What is a travel expense report?
The classic expense report is based on the employee collecting and piling up receipts. The employee will register the receipts and fill out an expense report which is then sent to the finance department. If the expense report has been approved, the finance department will use it to reimburse (in case a company card hasn’t been used) and to book the expenses.
If you use a digital and flexible tool for ongoing registration of expenses, you don’t need to collect and pile up receipts.
The mindset of an expense report is that you collect costs and receipts related to a given activity. That may be a trade exhibition in Berlin where various expenses will arise – such as hotel, lunch, mileage etc. And for this you must be compensated if you have used your own money. A travel expense report can include one or more elements of the following costs:
- Credit card transactions
- Cash expenses
- Allowances
- Mileage in own vehicle
The employee will often gather all the receipts related to the trade exhibition in Berlin and send it to finance department for approval.
Pros and cons of expense reports
By compiling all the receipts, you and your approver gets a fine overview of a given activity’s total costs.
However, it is far from the smartest and most efficient way to work and there are several benefits by avoiding the classic approach to travel expense reports. This approach will typically create substantial workloads for the finance departments in the end of the month. And if errors related to single transactions are discovered, the complete expense report is typically rejected. This can give delays related to settlements and bookkeeping. There is a risk that the company loses the overview of the employee related spend in the business. This can affect the precision in your forecasting and reporting on the cost side.
Expense management on the go
In Acubiz our work is based on a “Mobile First” principle – the idea that every task related to expense management and expense reports can be handled on the go via an app. We encourage that every single expense transaction is registered and send for approval immediately – regardless if it is a cash expense, credit card transaction, mileage etc. We call it Fast Track and it is the fastest and most effective way of processing expenses.
Want to know more?
Digital expense management in the cloud can increase efficiency and benefit the entire organization. Read more about how we can help your organization digitize and optimize the process of expense management.
