Expense Report Tips and Tricks

March 12, 2013 11:15 AM

First time filing expense reports. How do you guys make it easier?

So I'm starting my first Real Job in June. The company will reimburse a homefinding trip for me, but I have to submit an expense report. I have to mail original itemized receipts and submit the report on their webapp.

I've never done this before. The actual logging and submitting the report is fairly self-explanatory, but I could use some tips. How do you seasoned business travelers make the process flow more smoothly? Do you use smartphone apps (I have an iPhone 5)? Do you carry something around for your receipts? I'm a total business virgin here.

posted by nickhb to work & money (14 answers total)

I either put business receipts in the money pocket of my wallet or put them in a dedicated envelope (I find the first one to be easier).

I looked into getting an expense report app, but unless you are traveling constantly, they didn't seem worth the monthly subscription.

One tip I would have is to call the office that you're submitting receipts to and ask what, exactly, is reimbursable without receipt and what requires a receipt. At my company, meals under a certain dollar amount per day do not require receipts.
posted by muddgirl at 11:21 AM on March 12

In normal business travel, I just keep all my receipts in a pocket in my bag, although I've been thinking an envelope would work well. To the extent you have emailed invoices, maybe make a note in the envelope to go get them? For me those are usually a flight, on-board internet, and a hotel, so I just remember to pull them.
posted by J. Wilson at 11:22 AM on March 12

I put my receipts in my wallet. If the receipt isn't clear, I handwrite on an explanation of what the expense was for. (Not a problem for most restaurants or hotels, but sometimes an issue for some minor items like dry cleaning during an extended stay out of town). At the end of each day, I transfer the receipts to a special folder.
posted by Area Man at 11:25 AM on March 12 [1 favorite]

1. annotate the receipt at the moment (who, what why etc)
2. i just keep envelopes for each destination/currency/week (Depending on the circumstance)
3. do they have a written policy to review? (ie some companies dont buy alcohol, some limit you to a certain $ amount for each meal etc etc)
posted by chasles at 11:28 AM on March 12

I used to travel every week for work. I never used smartphone apps. My best tool was a single folder/envelope that I put every reimburseable expense in, along with any other information (miles traveled written on a sticky note, etc.). On the top of every receipt was the project code it was billable to, along with the names of anyone else I was with (especially important for meals). The biggest trick is to do your expense account weekly, with your calendar in front of you, so it's always fresh in your mind.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:28 AM on March 12

I take pictures with my smart phone of receipts in case I lose them. You can take a picture of anything, and it looks good as a scan.
posted by sandmanwv at 11:42 AM on March 12 [1 favorite]

* pulls up chair and sits down *

I am a secretary, and 60% of my job consists of filing other people's expense reports. Moreover, I have in the past displayed a sort of Guru-level knack for this (in some of my previous stints in this company I got nicknamed "the Expense Ninja"). Here is my wisdom.

1. The more paper bits you have, the better.
Different companies have different rules when it comes to whether you can submit an expense claim without a receipt (often, there is usually some rule that states that anything under X amount you can do without a receipt), but it looks better/is easier to prove if you have the receipt anyway. Even if it's just a two-dollar receipt for a coffee. So get a folder or an envelope and put EVERY SINGLE RECEIPT you get in there.

2. Confirm whether your credit card bill counts.
Some companies will accept a credit card statement in lieu of receipts; some will not. If yours does, you can use that to replace receipts that go missing. But check first.

3. Learn your company's rules about what they will and will not reimburse you for.
Most companies fall somewhere on a sliding scale of leniency-to-strictness when it comes to what they will and will not reimburse you for. My company, for instance, will only reimburse a person up to $60 per day in "meals while traveling." If you had a room service dinner that was $75, too bad; you only get $60. They have similar rules for how much per person you're allowed to spend on business dinners, how much you're allowed to spend for gifts, whether you will or won't be reimbursed for parking, how much you will be reimbursed for mileage if you use your own car to drive to something, etc. These rules are usually distributed to all staff in some kind of expense policy in bigger corporations; they will be dry and dull as dust, but they're important. The more it looks like you are really trying to play by the rules, the more the person looking over your expenses will be willing to work with you, and the faster you'll get your expenses processed.

4. Sometimes it's worth it to ask to bend the rules.
Weird things happen. Technically my company does not reimburse you if you upgrade to a better seat in a previously-booked flight; but if the airline itself asked to move you to an emergency-exit-row seat because the person who was seated there was an 80-year-old nun, but then the airline STILL turned around and charged you for the upgrade, it's worth trying to submit that. Just explain the circumstances when you submit your report.

5. All business-expense webapps suck dingo kidneys.
That is not a tip for you to be aware of. That is a warning about something you will discover and a reassurance that you are not alone in that assesment.

If you have any other questions, lemme know.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:56 AM on March 12 [7 favorites]

I am not an expense report guru like EmpressCallipygos but also consider keeping a running tab in a simple excel spreadsheet* of your daily expenses:

gas meals tolls hotel plane tix rental car
date1 $20 $20 $2 $50 $200 $44
date2 $15 $50
date3 $35 $50
total $20 $70 $2 $150 $200 $44 $486

this along with your receipts will help you get organized before you enter stuff on their form.

*you can also just include a printed out version of the above form in your expense envelope - again so you can make sure you have everything before you start on the form.
posted by jaimystery at 12:04 PM on March 12

I don't like to provide my employer with a free loan - I'm not a bank and I do not get paid to lend them money and as I have to pay something before I can claim it as expense I want my money as quickly as possible...to achieve this it helps to do the following:

1/ In addition to keeping your receipts together understand the rules and any additional information you need to provide and have that information and provide it, e.g. who you had that meal with.

