Managing travel expense reimbursements is a crucial aspect for businesses that require employees to travel for work. Ensuring clarity on what can be reimbursed, how it should be reported, and staying compliant with IRS rules can prevent misunderstandings and streamline your financial processes.
In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about travel expense reimbursement, from defining reimbursable expenses to how tools like Fyle can simplify the entire process.
Travel expense reimbursement refers to the process through which businesses compensate employees for any reasonable and necessary expenses they incur while traveling for work.
These expenses typically include transportation, meals, lodging, and other travel-related costs.
By having a clear travel reimbursement policy in place, companies can avoid confusion and ensure that employees are fairly compensated for legitimate business expenses while traveling.
You can reimburse employees for ordinary and necessary expenses incurred when traveling away from home on business. The type of expenses you can reimburse largely depends on the nature of the trip and the specific policies of your organization.
Here’s a breakdown of reimbursable travel expenses:
Let’s say an employee drives from Dallas to a business conference in Houston, staying at a hotel overnight. The employee incurs gas expenses of $60, pays $150 per night for lodging, and spends $40 on meals.
The company will reimburse the employee for the mileage rate equivalent to $60 for gas, $150 for the hotel, and 50% of the meal cost, which comes to $20 (as meals are subject to a 50% deduction limit).
However, if the employee brings a spouse on the trip and books a larger hotel room, only the portion of the expense applicable to the employee’s travel would be reimbursable.
The IRS has clear guidelines to help businesses manage travel reimbursements and ensure compliance with tax regulations.
Following these rules not only helps businesses stay compliant, but also prevents issues during audits, and ensures employees are reimbursed for legitimate business expenses.
Here’s a closer look at the key IRS rules businesses should follow:
Employees can claim the actual cost of their meals, but they must keep detailed records and receipts for each expense. This method is more accurate but requires thorough documentation, which can be time-consuming for both the employee and the employer.
The IRS also offers a simplified approach called the “standard meal allowance.” Instead of itemizing meal expenses, employees can claim a set per diem amount of meals and incidental expenses (M&IE).
For instance, in 2025, the standard meal allowance is $68 per day for most U.S. locations. This method reduces the need for keeping meal receipts and simplifies the reimbursement process.
The standard meal allowance can be used by both employees and self-employed individuals, regardless of whether their travel expenses are reimbursed.
The set rate is easy to use and provides a consistent approach across multiple trips. However, it may not fully cover actual costs in expense locations.
For business travel within the U.S., businesses can generally deduct the full amount of business-related travel expenses. These include transportation (airfare, car rental, etc.), lodging, and meals (subject to the 50% limitation on meals). More on the 50% limit later.
If an employee combines business travel with personal activities (e.g., a vacation), only the expenses related to business can be reimbursed. Personal expenses, such as sightseeing tours or meals during non-business days, are not deductible.
Example: An employee travels to Los Angeles for a 5-day business conference but decides to stay an extra 3 days for personal vacation. The company can only reimburse travel, lodging, and meal expenses for the 5 business days. The costs incurred during the 3 vacation days are personal and not reimbursable.
If the purpose of the trip is primarily personal, with only a minor business component, the trip’s travel expenses cannot be reimbursed as business-related costs.
The IRS imposes more stringent rules on international business travel, especially when the trip mixes business with personal activities. If a portion of the trip involves non-business activities, only part of the travel expenses can be deducted.
If the primary purpose of the trip is business, the cost of getting to and from the destination is fully deductible. If the trip is mainly for personal purposes, even if some business activities are conducted, travel expenses are not deductible.
For mixed-purpose trips, businesses need to allocate costs between business-related and personal expenses. Only the portion related to business can be reimbursed or deducted.
Example: An employee flies to London for a week-long business meeting but spends 3 extra days vacationing in Paris. The cost of the airfare to and from London can be deducted, but the cost of traveling to and staying in Paris is personal and not reimbursable.
Expenses related to attending business-related conventions or meetings can be reimbursed. However, certain conditions apply:
The convention must directly relate to the employee’s job or the business’s operations. For instance, attending an industry-specific conference that offers skill development or business insights would qualify.
If an employee brings a family member (such as a spouse or child), their travel expenses are not deductible unless the family member is also an employee with a bona fide business purpose for attending.
Example: If an employee travels to a technology conference in New York and brings their spouse, the company can reimburse the employee’s flight and hotel costs, but the spouse’s expenses (e.g., additional airfare and meals) are not reimbursable unless the spouse has a legitimate business role in the trip.
The IRS has specific rules on the deductibility of meals and entertainment expenses. Changes in recent years have tightened the ability to deduct entertainment-related costs.
