Expense report
A list of business expenses an employee submits for approval and reimbursement, with a receipt for each item.
In short
- It groups expenses, usually by trip or by month, for one approval.
- Each line needs a date, merchant, amount, category, tax and receipt.
- With company cards, the report reconciles charges rather than asking for money back.
An expense report is how an employee tells the company what they spent and asks for it to be approved. Traditionally a spreadsheet with receipts stapled behind it, it is now usually a set of expenses in an app, submitted together.
What each line needs
- Date and merchant
- Amount, with sales tax shown separately
- Category and, if relevant, project, client or cost centre
- Business purpose
- The receipt itself
Reimbursable versus card expenses
A report can contain two kinds of spending. Personal-card or cash spending creates money owed to the employee, paid out once the report is approved. Company-card spending has already been paid, so the report's job is to attach receipts, categories and approval to charges the company already knows about. Many reports mix both.
The trouble with reports
Reports that are built at month end suffer from missing receipts and fuzzy memories. Approvers see a long list and tend to approve the total rather than the lines. Adding expenses as they happen, with receipts captured on the spot, keeps reports short, accurate and quick to approve.
Worked example
A two-day trip to Ottawa
A consultant's report lists a $312 train fare, one hotel night at $219, three meals totalling $96 and a $24 taxi. Total $651, of which the train and hotel were on the company card and $120 of meals and taxi were paid personally. On approval, the card charges are cleared and $120 is reimbursed with the next payroll.