There are many times when an employee or a staff member pay something out of his [own] pocket for the time being for the organization. The thing or the entity that the staff member is paying for should be paid by the organization but because of urgency or unavailability of the budget, the employee or the staff member pays it from his or her own pocket. Down the road or a few days after the employee or the staff member asks for a reimbursement from the organization. This reimbursement can be sought from the organization after filling out an expense claim form.

An expense claim form is a form which is to be filled out when the organization has to reimburse the employee for expenses that were paid by the staff member or the employee. This form consists of details of the employee such as the name of the employee, the designation, the job and etc. and the type of payment that has been made and what event was that which caused the employee to pay from his own pocket.

Claims for reimbursement of travel expenses of an official trip shall be filled on a form designed by the finance and payroll department of business and is known as expense claim form. An expense claim form shows all the expenses incurred by an employee on his official trip. This form may also be used by a traveler to note down all his expenses incurred on a trip.

An expense can be defined as all the economic costs a business incurs on its operations to generate some revenue and profits. Expenses represent the costs of doing and running a business.

If the owner or an employee of a company travels to another country/city for official work, all the costs associated with this trip are the actual expenses and these must be calculated. Official trips expenses include tickets expenses, meals, parking expenses, hotel expenses, and others. These expenses must be considered and are tax deductible.

Structure of an expense claim form:

A typical structure of an expense claim form includes:

• Name of the company along with the address and contact number.
• Name of employee, employee identification number and designation.
• Account code of the employee.
• Date and destination of travel.
• Description includes the purpose of travel.
• Each expense incurred like food, hotel, and others.
• Total expenses.
• Some forms might include a GST column.

It is to be noted that all the original receipts for a proof shall be attached with an expense claim form. Receipts make it easy for the finance department to calculate all the costs and reimburse these. The staff in the finance department is responsible that claims are authentic and are calculated at the correct rates.

The expense claim form must be submitted by an employee within three months of the original payment by an employee. In some companies, the worker has to go physically to the office to collect and expense claim form, but in this computerized world, most of the companies use an advanced online method to download the expenses form, fill it and submit it online. This way is time efficient and helps the payroll department to take a quick action and pay back the accurately calculated money on time.

Along with expense form filling keeps in mind the following points:

• Keep one copy of the form with you.
• Attach the valid and appropriate backing documentation.

The template

The form that is made in use by the organization is a template since the organization cannot afford to make a form from scratch. Many organization also include a section where the employee has to attach the receipt of the payment. This section is known as the proof section which gives the organization proof of the payment. This form is to be filled by the employer and submitted to the accounts department.

Expense claim form template

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