Businesses can deduct 50% of the cost of meals, provided they meet the following conditions:
Example: If an employee takes a client out for lunch during a business meeting, the company can deduct 50% of the meal cost.
Since 2018, the IRS has disallowed deductions for most entertainment expenses. This includes costs associated with attending concerts, sporting events, or other recreational activities.
However, businesses can still deduct 50% of the cost of meals provided at such events as long as they meet the IRS criteria for a business meal.
Some specific types of entertainment-related expenses are still deductible, including:
The IRS requires businesses to maintain adequate records of travel-related expenses. Proper documentation ensures compliance with IRS rules and helps businesses defend their deductions during audits.
For expenses over $75, businesses must maintain receipts or other documentary evidence (e.g., hotel bills and flight itineraries). However, small expenses (under $75) and certain transportation costs may not require receipts.
For more information, please refer to IRS Publication 463 (2023), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
A well-defined travel reimbursement policy clarifies what expenses your company will reimburse and sets clear expectations for employees. This ensures responsible spending and simplifies the reimbursement process. Here’s how to create one:
Start by specifying which types of expenses are reimbursable. Common categories include:
Generally, businesses require receipts to substantiate travel expenses. However, there are exceptions:
Employees should keep detailed records of expenses, including the date, amount, and purpose of each expenditure, even if receipts are not needed.
Most travel reimbursements under an accountable plan are non-taxable. This means that if employees properly account for their expenses and return excess reimbursements, the company does not have to report these amounts as income, and employees do not pay taxes on them.
Under a non-accountable plan, reimbursements are considered taxable income. In this case, the company would include the reimbursement amount on the employee’s W-2, and the employee would pay taxes on it.
Fyle provides a powerful solution to simplify and streamline the travel reimbursement process. Here's how:
As of August 1, 2024, we’re updating our pricing structure to support our commitment to continuous innovation and providing a seamless, AI-enhanced expense management platform that helps you save time and effort and focus on your business’ success.
In addition to these changes, we want to ensure you’re aware of all the updates we’ve made to our product - from new features that make expense tracking easier than ever to enhancements in user experience.
Our newly-launched Conversational AI is built to ensure expense management becomes even easier for you. Your employees and cardholders can now submit receipts via text messages, saving hours of manual effort, and the unnecessary hoarding of receipts. For you, this means no more incessant follow ups with employees.
Data like amount, date, merchant, category, cost centers etc is automatically extracted from receipts and auto-filled, ensuring quick, accurate coding. Our AI also asks users for additional information like projects and other details you consider mandatory. All they have to do is text us the information and be done with it.
Fyle will match receipts with card transactions that automatically flow into Fyle in real-time (learn more below), and save hours of manual reconciliation effort.
Managing your business credit cards and ensuring all transactions are reconciled before tax time is hard. It generally involves hours of downloading multiple bank statements, collecting receipts, manually matching them, and verifying data.
Fyle’s direct integrations with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, coupled with our ability to easily collect and automatically match receipts via text, solve just this. Fyle is the only expense management software today that enables businesses to get a real-time view of how and where employees spend from their company cards.
Right from our first-of-its-kind real-time integration with Visa in July 2022 and Mastercard in April 2023, to our direct integration with American Express in April 2024, we’re committed to giving you a seamless software experience on any credit card program you already use.
Fyle joined American Express’ list of partners that allow Business and Corporate Cardholders to issue unlimited, on-demand virtual Cards, linked to your existing card program. Establish specific controls for each on-demand virtual Card payment, including spending limits, and expiration dates, to ensure compliance. Customers can take advantage of the American Express billing cycle to utilize cash on hand for their business until their Card payment is due.
Nobody wants to deal with expense reports - they’re tedious, time-consuming and just a hassle. That’s why we help you automate the entire process. Once your employees have submitted their expenses via Text Messages, Gmail, Outlook, Slack, or our Mobile App, we’ll create an expense report and submit it. You can schedule this process on a weekly, monthly, or on a custom basis, and we’ll take care of the rest.
One of the major challenges with expense management is getting employees to fill in important data to accurately code the expense. With Fyle, not only does our AI-based engine automatically extract information from the receipt, but also auto-fills other details with features like merchant-based expense rules.
With these rules, expense fields like Category, Project, Purpose etc, can be automatically filled in based on the Merchant that has been identified from the card transaction or receipt, reducing the dependence on employees, eliminating human errors, and the need for repetition. For example, you could create a rule that says, If the Merchant name contains ‘Uber’, then set Category to ‘Taxi’.
We've introduced a powerful feature - Dependent Fields, that allows users to control values in one field based on another. For example, you can track Project-dependent fields like Cost Codes and Cost Types easily.
