Expense Report
Also called: expense claim, reimbursement claim
What is Expense Report?
An expense report is a grouped submission of business costs an employee paid personally — travel, meals, fuel, supplies — presented with supporting bills for approval and reimbursement, and posted to the relevant expense accounts once approved.
What belongs on one
Each line carries a date, an amount, a category, a business purpose and a reference to the supporting bill. The purpose is the line most often left blank and the one an auditor asks about first, because a bill on its own shows that money was spent, not that it was spent for the business.
The approval chain
Submission, review against the expense policy, approval, reimbursement, and posting to the books. The control sits at the review step: a limit enforced before the money is reimbursed is worth more than a report produced after it. Where nobody spends company money except the owner, there is no claim to approve and a simple expense log does the same job at no cost.
Reimbursement is not an expense twice
The expense is recognised when the cost is incurred; the reimbursement settles a liability to the employee. Recording both as expenses double-counts the same rupee, which is the most common error when claims are handled outside the accounting system.
Frequently asked questions
An expense report is a claim submitted by a person and awaiting approval. The book entry is what happens after approval, when the cost is posted to an account and the amount owed to the employee is settled.