How to Do an Expense Report: Steps and Solutions for Effective Expense Reporting

There's nothing like face-to-face communication, but travel can be one of the biggest costs associated with doing business. Detailed, accurate expense reports help you keep your finger on where money is going, while employees are reimbursed for expenses promptly. 

Travel-related expenses continue to grow as small and medium-sized businesses have taken to the roads and skies. Everyone who travels for your business should know how to do expense reports. Employees who pay out of pocket want to have their expenses reimbursed. When tax time comes, you need to be able to accurately document legitimate business expenses. And the business intelligence associated with travel costs means better understanding your expenses. 

Setting up a consistent system means that you’re always on top of all costs and using your travel funds effectively. 

Why a Well-Structured Expense Report Matters 

A business expense report has to be set up in a way that’s easy to understand, comprehensive, and consistent across departments and personnel. 

A good report gives the business a better idea of where travel-related money is going and can help with planning. For example, you can see whether you need to budget more toward international airfare in the coming year or decide whether travel-related subscriptions are paying for themselves and being used to their fullest potential. You can also identify places where you can save money.  

Business travel expenses are typically tax-deductible. With the right expense report setup, you can document those expenses quickly and easily, saving headaches at tax time.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Expense Reporting

An expense report is a document that consolidates all relevant expenses from a business trip or event. This will include information such as the purchase date, the amount spent, the expense category, and any relevant receipts. 

Start by collecting receipts during travel. Physical receipts should be either scanned or photographed so the information is available to anyone who needs it later on for documentation. 

Capture all the relevant information in the business expense template or system used. This will include: 

• Date of the expense

• Supplier purchased from

• Expense category (common categories include meals, transportation, and lodging, any tax or VAT assessed)

• Any additional notes

• A PDF, PNG, or JPEG of the receipt of the invoice 

This data is sent to the person responsible for managing expenses. Then, the expenses to be reimbursed are tallied and paid. When it's time to prepare tax and other reports, all the data is available in one place.

How Templates Can Help 

If everyone's working with the same framework, expense reports become much easier for everyone involved. Your travelling employees have a better understanding of which expenses are reimbursable. You are better able to categorise expenses, so you can see where your money is going.

Free Expense Policy Template

Follow our guidance for what to include in your expenses policy with this handy template.

Get expense policy template

Exploring Tools for Expense Reports 

There are a few different tools you can use to do your expense reports. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks. 

At the most informal end, you can simply have travelling employees email a list of expenses and attach images of receipts. However, this can be a hard system to standardise, and it creates opportunities for risk. You'll likely end up with people formatting their reports differently, such as using different wording for the same expenses. It can be easy to miss legitimate expenses. Plus, parsing the list can take up a huge amount of your finance team's time that could be better spent on other tasks.  

You can learn how to do an expense report in Excel, but this has limitations. Using an incorrect formula in one cell can propagate an error throughout your sheet. And, the spreadsheet is what's known as a "closed" system. You can't automatically export data from it into another system.  

Specialised, purpose-built tools like those from SAP Concur can reduce confusion and make travel expense reporting easier and more accurate. Travelling employees can start by collecting receipts in the ExpenseIt mobile app. Then they upload images to Concur Expense, which automatically creates and categorises expenses. If you are using Concur Drive, it will seamlessly capture mileage to ensure expenses are documented accurately and fairly. 

Common Challenges in Expense Reports 

While expense reports are necessary for the transparent operation of your business, they can also be challenging for both travelling employees and the people coordinating back in the office.  

Fraud is, unfortunately, a persistent risk associated with business travel. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), around 5% of a typical organisation's annual revenue is lost to fraud. Employees may deliberately or unintentionally request reimbursement for expenses that are not legitimate business travel expenses. A well-organised system with clear categories can help eliminate misunderstandings and ensure reimbursement requests are accurate. 

Many employees do not want to spend time on paperwork after business trips. A system like SAP Concur solutions, however, automatically captures and categorises most expenses. All the employee needs to do is review the inputs to ensure accuracy and it's good to go. 

Speed and Simplify Your Expense Report Process 

Travel expense reports provide essential insights into where your travel-related funds are being spent. They provide the business intelligence you need to keep your travel costs effective and get the most out of every pound spent.  

Want a one-stop solution that makes everything easier? Our self-guided demo shows you how to capture expenses from any device, submit an expense report to a manager, and approve the reports you receive.