If you’re a construction firm or a service-based company that works on a project basis, you can now track every detail related to a project expense, and simplify accounting.
Here's how it works: if an employee selects Project A, only the Cost Centers associated with Project A appear. This means employees no longer need to remember which Cost Centers align with each project.
While reimbursing employees for business-related travel, you need to adhere to IRS guidelines and deduct the regular commute distance, a task prone to errors and time-consuming manual calculations. Fyle's Commute Deduction feature aims to be the antidote to these challenges, providing a seamless and automated solution.
Users can enter their home and work locations, and choose to deduct commute for one-way or two-way travel every time they add a mileage expense. Employers can rest assured that reimbursements align precisely with business-related mileage, preventing overpayment due to personal commute distances. This not only enhances tax compliance but also contributes to significant cost savings for organizations.
New integrations with QuickBooks Desktop, TravelPerk, MS Dynamics and more!
We’ve introduced new accounting integrations with QuickBooks Desktop (one of our most requested!), Sage 300 Construction & Real Estate (Beta), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and TravelPerk! Eliminate the time spent on manual data entry and verification, and automate expense sync.
QuickBooks Desktop
We launched an IIF-file based integration with QuickBooks Desktop to help you automatically sync expense data between the two platforms. This has become one of the fastest growing integrations! Export reimbursable and credit card expenses as Bills, Journal Entries, Credit Card Purchases, and map data like Categories, Employees, Vendors, Projects to make sure expenses are coded accurately.
Sage 300 CRE (Beta)
For construction and real estate firms using Sage 300 CRE, our direct integration is now available in beta. From easy expense export, to mapping of dimensions like GL Codes, Employees, Projects, Job Codes, Cost Codes, Cost Types and more, the integration simplifies construction accounting.
TravelPerk
For customers who use TravelPerk to make and manage travel bookings, we released a direct, bi-directional integration with TravelPerk. For any bookings made on the TravelPerk platform, expenses are created automatically on Fyle, with the receipt and other details automatically filled in. Add and map payment profiles, streamline credit card reconciliation for cards used for bookings, and more.
At Fyle, we’re constantly working to make a better platform that helps businesses like you put expense management on auto-pilot. As a reflection of our commitment to deliver a best-in-class experience, we’re increasing our prices starting August 1st, 2024. We look forward to continuing to build new and exciting features, incorporate customer feedback, and enhancing our offering to help you grow.
Managing travel expense reimbursements is a crucial aspect for businesses that require employees to travel for work. Ensuring clarity on what can be reimbursed, how it should be reported, and staying compliant with IRS rules can prevent misunderstandings and streamline your financial processes.
In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about travel expense reimbursement, from defining reimbursable expenses to how tools like Fyle can simplify the entire process.
Travel expense reimbursement refers to the process through which businesses compensate employees for any reasonable and necessary expenses they incur while traveling for work.
These expenses typically include transportation, meals, lodging, and other travel-related costs.
By having a clear travel reimbursement policy in place, companies can avoid confusion and ensure that employees are fairly compensated for legitimate business expenses while traveling.
You can reimburse employees for ordinary and necessary expenses incurred when traveling away from home on business. The type of expenses you can reimburse largely depends on the nature of the trip and the specific policies of your organization.
Here’s a breakdown of reimbursable travel expenses:
Let’s say an employee drives from Dallas to a business conference in Houston, staying at a hotel overnight. The employee incurs gas expenses of $60, pays $150 per night for lodging, and spends $40 on meals.
The company will reimburse the employee for the mileage rate equivalent to $60 for gas, $150 for the hotel, and 50% of the meal cost, which comes to $20 (as meals are subject to a 50% deduction limit).
However, if the employee brings a spouse on the trip and books a larger hotel room, only the portion of the expense applicable to the employee’s travel would be reimbursable.
The IRS has clear guidelines to help businesses manage travel reimbursements and ensure compliance with tax regulations.
Following these rules not only helps businesses stay compliant, but also prevents issues during audits, and ensures employees are reimbursed for legitimate business expenses.
Here’s a closer look at the key IRS rules businesses should follow:
Employees can claim the actual cost of their meals, but they must keep detailed records and receipts for each expense. This method is more accurate but requires thorough documentation, which can be time-consuming for both the employee and the employer.
The IRS also offers a simplified approach called the “standard meal allowance.” Instead of itemizing meal expenses, employees can claim a set per diem amount of meals and incidental expenses (M&IE).
For instance, in 2025, the standard meal allowance is $68 per day for most U.S. locations. This method reduces the need for keeping meal receipts and simplifies the reimbursement process.
The standard meal allowance can be used by both employees and self-employed individuals, regardless of whether their travel expenses are reimbursed.
