I am clear on revenue and expenses; however, if our small business has budgeted an amount for meeting expenses and then we receive funds from the holder of one of the meetings to cover some of our expenses do I post this as revenue under a new category - Meeting Revenue or minus it from the expense column under the meeting expense.

At the end of the year, I want to ensure that I show that we did not go over our budget amount for the meeting expenses.

I'd record the reimbursement as a reduction of your meeting expense rather than as a revenue item. Just a personal bias on my part, from two arguable reasons:

• If the other party reimburses you for part of the expenses, the effect is that your company and this other party shared the cost of holding the meeting. Usually in an arrangement whereby two parties split the cost of something, each party only shows their own share of the expense on their books. By deducting the reimbursement from your meeting expense, your expense account will only show your share of the meeting's cost.

• I usually reserve Revenue accounts to reflect either the company's primary Sales activities / lines of business, or the proceeds from the incidental, ancillary sales of some good or service (such as selling off some office furniture in advance of buying new stuff). The reimbursement of an expense doesn't really fit as a "sale" under this particular viewpoint.