Expense Report Template for Excel (Free Download)

An expense report template is a structured document used to record and track business-related expenses. It helps employees organize receipts, categorize expenses and request reimbursements. By detailing costs such as travel, meals and supplies, the template ensures accurate reporting and budget management. It also streamlines the approval process, maintaining transparency and accountability. Download this free expense tracker template to manage business expenses better.

ProjectManager’s free expense report template for Excel

Why Use an Expense Report Template?

An expense report template is essential for organizing and documenting business expenses consistently. It allows employees to track their spending, categorize expenses and submit reimbursement requests efficiently. This structure saves time and minimizes errors, ensuring accurate reporting.

For companies, using an expense tracker template ensures transparency and accountability. It simplifies the approval process, making it easier for managers to review and approve expenses systematically. This consistency helps maintain accurate financial records, supporting better budgeting and financial planning.

Additionally, an expense report template helps organizations comply with tax regulations by providing a clear record of business expenses. Proper documentation reduces the risk of audits and ensures that only legitimate expenses are claimed. Overall, they streamline expense management and improve financial control.

Expenses are part of doing business. Chances are those who are using an expense report template are involved in projects, which need to have costs estimated accurately and well-planned. Templates aren’t going to do that efficiently, but project management software can.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has robust Gantt charts that can schedule tasks, resources and costs to estimate costs and track them in real time. More than that, they can link all four types of dependencies to avoid delays and cost overruns, filter for the critical path and set a baseline to track expense variance. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Gantt chart in ProjectManager — ProjectManager’s Gantt charts estimate expenses and other costs. Learn more

When to Use an Expense Report Template for Excel

An expense report template should be used whenever an employee needs to document and submit business-related expenses for reimbursement or record-keeping. It’s typically used after business trips, meetings or when purchasing supplies, meals or services related to work activities.

It’s also useful at the end of a specific period, such as monthly or quarterly, to ensure all expenses are accounted for and submitted promptly. The template can help maintain consistent and accurate documentation so it’s easier to manage expenses and stay within budget.

Finally, whenever an organization needs to track spending, ensure compliance with financial policies or prepare for audits, an expense tracker template provides a structured and efficient way to capture all necessary details.

Who Should Use This Expense Report Template?

Employees who incur business-related expenses and need to request reimbursement or document spending can use this expense report template. This includes individuals from various departments such as sales, marketing, operations or field service workers who travel for work or purchase materials.

Managers and supervisors may also use the template to review and approve submitted reports, ensuring expenses are legitimate and aligned with company policies. Additionally, finance and accounting teams use expense report templates to track and process reimbursements, maintain accurate records and manage the organization’s budget effectively.

What Is Included in This Expense Report Template?

An expense report template helps employees efficiently document and track business-related expenses for reimbursement or reporting purposes. It includes all necessary information to ensure clarity and consistency when submitting expenses.

Employee Info

Name: The full name of the employee submitting the report.
Business Department: The department the employee works in.
Phone Number: The employee’s contact number for any follow-up.
Email: The employee’s work email address.

Approved By

This section includes the name of the supervisor or manager who approves the expenses.

Signature

The employee’s signature is to confirm that the details provided are accurate.

Approval Date

The date the supervisor approves the expense report.

Expense Chart

The chart includes key details for each expense, helping to track and categorize them.

Expense Description: A brief description of the expense (e.g., travel, meals).
Purpose/Justification: Explanation of why the expense was incurred.
Expense Category: The category the expense falls under (e.g., travel, office supplies).
Expense Date: The date the expense was incurred.
Vendor: The name of the company or individual the payment was made to.
Expense Amount: The cost of each individual expense.
Total: The sum of all the expenses listed in the report.

Related Free Templates

The expense report template is one of over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that cover all aspects of managing projects across multiple industries. Here are some free templates to download that can help with expense tracking templates.

30-60-90 Day Plan Template

Use this free 30-60-90 day plan template for Word as a strategic framework to outline goals and objectives for the first three months of a new role or project. It divides the plan into three phases—30 days, 60 days, and 90 days—each with specific goals focused on learning, contributing and leading.

Timesheet Template

This free timesheet template for Excel is a tool used to track the amount of time an employee spends on various tasks or projects over a specific period, typically weekly or biweekly. It allows employees to record the hours worked each day, including start and end times, breaks and overtime.

Performance Improvement Plan Template

Download this performance improvement plan template for Word. It is a structured document used by managers to address performance issues with an employee and provide clear steps for improvement. It outlines specific areas where the employee’s performance is lacking and sets measurable goals and expectations for improvement.

How ProjectManager Helps Deliver Successful Projects

An expense report template is part of the larger management of a project. Still, projects aren’t won or lost because of expenses. They need to be planned, managed and tracked to deliver on time and within budget. Templates are static documents and not designed for how dynamic managing a project can be. That’s why there’s project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that has multiple project view views to schedule work on Gantt charts, execute it on kanban boards or task lists and stay updated on progress with calendar views.

Manage Resources to Stay Productive

Gantt charts schedule human and nonhuman resources, but before assigning team members, set their availability. That means, their PTO, vacation and global holidays, as well as skill sets and pay rates. It makes it easier to assign the right resource to the right job at the right time. View resource allocation on the color-coded workload chart to see who is overallocated or underutilized. From that chart, balance the team’s workload to keep them working at capacity but not burning out. There’s even a team page that summarizes the team’s daily and weekly activities, which can be filtered by priority, progress and more.

Track Progress, Performance and Costs in Real Time

Once the baseline has been set on the Gantt chart, our software automatically compares the planned effort against the actual effort. Users can get a high-level overview of this on the real-time dashboards, either for one or multiple projects. Easy-to-read graphs and charts monitor cost, time, workload and more. Customizable reports get deeper into the details and can be filtered to focus on key metrics. They show a more general summary of progress and can be shared in a variety of formats with stakeholders. Even our secure timesheets help by tracking labor costs to help keep projects delivered within their budgets.

Expense Report Template