The set rate is easy to use and provides a consistent approach across multiple trips. However, it may not fully cover actual costs in expense locations.
For business travel within the U.S., businesses can generally deduct the full amount of business-related travel expenses. These include transportation (airfare, car rental, etc.), lodging, and meals (subject to the 50% limitation on meals). More on the 50% limit later.
If an employee combines business travel with personal activities (e.g., a vacation), only the expenses related to business can be reimbursed. Personal expenses, such as sightseeing tours or meals during non-business days, are not deductible.
Example: An employee travels to Los Angeles for a 5-day business conference but decides to stay an extra 3 days for personal vacation. The company can only reimburse travel, lodging, and meal expenses for the 5 business days. The costs incurred during the 3 vacation days are personal and not reimbursable.
If the purpose of the trip is primarily personal, with only a minor business component, the trip’s travel expenses cannot be reimbursed as business-related costs.
The IRS imposes more stringent rules on international business travel, especially when the trip mixes business with personal activities. If a portion of the trip involves non-business activities, only part of the travel expenses can be deducted.
If the primary purpose of the trip is business, the cost of getting to and from the destination is fully deductible. If the trip is mainly for personal purposes, even if some business activities are conducted, travel expenses are not deductible.
For mixed-purpose trips, businesses need to allocate costs between business-related and personal expenses. Only the portion related to business can be reimbursed or deducted.
Example: An employee flies to London for a week-long business meeting but spends 3 extra days vacationing in Paris. The cost of the airfare to and from London can be deducted, but the cost of traveling to and staying in Paris is personal and not reimbursable.
Expenses related to attending business-related conventions or meetings can be reimbursed. However, certain conditions apply:
The convention must directly relate to the employee’s job or the business’s operations. For instance, attending an industry-specific conference that offers skill development or business insights would qualify.
If an employee brings a family member (such as a spouse or child), their travel expenses are not deductible unless the family member is also an employee with a bona fide business purpose for attending.
Example: If an employee travels to a technology conference in New York and brings their spouse, the company can reimburse the employee’s flight and hotel costs, but the spouse’s expenses (e.g., additional airfare and meals) are not reimbursable unless the spouse has a legitimate business role in the trip.
The IRS has specific rules on the deductibility of meals and entertainment expenses. Changes in recent years have tightened the ability to deduct entertainment-related costs.
Businesses can deduct 50% of the cost of meals, provided they meet the following conditions:
Example: If an employee takes a client out for lunch during a business meeting, the company can deduct 50% of the meal cost.
Since 2018, the IRS has disallowed deductions for most entertainment expenses. This includes costs associated with attending concerts, sporting events, or other recreational activities.
However, businesses can still deduct 50% of the cost of meals provided at such events as long as they meet the IRS criteria for a business meal.
Some specific types of entertainment-related expenses are still deductible, including:
The IRS requires businesses to maintain adequate records of travel-related expenses. Proper documentation ensures compliance with IRS rules and helps businesses defend their deductions during audits.
For expenses over $75, businesses must maintain receipts or other documentary evidence (e.g., hotel bills and flight itineraries). However, small expenses (under $75) and certain transportation costs may not require receipts.
For more information, please refer to IRS Publication 463 (2023), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
A well-defined travel reimbursement policy clarifies what expenses your company will reimburse and sets clear expectations for employees. This ensures responsible spending and simplifies the reimbursement process. Here’s how to create one:
Start by specifying which types of expenses are reimbursable. Common categories include:
Generally, businesses require receipts to substantiate travel expenses. However, there are exceptions:
Employees should keep detailed records of expenses, including the date, amount, and purpose of each expenditure, even if receipts are not needed.
Most travel reimbursements under an accountable plan are non-taxable. This means that if employees properly account for their expenses and return excess reimbursements, the company does not have to report these amounts as income, and employees do not pay taxes on them.
Under a non-accountable plan, reimbursements are considered taxable income. In this case, the company would include the reimbursement amount on the employee’s W-2, and the employee would pay taxes on it.
Fyle provides a powerful solution to simplify and streamline the travel reimbursement process. Here's how:
Have you ever returned from a business trip with a mountain of receipts and a sinking feeling of dread about the travel expense reports you’d have to submit?
Well, you’re not alone. Sadly, a travel expense report (T&E report) is the key to ensuring your reimbursements arrive on time. We’ll tell you how you can make the process easier and even let you in on a little secret–that you’d never have to spend another second on it ever again.
How? Read on to find out.
Think of a T&E report as a detailed log of your business travel expenses. It documents everything you spent on your trip–from flights, hotels, meals and miscellaneous expenses–for reimbursement by your employer.
It also serves as a record-keeping tool for the company, ensuring there’s proper visibility into spend and compliance with company policies.
