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What is an expense report?
If you are wondering what an expense report is, most likely, you have recently started your small business and need to establish the process of documenting business-related expenses.
An expense report is a document that gathers information about business expenses. Small business owners can benefit from creating expense reports by tracking spending and being prepared for the tax season.
Expense reporting may vary based on the type of expenses and the period when the expenses are incurred. It's crucial for accountants, owners, and employees of small businesses to be aligned and aware of the expenditures. This understanding prevents potential confusion or long gathering of receipts when preparing for tax filing.
A standard expense report should capture the following information:
- The date on which the expense incurred
- Vendor’s name
- Type of the expense
- Amount
- Receipts included in the report.
Why do you need an expense report?
As a small business owner or a solopreneur, you can benefit from creating expense reports. The advantages of an expense report include:
- Organization and timely reporting
- Saving time on finding the receipts, calculating the total expenses, and filling in the expenditure
- Being prepared for the tax season.
What format should you use for expense reports?
The expense report should contain key information such as the type of expense, date, vendor, and total amount. The easiest way to capture all these fields is to create an Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet. You can search for an Excel expense report template online or request a sample expense report from your finance team. Some applications, such as Scanner Pro, have a built-in Expense Report feature that captures all data from receipts automatically and allows you to choose between CSV or PDF formats.
Once you create an Excel spreadsheet, add the information, and calculate the total amount, you can export your spreadsheet as a PDF file or print it to send the business expense report via email or submit it to your accountant or finance team in person.
How often should you create an expense report?
It is essential to get familiar with business reporting principles and best practices in your country. Once you know the guidelines, you can create reports on a monthly or quarterly basis.
The key thing here is consistency and regularity. You can formulate the deadlines and expected terms of submission of business expense reports in your policies.
To help you with that, technology and apps such as Scanner Pro and Calendars 5 can streamline this process. You can create events and set reminders for all important deadlines (for example, when the tax season starts). Then use Scanner Pro to create an expense report and file all your expenses.
How to create an expense report in Scanner Pro?
If you don’t want to spend too much time filling in all the details from receipts, you can consider using a simple Expense Report feature in Scanner Pro.
Note: Scanner Pro is an application available for iPhones and iPads, that can seamlessly create and store all your receipts, scans, scanned invoices, and other types of documents in one app.
With Scanner Pro you don’t have to fill in expense report templates: just scan all the necessary receipts, and the app will capture the key data from them and prepare a report for you.
To create an expense report in Scanner Pro:
- Open Scanner Pro.
- Scan your receipts.
- In Scanner Pro, tap the three-dots icon in the upper right corner of the screen > tap Expense Report.
- Tap to select the necessary files or folders containing the receipts.
- Tap Add to report.
- Review the pages and tap Create Report.
- Voilà! Your report is now ready, and you can export it in PDF or CSV formats using the Share button and selecting the app or contact that you would like to send your report.
You can learn more about Expense Report in Scanner Pro in the dedicated article Simplify expense reporting and tax write-offs with Scanner Pro.
Creating expense reports shouldn’t be cumbersome, take a lot of time, or make you dread the idea of creating one to file your expenditures. Try Scanner Pro and let the app take care of gathering the key data from your receipts for you.
Scanner Pro can create expense reports for you in a matter of seconds and save you time to focus on more meaningful work running your business. Check out the app now and see how easy it is to track business spending.