Travel expense reports are the records of the travel and expense (T&E) spending of the employees of business organizations. Indeed, travel and expense spending is the third largest but controllable cost after salaries of employees and data-processing costs of an organization. Every business traveler has to submit expense report to the Accounts Department of his company for claiming reimbursement. Almost all organizations, whether business or service, have their own formats of travel expense reports to be filled out and submitted by the employees at the end of their trips. Along with the submission of the report, an employee has to submit the receipts and vouchers of his expenses.
However, some companies may not insist on the receipts if the total claim is less than certain amount. If the employees meet the expenses by credit card, the statement will serve as an evidence for claiming that amount from the employer. If the employee submits the travel expense report online, then he can attach electronic receipts. Generally for frequent business travelers, it is useful to submit T&E reports online to save time. Nowadays, companies are using expense report software to enrich the process of submission, approval and reimbursement by reducing the costs involved at the same time.
The travel expense report should include the details about the full name of the employee, his designation and level, purpose, dates and locations of travel, list of all the expenses, advance amounts taken by the employee, if any, attachments of all the vouchers and receipts, preferable mode of payment to the employee and signatures of both the traveler and the authorized person who has given approval for the travel. While mentioning the expenses, the employee has to clearly segregate the credit card payments and cash payments. Once the report has been submitted with the concerned department for approval, it should be reviewed, and if everything is as per the rules, reimbursement should be sanctioned. Then the payroll department would reimburse the amount to the employee.