A typical T&E report includes the following sections:
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Travel expense reports are more than a documentation hurdle–they’re really the cornerstone of financial discipline, transparency, and compliance within your organisation. Here’s why they matter:
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Conquering travel expense reports doesn’t have to be a battle. Here are some tips you can use:
Or use the ultimate choice, a travel expense report software. You can automate the entire process to save yourself (and your company) time and money.
Templates can be a helpful starting point, but let's delve deeper and explore just how they’d stand up against a travel expense report software.
The age-old question: Should I use a free travel expense report template or pay for travel expense report software? But did you know that a free expense report template might be costing you more than you realise?
Travel expense report templates are free and readily available online, making them a seemingly attractive option. They’re simple and the perfect choice for an organization's most basic needs. However, they can be time-consuming (manual data entry), prone to errors, and cumbersome for frequent travelers.
Did you know? The average expense report takes a massive 20 minutes to process.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a breakdown of the true time cost when travel expense reports are processed manually:
The Math Doesn’t Lie. That’s a total of 20 minutes per claim on average. But wait, there’s more! According to the Global Business Travel Association, a shocking 19% of all expense reports contain errors. And correcting each one takes an additional 18 minutes! Suddenly, that 20-minute claim balloons to a 38-minute ordeal.
Do you feel the time drain? It’s not just you. Imagine the productivity lost for both employees and your finance team. This inefficiency translates to real costs. GBTA found the average expense report costs a staggering $58 to process (and it’s likely that the number is even higher today.)
Let’s crunch these numbers together:
Imagine a company processing an average of 30 expense reports per month. Without errors, that's roughly $21,600 spent annually on the reporting process.
However, factor in those error corrections, and the annual cost jumps to nearly $33,120. That's over $11,500 wasted on fixing mistakes!
And it's important to remember this is just an example for a medium-sized company. For larger organizations with higher volumes of reports, the potential cost drain can be even more significant.
While templates seem like a free option, they’re costing you in hidden ways. Consider this: wouldn’t your time and money be spent focusing on core business functions?
Now, why is this the superior alternative? Because it can automate the entire process for you at just $11:99 a month. But what does this really mean?
A travel expense report software doesn't just save time, it saves money. Imagine the cumulative effect of automating receipt collection, eliminating errors, streamlining approvals, and boosting employee productivity.
Travel expense reports don’t have to be a source of stress. By understanding the purpose, components, and available tools, you can easily navigate the process.
While free templates can help you get started, exploring a travel expense report software is a no-brainer for growing organizations looking for better efficiency and cost savings.
Schedule a demo today to see how Fyle can help your travel expense reporting process!
Smart spending habits go hand-in-hand with efficient reporting. Here are some things you can do:
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This can vary depending on your company’s specific travel policy, so it’s always best to check their guidelines first. Generally, acceptable expenses fall under these categories:
Pro tip: When in doubt, err on the side of caution and save all receipts. You can always clarify with your finance team later.
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This varies by company, but it’s typically within 30 days of your trip’s completion. Some companies might offer shorter deadlines (like 15 days) of een allow for extensions under specific circumstances. Check with your company’s travel policy or finance department for their specific timeframe.
Inform your manager or finance team as soon as possible. Depending on the company policy, they might require an explanation or ask for alternative documentation (like credit card statements) to verify the expense.
Imagine this: you have a business trip coming up to New York City, the most expensive U.S. city for business travelers, with a daily average cost of $541.
But instead of planning the trip, you’re drowning in a sea of flight options, hotel comparisons and car rental quotes.
Enter corporate travel management, your ticket to an easy–boarding pass?
Corporate travel management (CTM) is your one-stop shop for all things business travel. It’s a program that helps companies streamline the entire travel process, from booking flights and hotels to managing expenses and ensuring employee safety.
A corporate travel manager is the mastermind behind your smooth travel experience. They’re experts who design and manage your company’s travel program. They negotiate deals with airlines and hotels (remember, business travelers are highly valuable to airlines!), handle bookings, and provide support to traveling employees.
Absolutely! Here’s why:
CTM programs negotiate corporate rates and track expenses, saving you big bucks. Did you know that while business travelers only make up 12% of airline passengers, they account for 75% of an airline's revenue on some flights?
Corporate travel management programs help you tap into those corporate discounts.
No more endless searches! Employees can book flights, hotels, and car rentals through a user-friendly online platform or app.
Imagine the time saved compared to the pre-internet days, when business travelers took 405 million long-distance trips a year in the U.S., mostly by car for destinations under 250 miles!
Corporate travel management programs prioritise employee safety with features like travel alerts and emergency assistance.
