Tips On Expense Reports For Consultants

Mar 14, 2013 7:51:00 AM · by Ashley Wetmore

As a traveling consultant, do you dread sending in weekly/monthly expense reports?

Compiling all of your e-receipts and taking pictures of all other printed receipts to be sent in to one place can make the end of a long week positively dreadful at times. 

Our consultants are responsible for turning in flight, hotel, and rental car receipts each week for a quick reimbursement of expenses.  

The only problem with receiving a speedy reimbursement is the tedious amount of time it takes to compile these reports each week.  

To help concur the task of compiling expense reports, we have compiled some tips to help cut back on time, curb effort, and upgrade the end result of your expense reporting.

 

Set Email Rules And Filters

When you travel for your profession you tend to build relationships with certain service providers for points and frequent flyer miles.  

There is an easy way to set up your email to file your important itineraries and receipt emails into one easy to find location.

In Outlook, it’s as simple as setting up a rule and in free accounts like Gmail, you just set a filter option to redirect your emails.  

Once these are in place, it makes finding your expense receipts easier and in one location.

 

Build the Report As You Go

If you have a template that you set up or that you are required to complete by your firm, start piecing it together as you go.

When you book all of your reservations, you usually receive the confirmations instantly in your inbox.

By consolidating all the information at the same time you reserve your flight, stay, and/or car, you can save time spent searching for these documents.

 

Utilize Expense Report Apps

 Technology today provides us with ample ways to creatively solve the simplest and most difficult needs with just the press of a button on our smart phones and tablets.  

At Healthcare IS, we are always looking for ways to utilize our devices.  After some time spent researching and testing different expense apps, we found that using Expensify was a great tool and solution to many of our expense issues.

This app is available on both Android and iOS and makes your expense reporting nearly effortless.  

It’s as simple as creating a free account, forwarding your confirmation emails to your account, and watching them appear in the app instantly.  

Once forwarded, you can compile your report by checking the expenses you would like to include, giving them label, optional comments, and pressing send as a PDF.

Consistently rated as the #1 app for business travelers and road warriors, Expensify does expense reports that don't suck!  

Use Expensify on your Android™ device to log expenses, capture receipt images, and manage reports on the go!

Even better, SmartScan will read your receipt images, fill out the expense details, and create a new expense (or attach to an automatically imported bank/card transaction).  

Organize expenses with custom categories, tags, comments, and consolidate everything into reports.

Track mileage expenses via GPS or odometer entry, and add time or other billable expenses.  

Sync your credit cards/bank accounts with Expensify to track expenses as they happen without filling out information manually.  

Expensify will create IRS Guaranteed eReceipts for most of bank/card purchases under $75.  

Kiss paper receipts goodbye!

You may also like: Time And Expense Apps That Can Save Consultants A Headache

General, Tips for Traveling Consultants

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