Expense report — free Excel template

What’s inside the expense report

The template is a single ready-to-use sheet with a frozen header row and one column per field. Its columns are:

• Date
• Merchant
• Category
• Description
• Subtotal
• Tax
• Total
• Payment method
• Reimbursable

What to include on an expense report

On each line: the date, the merchant, a category, the business purpose, the amount with tax split out, how it was paid, and whether you are claiming it back. Attach the receipts. Put your name, the period and your approver in the title in row 2 (“Expense report — J. Smith, September 2026”) or in the file name; the columns hold line items only.

IRS Publication 463 says that “if you prepare a record on a computer, it is considered an adequate record,” and that documentary evidence is ordinarily adequate if it shows the amount, date, place and essential character of the expense. On this template, Description is where the business purpose goes.

Source: IRS Publication 463 (Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses)

How to fill it in, step by step

Put one receipt on each row, write the business purpose in Description, keep tax in its own column and mark anything personal No. Then total the reimbursable lines, subtract any advance you were given, and submit the sheet with its receipts before your employer’s deadline.

• One row per receipt. Split a receipt that mixes business and personal items, such as a hotel folio with a movie on it.
• Description says why: the client, trip or project. For meals, say who attended and how many.
• Tax goes in its own column and Total is what you paid. The template has no Tip column, so on a tipped meal Total = Subtotal + Tax + tip. Add a Tip column if your policy reimburses tips separately.
• Mark personal items No in Reimbursable.
• Total the reimbursable rows and subtract any advance.
• Submit promptly. Publication 463 treats accounting for an expense within 60 days after it was paid or incurred as within a reasonable period; your employer can set a shorter deadline.

Which expenses need a receipt (IRS rules)

For travel, non-entertainment meals, gifts and transportation, IRS Publication 463 generally requires documentary evidence such as receipts, canceled checks or bills. It makes three exceptions: an expense other than lodging that is under $75, a transportation expense where a receipt isn’t readily available, and meals or lodging reimbursed under a per diem allowance.

• Lodging claimed at actual cost needs a receipt. A hotel receipt should show the hotel’s name and location, the dates you stayed, and separate amounts for charges such as lodging, meals and telephone calls.
• A restaurant receipt should show the restaurant’s name and location, the number of people served, and the date and amount. If it covers items other than food and beverages, it must show that.
• “No receipt needed” still means keeping a record of the date, place, amount and business purpose.
• Other business purchases, such as supplies or software, fall under IRS Publication 583: supporting documents should show the amount paid and that it was for a business expense.
• Your employer’s policy can require a receipt for everything.

Source: IRS Publication 463 (Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses)

Accountable vs nonaccountable plans

If your employer reimburses you under an accountable plan, the reimbursement isn’t reported as pay on your Form W-2; under a nonaccountable plan it is. An accountable plan needs three things: a business connection, adequate accounting to your employer within a reasonable period, and return of any excess within a reasonable period.

Publication 463 treats each of these as within a reasonable period: an advance received within 30 days of the expense; adequate accounting within 60 days after it was paid or incurred; excess returned within 120 days after the expense; or, with a periodic statement at least quarterly, complying within 120 days of the statement. Reimbursements that fail any of the three rules are generally treated as paid under a nonaccountable plan. If you fail to return an excess within a reasonable time, only the amount in excess of the substantiated expenses is treated that way.

Source: IRS Publication 463 (Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses)

Expense report, receipt log, petty cash log or card reconciliation?

Use the expense report when an employee is claiming back their own spending: it is the only one of these sheets with a Reimbursable column. The others track money that isn’t a claim, such as receipts kept for the books, a cash float or a company card, so their columns differ.

• Expense receipt log: every receipt with its subtotal, tax, tip and total, kept for the books rather than for reimbursement.
• Petty cash log: vouchers paid out of and into a cash fund, with a Balance column for what is left.
• Credit card reconciliation: a company card statement matched line by line to receipts, with a business-or-personal split.
• Monthly expense tracker: a simple month-by-month log of spending.

Filling it from receipt photos

Photograph or scan the receipts and ParseForMe reads the date, merchant, category, subtotal, tax, total and, when it is printed, the payment method, each with a confidence score to check. Export into this template and they land in their columns. Description and Reimbursable stay yours, because no receipt says why you bought something.

When you upload this template, ParseForMe suggests mapping Description to the receipt’s item descriptions. Clear that mapping to get one row per receipt. Keep it and the export writes one row per line item, repeating the receipt’s subtotal, tax and total on each, which a SUMIF total would count more than once. ParseForMe also reads a tip as its own field; the template has no Tip column, so add one and map it once to keep it.

Who it’s for

Employees submitting a month of business spend for reimbursement, and the finance teams that have to check every line against a receipt before paying it.