Corporate travel management programs typically charge a small fee based on transaction volume or a retainer model. But guess what? The savings they generate often outweigh the cost.
Let’s break it down with an example:
Scenario: Imagine your company takes 100 business trips per year, costing an average of $2,000 per trip (including flights, hotels, and car rentals). This translates to a total annual travel spend of $200,000 ($2,000/trip * 100 trips).
CTM fee: A CTM program might charge a fee of 2% per transaction. So, for your 100 trips, the CTM fee would be $4,000 ($2,000/trip * 100 trips * 2%).
Savings potential: Here's where CTM programs shine. Through negotiating corporate rates and optimizing travel spend, a CTM program could potentially save your company 10% on travel costs. In this example, that translates to $20,000 in annual savings ($200,000 * 10%).
The math: Even after factoring in the CTM fee, you come out ahead:
Yes, but with a safety net! Most programs allow employees to book within the company's travel policy through the CTM platform. This ensures they get the best rates while adhering to company guidelines.
CTM programs negotiate corporate rates with travel suppliers and track expenses to optimize your budget. Think of it as having a travel connoisseur in your corner!
Business travel can come with risks, especially for international travel which saw a massive decline during COVID (78.8% drop in U.S. business tourist arrivals from overseas in 2020).
An excellent corporate travel management program provides features like real-time traveler tracking, emergency response services, and travel advice to keep your employees safe. Imagine your employees getting stranded due to some outbreak in the future–a CTM program can help locate them and arrange assistance.
CTM programs help ensure employees follow your travel policy and provide clear reports on travel spend, allowing you to identify cost-saving opportunities.
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Now that you're armed with this knowledge, you can implement a CTM program and transform your business travel experience. Here are some next steps:
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A travel expense management software is the unsung hero of your CTM program. It goes beyond simply tracking receipts–it's a powerful tool that helps you develop, implement, and enforce your travel policy. Here's how:
Corporate Travel Management programs are fantastic, but they're like a luxury car without an engine. They save you money, streamline processes, and prioritize employee safety, but for peak performance, you need a travel and expense management software.
That’s where Fyle comes in. Fyle automates receipt collection, expense report submission, expense reimbursements, enforces travel policies and provides valuable spending insights.
The result? Streamlined processes, optimized costs, and happy employees.
Ready to take your CTM program to the next level? See Fyle in action! Sign up for a demo today and experience the future of business travel.
Double-checking your expenses doesn’t sound all that difficult, and it isn’t. For the individual, at least. When it comes to large businesses with hundreds or even thousands of people using company assets, keeping your financial accounting straight becomes infinitely more complex.
That’s why we’ve put together a guide to expense reconciliation. How it works, the potential roadblocks, and how to make it that much easier.
Expense reconciliation is the process of comparing and matching financial records related to business expenses. It involves checking that all the money spent by a business aligns with the recorded expenses in its accounting system. This process helps identify errors, discrepancies, or fraudulent activities.
While expense reconciliation may not be so difficult for small start-ups or self-employed individuals, larger businesses have so much more going on across different branches and departments to the point they might need enterprise collaboration software just to keep track of everything.
There are a lot of important reasons to reconcile your expenses, from conducting end-of-year reports and tax returns to monitoring budget and expenses. It’s essential to prevent things like:
As such, it’s in your best interest to make sure you’re reconciling expenses correctly.
The need to double-check figures is as old as the concept of business itself. As such, companies have been doing manual expense reconciliation for a long time. Some still use paper records, meaning they literally have to go over the books.
These days, however, many organizations use spreadsheets customized with automated functions to record and monitor financial reporting. For example, the figures from things like expense claims or company credit card statements get entered into the database for easy cross-referencing.
This helps streamline things and limit human error compared to the pen-and-paper approach, but there’s still a large amount of manual work involved.
There are a few different kinds of expense reconciliation to keep track of. Most are business-related, covering the various ways companies spend money.
Personal reconciliation is the only non-business-based entry on this list. An example of personal reconciliation would be checking tax-deductible expenses against your receipts when filing your tax return. Compared to the sheer variety of business expenses, personal financial accounting is much simpler.
Regular business expenses include things universal to most businesses, like payroll and inventory costs. Other needs are industry-specific. For example, the budget to promote a holiday company’s travel packages or safety equipment for construction workers.
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Reconciling customer expenses helps you stay aware of outstanding debts. While that’s more a matter of income than expense, it’s still an important part of broader budgeting concerns. You’ll also need to factor in any refunds to avoid accidentally creating imaginary profit or concealing real earnings.
Vendor reconciliation means checking your financial statements against those of your suppliers. For example, recreational spaces like theme parks typically have vendors supplying food, drinks, or even small events. The fact that each business has its own record-keeping theoretically means it’s easy to double-check your work.
