Every business trip comes with costs that need to be properly documented, not just for reimbursement, but for accurate bookkeeping and tax records.
A travel expense report documents the expenses incurred by an employee during business-related travel. WordLayouts offers a pre-formatted travel expense report template to support this process. Available in both Google Sheets and Excel formats, it provides one place to break down these expenses in detail. Designed for employees, freelancers, and small teams, this template makes it easy to log every trip and expense in one organized place. It includes two built-in sections: Mileage Expense details to automatically calculate driving reimbursements and Travel Expense details for costs like meals, lodging, parking, and airfare.
Download the template for simpler and faster travel-expense reporting.
Why Do You Need a Travel Expense Report?
A travel expense report is a post-trip reimbursement and accounting record that itemizes the actual costs incurred during authorized business travel. It is used to identify the claimant and reporting period, states the travel purpose, records mileage and direct expenses, and calculates the amount still payable after ineligible costs and travel advances are deducted.
It provides the following benefits:
Supports tax and recordkeeping
A well-organized travel expense report can be used with other documents to support tax and simple audit recordkeeping. According to IRS Publication 463, documentary evidence will ordinarily be considered adequate if it shows the amount, date, place, and essential character of the expense.
Helps in budget review
A report can show the spending patterns during the trip. It also helps finance teams to see where money goes to plan future travel budgets better.
Supports receipt and policy verification
The report helps the reviewer compare each claimed expense with its receipt and confirm that it meets the organization’s reimbursement policy.
Benefits of This Travel Expense Report Template
Detailed and labeled categories
Each section is well labeled, which facilitates the employee in filling out this template, and it also helps the reviewer to quickly scan the report.
Mileage expense details
It has a separate mileage rate table, which is suitable if the employee has used their personal vehicle during the trip. They can enter the exact miles from their odometer readings and request reimbursement as per the company’s mileage reimbursement policy.
Supports consistent reporting
The pre-built sections of the template support consistent reporting that makes each review easier to claim, reducing confusion and follow-up.
Saves time and reduces manual errors
The built-in formulas accurately calculate the totals based on the employee’s input. This not only speeds up the reporting time but also reduces manual errors in calculations.
Travel Expense Report Template: A User Guide
Let us take a deeper look at each section of this travel expense template and how it can be used effectively.
Set up the template
The template consists of two sheets: the main travel expense report sheet and a configuration sheet.
The Config sheet supports the Vehicle Type dropdown column in the main sheet. Its prepared list contains Car, SUV, Motorcycle, Van, and Electric Vehicle, followed by blank entries. Replace or add classifications on that list when the organization’s fleet or reimbursement policy uses different terms. The Instructions column explains how to select and use the appropriate vehicle classification when recording mileage expenses.
Once you have set up the Config sheet, you can move on to the Main Sheet. The header identifies the organization issuing or receiving the report. The admin personnel adds the company name, address, and phone number in the relevant fields.
Mileage Rate is completed for each journey. Add a number here as per your company’s policy. If the organization adopts the IRS business rate for qualifying vehicle use, the rate must match the travel date. Check the IRS Standard Mileage Rate page to confirm this figure. Enter the rate as a dollar amount per mile. For example, add 0.76 if the applicable rate is 76 cents per mile.
Once these entries are in place, share the file via intranet, employee portal, or as per the company’s preferred workflow.
Employee and travel details
The rest of the header section is filled by the employee. For identification purposes, add name, ID, department, designation, and contact no. in the specific fields.
Period From and Period To define the dates on which the reported expenses were incurred. Every date entered in the two expense tables should fall within that range.
Travel Purpose states the reason for the trip as a whole, such as a client meeting, conference, training session, site visit, or field assignment. Keep it brief, yet use a specific phrase that identifies the business activity.
Mileage expense table
Mileage Expense Details records eligible business travel completed in a personal or otherwise approved vehicle. Each row represents one journey or trip segment.
Enter the date in the Date column, then use Travel From and Travel To to record the journey completed on that date. Use the Purpose of Travel column to state the reason for that journey. Select your vehicle from the dropdown in the Vehicle Type column.
When filling the Odometer Reading section, include the actual odometer readings before departure in the Start column and the reading upon arrival in the End column in the designated fields. The template automatically calculates the Total Miles by subtracting the start reading from the end reading and gives you a Total dollar figure by multiplying miles by the already present rate. For example, readings of 1550 and 1670 produce 120 miles; at $0.76 per mile, the row Total is $91.20.
Use the Comments column for relevant details that are not clear from the route or travel purpose. If one business trip includes multiple journeys, record each journey on a separate row and use comments such as “Client office visit” or “Client site visit” to distinguish them.
The template adds all the row totals of this table to give you a Total at the bottom automatically. This figure represents the calculated mileage reimbursement for all eligible journeys recorded in the table.
Other travel expense table
The template includes another table in the Main Sheet which is for recording any travel-related expenses besides mileage.
Just like the Mileage Expense table, this table also includes various columns for recording Lodging, Meals, Parking, Airfare, Transportation, Ride-share expenses, and Other for each trip.
This expense table automatically summarizes the listed expenses at three levels:
- The Total at the end of each row adds the category amounts entered on that row.
- The Category Total row adds each category down the table.
- The final Total in that row adds all category totals to produce the complete Travel Expense Details amount.
Reimbursement summary
Total Expense carries forward the grand total from that travel expense table. Non-Reimbursable records the portion of the reported direct expenses that will not be paid under the organization’s policy. Advance Received records payment already issued for the trip. The workbook subtracts Non-Reimbursable and Advance Received from Total Expense to calculate Total Reimbursable.
The template then adds the total reimbursable amount to the total of the Mileage Expense Details table to give you a final Total Reimbursement value in the header.
At the bottom of the template, a note instructs the employee to attach the relevant receipts and invoices, along with the final travel expense report. The admin personnel may modify the wording as per the organization’s workflow.
Submission and approval
Submitted By identifies the employee who is submitting the expense report, Signature records the certification, and Date Submitted records when the completed report is entered for review.
Approved By, Signature, and Date Approved fields identify the authorized reviewer and record approval of the claimed expenses and final reimbursement amount. The reviewer should verify the line item expenses, non-reimbursables, advance received, and totals as per the company’s policy, as well as compare the entries with relevant documents and the applicable travel policy before completing these fields.
How to Customize this Travel Expense Template
There are multiple ways you can tailor this template to your organizational needs.
- Add More Rows: The template offers enough flexibility for you to add new rows when more space is required to record expenses.
- Rename Expense Column Headers: Relabel the prepared expense categories to reflect the organization’s travel policy and common costs, such as airfare, lodging, or meals.
- Add a Logo: A logo can be inserted in the header of the sheet to match it with the visual identity of your organization.
- Add or remove a vehicle type option if they only use one type of vehicle.
- Add a currency column if the report is also used for international business trips.
- Add a receipt attached (Yes/No) column if their company requires proof.
