocations as rules.
• Accounting: Detailed VAT determination separates the expense account, the 191 VAT account and the 195/320 employee account. Masraff integrates with more than 20 ERP and accounting systems.

Details of the industry flow are on the Masraff solution page for construction companies, and the advance process is described on the Advance Request & Settlement product page. To set up an advance policy from scratch, see the employee advance management guide; for the general framework, read how to track company expenses.

Frequently asked questions

Which account are construction site expenses tracked in?

Site expenses are tracked in expense or cost accounts with a project code; for multi-year construction contracts in Turkey, costs are usually accumulated per job in account 170. Decide which account to use with your accountant.

How is a business advance given to a site manager closed?

A business advance is tracked in account 195 and settled against expense and VAT accounts as documents arrive. The unused amount is returned or recorded and carried over to the next advance.

How is an expense shared by several construction sites split?

A shared expense is split across the cost centres of the related projects by usage ratio. If the ratio is one-off, split it manually on entry; if it repeats every month, an allocation rule is safer.

How are site purchases documented when no invoice is available?

For purchases from tax-exempt tradespeople or people who do not issue invoices, an expense voucher is issued under Article 234 of Turkey's Tax Procedure Law. Spending backed by slips that are not valid documents may be treated as KKEG.