Bank statements and account histories are valuable fallbacks if your internal record-keeping fails. Your bank will have full records of all transactions related to your company’s expense accounts in the event you otherwise can’t resolve a discrepancy.
Expense reconciliation is the cornerstone of financial health for any business. It’s more than just a numbers game; it’s a strategic tool that drives informed-decision making.
By accurately matching expenses to income, you create a clear financial snapshot. This helps you understand your business’s profitability, cash flow, and overall financial performance.
Regular reconciliation is your first line of defense against financial irregularities. It helps uncover discrepancies, identify potential fraud, and ensure the accuracy of your financial records.
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With reliable expense data, you can make informed decisions about budgeting, cost-cutting, and resource allocation. This empowers you to optimize your business operations and maximize profitability.
Accurate expense records are essential for meeting tax obligations and passing audits. Reconciliation ensures you have the necessary documentation to support your financial claims.
Effective expense reconciliation involves the following key steps:
Gather all relevant expense data, including receipts, invoices, credit card statements, and employee expense reports. Ensure the data is complete, accurate, and accessible.
Review collected data for errors, inconsistencies, or missing information. Verify that all expenses are accurately coded and have supporting documentation.
Compare expense data to accounting records, bank statements, and other relevant financial information. Identify and resolve any discrepancies.
Analyze the reconciled data to identify trends, patterns, or potential cost-saving opportunities. Use this information to improve financial performance. Fyle makes this quite simple:
You can analyse spend patterns across business credit card and reimbursable expenses, compare it across different time periods so you can make better decisions.
Although it sounds straight-forward in theory, expense reconciliation in practice involves a lot of potential obstacles and frustrations. While it’s hard to predict everything that could possibly go wrong, here are some of the issues businesses regularly encounter.
While automated, streamlined software is fast becoming the norm, many businesses still rely on old-fashioned written record-keeping to at least some degree. Unfortunately, that means you have to painstakingly pore through the numbers by eye.
It’s one thing to manually record a single stream of regular expenses you know to expect along the way, like payroll or employee insurance. It’s another thing entirely to track down every one-off expense, like legal expenses, or that outbound sales strategy workshop that not many staff attended.
Even partial automation may not actually save you that much time, as you still end up having to re-record a lot of information in a digitized form.
Again, if all you had to do was check transaction records from a single source, corporate expense reconciliation wouldn’t be nearly such a headache. In medium-to-large businesses, however, there might be any number of people with company credit cards or expense account access in some capacity.
Financial accountants must often spend a lot of time chasing up every last bill and invoice for discretionary expenses to dot the Is and cross the Ts. In situations like these, you’re at the mercy of the quality of your record-keeping system. If it’s paper-based, documentation could be missing or damaged.
The other issue with having so many people contribute to the mountain of expense information is that finances might not all be tracked to the same standards. People can easily forget to record payments or to carry the one in their sums. In fact, issues like these are why expense reconciliation is necessary to begin with.
Even if employees provide all the necessary financial information, they might record it in different formats, or in a way that’s unclear. All of this makes manual digitization that much more of a pain.
With data from so many different sources in so many formats, you need to convert it all into a unified standard. This might mean using specialized software, or simply putting it all into a spreadsheet. Even so, converting large amounts of finance data from one format to another can be as time-consuming as actually studying it.
Conversion aside, you need to be able to store your data too, whether physically or digitally. On top of that, as your business grows, you might reach the limitations of how much data your system can adequately process.
Expense reconciliation is time-consuming and often challenging for businesses, especially if done manually. With Fyle’s expense management software, you can integrate with any business credit card, to simplify the expense reconciliation process.
Here’s how we can help:
With the leaps and bounds of computer technology over the past couple of decades, you’d be forgiven for wondering why companies haven’t embraced it for financial accounting and expense reconciliation wholeheartedly.
People can often be resistant to change. If something still works, why swap it out for something you’re not used to?
On top of that, there are tangible real-world resource costs associated with any corporate systems migration, such as licensing and installation costs, lost productivity during adjustment, and so on.
Even so, the benefits of a modern expense reconciliation process are too big to ignore. By changing the way your people work, you can free up their time and energy for what really matters.
Aside from how slow they are to use, paper records are awfully perishable. So, not only are digitized records more efficient thanks to search bar utilities and keywords, they’re much safer too.
Sure, data loss, theft, and corruption are their own risks. But it’s much easier to have multiple virtual copies of your records stored in their own cyber-secure spaces.
On top of that, digitization is necessary to enable the next step in modernizing your expense reconciliation.
With virtual financial records, it’s possible to automate both the addition and analysis of financial data. Using a machine learning algorithm, you can check financial records against each other much faster than you would by eye.
