Expense Report Forms

Employees must use expense report forms if they wish to receive reimbursement for any expense that they have incurred as a result of conducting business. While every company has its own version, they all are basically the same in nature. The employee must be able to write down the reason the expense was incurred and how much was spent.  They must also be able to list the day, date and time that the expense occurred; this way the employer is left in no doubt as to whether or not the expense is legitimate.

While some companies still chose to go with paper and pen expense report forms many are now switching to digital online versions to help cut down on unnecessary waste of both time and money. These online forms allow the employee to simply enter all of the information into a form online and send it directly to the accounting department for payment.

Not only do expense report forms allow the employee to request reimbursement for their business related expenses they also provide a record for their employer to use for tax purposes. When certain costs are denied payment by the company the employee also has record of their own that they may be able to use to claim their expenses as tax deductions at the end of the year.

While using the expense report forms to pay employees for their business related costs has always been the primary goal of the forms, recently they have become very useful in another manner. The cost of business travel has skyrocketed in the last few years and businesses are on the lookout for ways to cut expenses. In one study conducted by a Boston based research company, it was found that for every five dollars a company spends, one dollar goes towards employee business travel.

This information was used to show the companies surveyed just how much of their expenses came from travel, which for most of them was a significant part of doing business. Armed with this knowledge many major companies are now able to take a much closer look at their travel expenditures and find ways to cut the cost of their employee’s travel down by studying how they traveled and where they stayed.  Many of the companies then issued statements to their employees telling them which airlines to use to and what hotels they could use to get the best prices.

An expense report form is no longer just a way for employees to get their money back, they have become a very useful corporate tool in the constant struggle to reduce overhead and increase overall profits. It is very important that every employee be as thorough and accurate as possible when filling his expense report to avoid creating cutbacks that can affect the other employees by reducing their reimbursement rates down the road.