Large-scale companies commonly send prepared and skilled employees to business trips for different purposes. During their stay in  other cities or countries, the employees incur miscellaneous expenses. That said, companies usually finance the journeys to ensure the success of the business or deal. In this context, employees should specify and clarify what expenses they incurred during the work journey. The right document to list all the expenses is a Travel Expense Report.   

In this document, the person responsible writes down all the business trip costs and explains each of these expenditures and business expenses. The subsequent sections describe this document in detail and provide you with the best templates you can use to facilitate the cost savings process. 

A travel and expense report, or T&E report, is a virtual or physical document that details all the expenditures a particular employee will commit during traveling. Expenses and information described in this report include  a range of expenses and information, from the price of the ticket to the travel dates.

Generally, T&E reports are accompanied by invoices or receipts that prove the data provided in the document. This is because sometimes the traveler, who normally is a member of your team or a representative, can apply for tax deductions and get reimbursable expenses. T&E reports are also great for individuals who can ask for tax refunds from their governments.

Issuing a travel expense report template brings several advantages to your business. The first is that these documents work as a record of expenses and transactions. Other benefits include the following;

It Helps You with Tax Preparation

Most businesses out there organize travels for some members of their teams, managers, or CEOs to fulfill some specific task for the company. The reasons differ: these can be for development, sales, recruiting, or expansion. Whatever the reason, expenses and all the costs and related taxes involved must be declared. In many countries, expenses for traveling are deductible. Consequently, with a T&E report, you can define how much your company will receive in return for tax refunds.

It Helps You to Better Calculate the Budget for the Next Travels

Expense reporting highlights the costs incurred by the traveler during their journey. This way, you can measure relative costs for a specific period and estimate similar costs for subsequent trips. For example, if you send a particular employee to make a deal to another country for three days, you can estimate the costs for a similar task in other countries. It also allows you to create a traveling fund uniquely destined for these purposes. 

It Helps You to Reduce the Company’s Fraud

It’s very common for external or internal stakeholders to commit fraud during the travel reimbursement process by not declaring tax refunds. With expense reports telling you the specific expenses during the job trip, you know exactly how much money you will receive in tax refunds. 

For this reason, you can use Microsoft Office to facilitate the process of recording and creating a travel expense report. Besides, using software like the Microsoft suite will help you prevent discrepancies and avoid errors that can lead to bad budgeting and loss of money.

Frequently, journeys extend across numerous days, and in some instances, even weeks. Within this framework, expenditures can tally up to dozens or even hundreds. So, managing and recording can be a real challenge. In general, manual travel expense reporting is time-consuming. Employees manually gather receipts and hand-enter data and details into the spreadsheet document. For this reason, it's better to perform automated business travel expenses. Remember that any small discrepancy in data transfer has to be hand-researched by accounting.

The best practice your finance teams can adopt for registering and organizing travel expenses is using a spreadsheet where creating columns, rows, and sections is very easy. This practice also makes it easier to note the following:  

• Date of expense. For tax purposes, it’s essential to note the date of the purchase. If possible,  include the hour and location. 

• Vendor purchased from. The name of the vendor from whom you purchased the item or service.

• Expense categories. Here you specify the account to which the cost belongs,  such as the client, project, or department. 

• Name of employee who made the trip. In this section, you note the particular worker's name, ID, and position within your organization. 

• Additional notes about purchases and expenses. Some expenditures may not be clear. In this context, your business’s travel expense policy should ask employees to describe each expense. 

• The subtotal of any expense. This item corresponds to the total amount of each expense, including taxes. 

• Any tax or VAT associated with the expense. Sometimes, particular expenses can have a different percentage of taxes. Here you describe the total amount of taxes in real numbers.

• The grand total (including tax). This is the sum of all the amounts you previously described. 

• A JPG, PNG, or PDF file of the invoice or receipt. The image you include before submitting the document should be as clear as possible and high resolution.

Below you’ll find four free templates you can download and edit for keeping travel spend within policies. To edit them, you’ll need an activated version of Microsoft Office software.

On RoyalCDKeys, you can acquire a copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global for just €6,04. This Microsoft bundle includes classic Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, with which you can manually manage reports and other documents.

Travel Expense Report Template

Download it from Vertex42.

This travel expense report corresponds to a spreadsheet document that facilitates registering expenses in detail, especially those tax deductible. This document integrates several columns for the most common expenditures the traveler can incur during the trip, such as transport, meals, lodging, and entertainment. Moreover, it includes a box where you can explain and describe expenditures to make refunding easier. Finally, and for general business purposes, the document incorporates a section that automatically calculates mileage reimbursement and other refunds. 

Employee Travel Expense Report Template

Download it from Generalblue.

This travel expense template is similar to the previous one since it contains almost identical columns, data, and general sections. Just like the document mentioned above, in this option, you can add all the columns you consider essential to include in travel expenses and other expenditures. The only difference is that in this file, you must calculate reimbursement or create a particular formula for these purposes. Still, the expense policies are to save time while tracking your expenses. All sections should autogenerate calculations upon entry of figures under any of the expense areas provided.

Free Expense Report Template

Download it from Klippa.

The third template we share with you is perfect for your finance team to organize, describe, and note all the expense types the employees incur. With this document, finance members can easily create reports by defining expense categories in separate rows and introducing the total amount of each description. This file also allows you to describe how much each expense corresponds to reimbursement and calculate the final amount the traveler should receive in return. Finally, it integrates a column to note whether employees attach receipts.

Travel Expense Report Template for Microsoft Word

Download it from Freereporttemplate.

This last free travel expense report template corresponds to a Microsoft Word document containing each common expense type. It allows you to describe the purposes of the trip, who the travelers are, and the trip dates. However, since this is an MS Word document, you’ll have to do manual work when it comes to calculating total amounts and reimbursements. Still, contrary to spreadsheets, this file is highly printable since it’s configured to fit folios quickly. Still, remember to add the original receipts to validate the process and data. 

In short, expense reports record costs incurred by employees when they travel on business missions. This way, employees can demonstrate to employers the expenses and resources used, such as transportation and food. Besides, thanks to these documents, the latter can reimburse the money to employees if they do not have a business account. 

Please browse our blog for other guidelines and useful templates that can bring multiple advantages to your business. We’re continuously sharing several tools and resources for your business so that you get insights into the business’s functionality.