2/ Do your expenses regularly. It helps your cash flow. It keeps work happy, especially if your expenses need to be re-charged to specific projects and billed on to your clients so if you don't claim they can't bill...Finally, the bigger the claim and the more random stuff you put on the same claim the more likely you are to get challenged on something...so separate out your claims if it makes sense to do so

3/ There's a trade off here in terms of time spent on the process and how fast you get your money. But if you get some kind of allowance or items you do not need to provide a receipt for it may make sense claim them separately because they can't really challenge you on these....no hold up! Likewise, if you know you'll be challenged on something or it'll take a long while to process because it's unusual I'd claim that separately, too. I'd rather wait on that one thing but have everything else go through.

4/ If you're going to be travelling a lot for work maximise loyalty programs. Again, understanding your travel and expense policy will help.....
posted by koahiatamadl at 12:15 PM on March 12

Take a picture of each receipt with your phone's camera when you get it. Webapps accept these as proof of expense, and even for companies that require original receipts it ensures you have some record of all your expenses in case you lose some of them.
posted by Blue Meanie at 12:40 PM on March 12

The Expense Ninja is reminded of more wisdom:

Do your expenses regularly. It helps your cash flow.

To which I will add: Learn your company's rules for expense deadlines.
My company has decreed that you have 60 days in which to file an expense claim for a given charge, and if you are later than 60 days you will be penalized in some manner (the nature of that penalty has ranged from "you lose the money" to "you get the money, but it's added to your W-2" to "you get the money, but we tell on you to your boss"). Your company may have a shorter deadline, or different penalties, or no such deadline. Check.

the bigger the claim and the more random stuff you put on the same claim the more likely you are to get challenged on something...so separate out your claims if it makes sense to do so

To which I will add: A lot of little reports is better than one big one.
Say you went on a business trip, and you had ten charges (the flight, the hotel bill, three taxis, and five meals). Now suppose you are having trouble finding the receipts for a couple of the meals and the hotel, or that there was something weird about one of those receipts. It is perfectly fine to just take the receipts that are straightforward (the plane and the taxis, and the Starbucks for your morning coffee) and put them all one one report that you can get right away, so that can be in the works while you're looking for the rest.

And that also reminds me: Hotels and Restaurants frequently can send you copies of a receipt if you lost them.
sometimes a hotel will make me jump through the hoop of faxing a written request for a hotel bill, but usually I just have to call and give them the last four digits of the credit card that was used, and they email me a scanned copy within an hour. Restaurants may take a couple days, but they're often able to do the same. The sooner after your meal or stay that you make such a request, the better, of course (I have been able to get a copy of a receipt from a four-month-old reservation at a burger joint, but that was just plain luck).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:03 PM on March 12

And one more point:

The people who review your expenses are human.

Meaning: some of the people who review your expenses will be more lenient than others; this is just their nature. Some may be more by-the-book. Some may be more permissive. Some may have just had some bad tuna for lunch. So if you get an expense report kicked back to you because "you need to itemize expense [foo] this way and expense [baz] that way," and you have never had a problem with the way you've itemized [foo] or [baz] before, don't fight it or ask why it's suddenly a problem now - just do what they say and send it right back. It's much faster that way. (I've had reports sent back because "this meal took place in a hotel so you need to process it like a hotel bill", even though it clearly was just a meal in a hotel restaurant. I just sighed and did what they wanted, and it went straight through.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:12 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]

If it is possible, try to make personal contact with the employee who processes the expense reports. Tell them it is your first report and that they should let you know if you did anything wrong or if there is a way that you can do it better next time?

There are tons of rules with expense reports (as stated above) and wherever there are tons of rules, some are silly and arbitrary and can get people riled up. In every company there are people who seem to choose this hill to die on. Don't be that person. It is much easier to take the time to learn the rules and follow them even if they can be a bit silly and are sometimes a bit unfair.
posted by jazh at 3:30 PM on March 12

I stuff all receipts in my wallet during the trip. On a three month trip I had a special envelope for each month, but you don't need to get to that level of crazy.

Try to stuff them in approximate order. So always put the latest one at the back or at the front, and be consistent. That will help later.

I like to circle the date and the total on each receipt. Those also help later, especially if the ink fades. (And beware that it might fade to total illegibility if you leave the receipts sitting in your wallet for more than a couple of weeks).

If it's not clear, I annotate the back of the receipt with a note about what it is for. ("Dinner 3 June" or "Travel adapter" or whatever).

When I get back I pull out all the receipts and start gluing them in order onto large pieces of paper. Our company requires this. Hope to god that yours does not.

I also then have to enter each into a spreadsheet, which is where it comes in real handy to have circled the date and the amount, since those are the main pieces of information we have to include.

On longer trips I input the receipts into the spreadsheet sort of as I go. I.e. I let them build up for a few days or a week, and then put them in, quarantine them, and start building up a new pile.

A few gotchas to watch out for:
- if you dine out with other people and can't split the bill, make sure you at least get a COPY of the receipt, and circle what you paid for immediately after the dinner. You think you'll remember, but you won't.
- your company may not reimburse alcohol. If so, cross it off receipts and deduct it from the total. (If travelling in Scandinavia, rejoice that beer is called öl and examine your own ethics carefully before ordering it.)
- you may be required to submit the originals of receipts rather than copies. But still photocopy them and keep the copy. At some point your company will lose a reimbursement claim.
- if you lose a receipt, there is probably still a way to get reimbursed for it. It might just not be worth the hassle if it's a $5 receipt. If it's a $50 dinner, it's worth asking about. We just have to draw up a statutory declaration and get it witnessed, for example.
posted by lollusc at 3:03 AM on March 13