Expense Reports: How to Track, Manage, and Simplify Costs

The Complete Guide to Expense Reports for Businesses

Managing expense reports can be a time-consuming and not-so-fun part of your business (just ask your accountant). Between keeping track of paper receipts, spreadsheets, reimbursements, and more, your finance team may be overburdened by a tedious, error-prone, and often jumbled expense reporting process.

Fortunately, expense reporting and expense management tools by Slash can assist you with this burden, offering automated solutions to ease the difficulty of chasing documentation from paper receipts, spreadsheets, and missing reimbursements. Slash is rethinking how you handle business expenses, swapping manual tracking for smarter, automated systems that make expense reporting simple, accurate, and (pretty much) effortless - it just takes clicking a few buttons on your Slash dashboard.

Expense reports are an essential part of your financial management. In this guide, we’ll help break down what expense reports are for your business and why modern tools like Slash can make a difference for your finance team.

What Is an Expense Report?

An expense report is a record used to document employee expenses incurred while performing work-related tasks or activities (like travel, client visits, and more). It’s how a company tracks what was spent, on what, and why.

Traditionally, employees filled these reports out by hand or in a spreadsheet, attaching paper receipts for travel expenses, office supplies, or client meetings. Those reports would then move through an approval chain before the employee was reimbursed.

Modern expense reporting systems do this automatically or in much fewer steps. Employees upload a photo of a receipt, and the software extracts details like the vendor name, date, and amount. The expense is automatically categorized and added to an itemized report for review.

Typical expense categories include:

Travel and transportation
Meals and entertainment
Office supplies and equipment
Client or project-related purchases
Software and subscriptions

With Slash, expense reporting happens in real time. Purchases made on corporate credit cards feed into a system that you can sync with QuickBooks.1 Each transaction is automatically categorized, and receipts can be matched instantly through mobile uploads or scanning.

What Are Expense Reports Used For?

Expense reports serve a few critical purposes that keep your business accountable and organized:

Employee reimbursement: Expense reports ensure employees are reimbursed quickly and accurately for out-of-pocket business expenses.
Budget tracking: By tracking expenses, you gain a transparent, real-time view and prevent overspending before it happens.
Tax deductions: Well-documented expense reports help companies claim legitimate deductions during tax season.
Compliance and audit readiness: Expense reporting can provide a clearer paper trail, helping ensure compliance and helping you prepare for audits and tax reconciliation.
Financial visibility: When expense data is up to date, finance teams can make better decisions about budgeting, spending, and vendor relationships.

Slash turns these traditional reports into live financial insights. Instead of static spreadsheets, its expense management tools connect directly to banking and accounting software, making every report a real-time view of your company’s spending.

What Is Included in an Expense Report?

Expense reports are most useful when they’re detailed but easy to follow. Each section tells part of the spending story:

Date of Expense

Expense entries starts with the date. This helps categorize transactions, track and cross-check timelines, and ensure that deductions fall into the correct reporting period.

Expense Category

Each item should be labeled under the appropriate expense category: travel expense, meals, or office supplies. Categorizing consistently, or before spend even happens with categorized card groups, makes it easier to analyze trends and identify tax-deductible spending.

Amount and Currency

The subtotal, tax, and total are then listed. This amount is crucial for correct reimbursement and accurate reporting.

Vendor or Merchant Details

Documenting the vendor ensures traceability and makes audits easier. In systems like Slash, vendor data is automatically pulled from card transactions.

Business Purpose or Justification

This field explains why the expense occurred, such as a client lunch, travel for a business trip, or a software renewal.

Receipts or Attachments

Whether uploaded digitally or scanned from paper receipts, receipts serve as proof of purchase.

In a traditional spreadsheet, you’d have to enter each of these fields manually. In Slash, they’re populated automatically through expense tracking and card integrations, saving you hours of data entry and ensuring every expense is logged.

How to Fill Out an Expense Report (Step by Step)

1. Gather Receipts and Expense Details

Collect all receipts, invoices, and supporting details for recent business expenses. This might include travel expenses, client lunches, or recurring software payments.

2. Record Each Expense in the Right Category

Enter each item into your expense report template, selecting the appropriate expense category. Consistency in how you categorize these items helps with both tax deductions and accurate budgeting.

3. Add the Business Purpose

Every entry should include a short description of the business purpose — the “why” behind the purchase.

4. Attach Receipts or Documentation

Attach your receipts digitally. If you’re still handling paper receipts, this is where scanning or uploading comes in. Tools like FreshBooks or QuickBooks through Slash make this seamless.

5. Submit for Manager or Finance Approval

Once your report is complete, submit it for review. Automated workflows speed this up by notifying approvers directly and ensuring compliance with company policy.

6. Track Reimbursement Status

After approval, track when expenses are reimbursed. In Slash, employees see reimbursements deposited automatically, keeping finance teams and employees aligned.

Expense Report Examples

A traditional expense report template often looks like a spreadsheet with columns for date, vendor, type of expense, subtotal, tax, and total. Each line is itemized under the right expense categories with attached receipts.

Example 1: A monthly expense report might include office supplies purchased for the quarter, travel reimbursements, and client meeting costs. Each expense would list the vendor, date, business purpose, and supporting receipt, all leading to a final grand total.

Example 2: A travel expense report might include airfare, hotels, meals, and local transportation. The report would list each reimbursable cost, categorized by type and tagged for easy review during an audit.

Instead of managing these manually in Excel, Slash with QuickBooks generates expense reports automatically, connecting transactions, receipts, and approval data into one dashboard.

Automated Expense Reporting with Slash

Automated expense reporting is transforming how business owners and finance teams work. By eliminating manual entry, it improves accuracy, saves time, and ensures compliance, all while keeping your records ready for tax season.

With Slash, automation happens in real time. Every purchase made on a corporate card or through your linked bank account feeds into the system. Transactions are categorized in sync with automated receipts and reports on QuickBooks within seconds.

Some key Slash highlights include:

Direct integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, and other accounting platforms
Multi-entity support for complex finance operations
Real-time analytics that show where your spending goes across projects and categories
Corporate cards with real-time expense tracking, card groups, and customizable notifications so you’re always in the know.

With Slash, expense reporting moves beyond documentation, becoming a connected view of your company’s financial health.

Learn more how Slash can help your expense reporting needs at slash.com.