We’re already seeing how AI customer service, for example, helps individuals complete or automate transactions and handle their finances. These sorts of algorithms can also help automate record-keeping for things like expense reports and company credit cards too. In theory, this helps to prevent human error and oversights.
As you digitize and automate financial accounting processes, you’ll find it easier to decentralize the burden of responsibility. Rather than your accounting team having to scramble to ensure receipt compliance and accuracy for every spending employee in the business, those staff members get the tools and knowledge necessary to supply their own record-keeping.
Expense reporting is the process of submitting expense claims for reimbursement, while expense reconciliation involves verifying and matching those expenses to accounting records.
The frequency of expense reconciliation depends on your business size and industry. Many companies reconcile expenses monthly, but some may require more frequent reconciliation for better control.
Some metrics to consider while reconciling expenses include:
Reconciliation time is the average time it takes to reconcile a specific period’s expenses.
How to track?
Calculate the time spent on data collection, verification, matching, and analysis for reach reconciliation period.
The percentage of errors found during the reconciliation process.
How to track?
Monitor the number of discrepancies found and divide it by the total number of transactions processed.
The average value of individual expenses.
How to track?
Calculate the total expenses for a period and divide by the number of transactions.
The percentage of revenue spent on expenses.
How to track?
Divide total expenses by total revenue for a specific period.
While corporate credit cards offer convenience and efficiency for businesses, managing them effectively can be a daunting task. Without proper oversight, corporate cards can lead to uncontrolled spending, fraudulent activities, and administrative headaches.
To help you out, we’ve crafted this guide to delve into the nitty gritty of efficient corporate credit card management, explore some best practices, and provide you with insights on how to choose the right card issuer.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better idea of how you can optimize your company’s spending, enhance financial control, and regain some of that lost sanity.
Corporate credit card management is the systematic process of managing and controlling the use of company-issued credit cards. It involves setting clear spending policies, monitoring card usage, reconciling statements, and ensuring compliance with financial regulations.
Effective management is crucial for maintaining financial health, optimizing cash flow, and preventing fraud.
Corporate credit card management is essential for several reasons:
Define what expenses are eligible for corporate cards, set spending limits, and outline approval processes.
Select a card issuer that aligns with your business needs, offers robust security features, and provides excellent customer support. Bank-issued cards often excel in these areas due to their established infrastructure and regulatory compliance.
Utilize a credit card expense management software to automate expense tracking, track company card spending, and generate detailed reports.
As your business evolves, revisit spending policies to ensure they remain relevant and effective.
Educate employees about card usage, expense reporting procedures, and fraud prevention.
Monitor card activity in real time and receive notifications for unusual or suspicious transactions.
Review and reconcile credit card statements to identify errors, unauthorized charges, and potential discrepancies.
Perform regular audits to assess card usage, and compliance with policies, and identify areas for improvement.
Maximize the value of your corporate card program by taking advantage of rewards and perks offered by the card issuer.
Emphasize the importance of responsible card usage and encourage employees to report any issues promptly.
While managing multiple corporate cards can be complex, here’s one of the easiest things you can do:
With Fyle you can have all your corporate card transactions in one dashboard. Here’s how:
While fintech companies have disrupted the financial industry, bank-issued corporate credit cards still offer several advantages:
Implementing robust security measures is crucial. This includes setting strong passwords, utilizing cardholder verification (CVV) codes, and enabling fraud alerts.
Regularly monitoring card activity and reporting suspicious transactions promptly can also help prevent unauthorized charges.
Contact your card issuer immediately to dispute the charge. Gather all necessary documentation, such as receipts and transaction details. Work closely with your company's finance department to resolve the issue promptly.
Consider factors such as annual fees, rewards programs, interest rates, and customer support when selecting a corporate credit card. Evaluate the card's alignment with your business's spending habits and industry-specific needs. Bank-issued cards often offer a wider range of features and benefits tailored to businesses of all sizes.
Ideally, corporate credit card statements should be reconciled monthly to ensure accuracy and identify any discrepancies. However, for businesses with high transaction volumes, more frequent reconciliation may be necessary.
But with tools like Fyle, credit card transactions are automatically reconciled as soon as employee submit their receipts via text!
Common red flags include unauthorized charges, unusual purchase amounts, transactions in unfamiliar locations, and discrepancies between receipts and card statements. Be vigilant and report any suspicious activity immediately.
As your business grows, the number of company-owned cards is likely to increase as well.
Using an expense management software can simplify corporate credit card management with features like real-time transaction feeds, text-message receipt submission, real-time spend visibility, and policy compliance.
Schedule a demo today to see how Fyle can simplify corporate credit card management!
