To fill out an expense report, start by entering your identifying details at the top of the form, then log each purchase on its own line with the date, vendor, amount, category, and a specific business purpose. Attach a receipt for anything $75 or more (and for every lodging charge, no matter the amount), and submit the whole packet within 60 days of the expense so your reimbursement stays tax-free. Everything below is the detail behind those steps.
Start With the Header Fields
The top of every template collects the same orienting information: your full name, employee ID or staff number, department, and the period the expenses cover. These fields route the report to the right approver and tie your reimbursement to the correct cost center. Fill them in before you start logging charges. A report missing a department code or a date range is one of the easier ones to bounce back.
What Goes on Each Line
Every purchase gets its own row. For each one, record:
- The date of the purchase, exactly as it appears on the receipt.
- The vendor — the merchant or service provider.
- The amount you paid, including sales tax. Some templates split subtotal and tax into separate columns.
- The category (travel, meals, lodging, supplies, and so on).
- The business purpose: a short note explaining why the purchase was necessary.
Keep one transaction per line. Combining a cab ride and a dinner into a single row because they happened the same evening is one of the fastest ways to get a report sent back.
Write a Specific Business Purpose
The business-purpose field matters more than most people realize. IRS substantiation rules require records showing the amount, time, place, and business purpose of each charge.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 – Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses “Client meeting” is weak. “Lunch with ABC Corp. to discuss Q3 renewal” is strong. Specific entries clear approval faster and hold up if the company is ever audited.
Pick the Right Category
Categories tie your spending to the company’s budget and to how the IRS classifies deductible costs. The exact list varies, but the common ones are travel (airfare, baggage, train tickets), lodging (hotel stays and taxes), meals, local transportation (taxis, ride-shares, parking, tolls, mileage), office supplies, and a miscellaneous bucket for things like conference fees and postage.
Meals deserve their own attention when you’re coding entries. Business meals with clients, meals during travel, and meals at internal working meetings are deductible to the employer at 50%.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 274 – Disallowance of Certain Entertainment, Etc., Expenses Starting January 1, 2026, employer-provided meals on business premises — cafeteria food, breakroom snacks, coffee — are no longer deductible at all, down from 50%.3Carr, Riggs & Ingram. What Businesses Need to Know About New Rules for Employer-Provided Meals That change doesn’t affect what you claim for travel or client meals, but it is why your company may be tightening its meal policy and asking for more detailed meal entries.
Logging Mileage
When you drive your own car for business, most employers reimburse at or near the IRS standard mileage rate. For 2026, that rate is 72.5 cents per mile.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile Log each trip on its own line: date, starting and ending locations, miles driven, and the reason for the trip. Your normal commute from home to the office doesn’t qualify; only business miles beyond that commute are reimbursable.
Which Receipts You Have to Attach
Attaching receipts is where reports most often stall, but you don’t need one for every charge. Under IRS rules, documentary evidence — a receipt, invoice, or canceled check — is required only for expenses of $75 or more. Below that, you still have to record the amount, date, place, and business purpose, but a physical or digital receipt isn’t mandatory.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 – Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses Lodging is the exception: every hotel charge needs a receipt regardless of the amount.5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2003-106
Your company’s internal policy may be stricter. Many employers require receipts for anything over $25, so check your employee handbook before relying on the $75 federal floor. Scanned or photographed receipts are fine for the IRS as long as the images are legible and unaltered,6Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Procedure 97-22 so photograph receipts the moment you get them. A blurry scan is treated the same as no receipt at all.
Submit Within 60 Days or It Becomes Taxable
The timing of your submission changes how the money is taxed. If your employer operates an “accountable plan,” the reimbursement stays off your W-2 and isn’t subject to income tax or payroll withholding. An accountable plan has three conditions:5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2003-106
- The expense is connected to services you perform as an employee.
- You substantiate the cost — your expense report and receipts — within 60 days of incurring it.
- If you received an advance that exceeded your actual expenses, you return the difference within a reasonable timeframe.
Miss any one of those and the IRS treats the entire payment as a nonaccountable plan: the full reimbursement shows up as taxable wages on your W-2.5Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2003-106 That is the real reason employers push for timely, complete submissions. Late or incomplete reports can turn a tax-free reimbursement into taxed income.
What Happens After You Submit
The completed report usually goes to your direct supervisor first. The manager confirms the expenses look legitimate and forwards it to finance or accounting, which verifies the math, matches receipts against line items, and checks everything against company policy.
Under normal conditions, the review takes five to ten business days, though end-of-quarter crunches can stretch that. If finance finds a problem — a missing receipt, a charge that doesn’t match its documentation, a meal over the daily cap — the report comes back for correction and the clock restarts. Five extra minutes of review before you submit is cheaper than another week of waiting.
After final approval, reimbursement typically arrives within one to two pay cycles, either folded into your regular paycheck or sent as a separate direct deposit. Some companies pay reimbursements on a fixed monthly schedule no matter when you submitted, so ask payroll about timing if you’re carrying a large balance.
If Your Employer Uses Per Diem Instead
Some employers skip receipt-by-receipt tracking for travel and pay a flat daily allowance called a per diem. The General Services Administration sets the federal benchmark; for fiscal year 2026, the standard continental U.S. rate is $178 per day, split between $110 for lodging and $68 for meals and incidentals.7General Services Administration. FY 2026 Per Diem Rates Roughly 300 high-cost locations receive higher rates.
On a per diem trip, your expense report looks different. Instead of listing each meal and taxi fare, you report the number of travel days and the destination. The first and last day of a trip pay 75% of the standard meals-and-incidentals amount.7General Services Administration. FY 2026 Per Diem Rates If your trip is covered by a per diem, don’t also submit itemized meal receipts for the same days; you pick one method or the other, not both.