Guide to Tracking Business Travel Expenses

Best Practices for Tracking Expenses and Creating Expense Statements

Mar 3, 2009 Lisa Nichols

Creating or maintaining business expense statements doesn't have to be a hassle. Tried and true tips can make tracking business travel expenses easier.

Tracking travel expenses can be a headache. But it’s a necessary evil, and critical to ensuring every dime spent is reimbursed. Business travel is easier with some tried and true tips to track travel expenses while on the road and free expense tracking software.

Tracking Travel Expenses

• Updating an expense statement on the road is by far the most efficient way to stay on top of business expense reports. In this “perfect world” scenario, business travelers leave for a trip with an open expense statement and update it every evening.
• Keep an envelope handy to hold receipts while on the road. Make a note on every receipt that indicates what the business expense was for, e.g., “lunch with client.” This is a pain, but paper receipts are still a necessary evil and typically have to accompany a completed expense statement.
• A PDA can come in handy when creating expense statements, especially if it features Documents to Go or another software program that’s compatible with expense tracking. Tap notes about expenses as soon as the purchase is made or the meal is completed.

Expense Reports

Microsoft Office offers a wide variety of free expense tracking software on the Microsoft Templates website. The expense statements can be quickly downloaded and are in an Excel spreadsheet format unless otherwise noted.

• The Travel Expense Report with Mileage Log includes fields for description of expense, airfare, lodging, ground transportation (gas, rental car, taxi), meals & tips, conferences and seminars, miles (personal car only), mileage reimbursement, miscellaneous, currency exchange rate and expense currency. The expense report automatically calculates mileage reimbursement and total reimbursements for expenses.
• The simple Credit Card Use Log is helpful for tracking expenses related to corporate purchases. The expense report includes fields for description, amount, merchant name, transaction fees and balance. The spreadsheet does not calculate APR for credit cards and does not automatically calculate total travel expenses.
• The Petty Cash Log includes fields for receipt number, description of purchase, amount deposited, amount withdrawn, charged to, received by and approved by.
• The Expense Report Database is an Access expense report and doubles as expense tracking software. The database allows employees to enter in their personal and employee information, track business expenses and print expense statements. The handy database also allows users to review expense reports by employee and to review reports with combined information about business expenses.

Get more tips for business travel including Best Road Warrior Tips, Overseas Travel Planning Tips and How to Stay Organized During Business Travel.

The copyright of the article Guide to Tracking Business Travel Expenses in Business Travel is owned by Lisa Nichols . Permission to republish Guide to Tracking Business Travel Expenses in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Business Expense Reports

Business Travel Expenses