The travel expense report is essential in most companies, especially for assignments outside the usual workplace, such as customer visits or business partner meetings. The challenge is to correctly take into account changing lump sums and tax rates while using modern tools to keep track of things and avoid errors.
What is a travel expense report?
The travel expense report provides a clear list of all expenses that have Arisen as part of a business trip. And: Calculating travel expenses is important, because precise documentation is not only important for internal billing, but also plays a decisive role in any financial audits. When you create a travel expense report, you should definitely make sure that you can present all supporting documents in the event of an audit.
What costs can be claimed?
The term travel expenses summarizes all costs incurred during a business trip. These consist of these main categories:
Additional catering expenses: Includes expenses for meals during a business trip.
Travel expenses: Includes expenses for travel to and from the destination.
Accommodation costs: Includes expenses for accommodation during a business trip.
Travel ancillary costs: Includes various additional expenses that may arise during a business trip.
Calculate additional catering expenses correctly
The additional meal expenses represent a lump sum that helps your employees with the costs of eating and drinking during a business trip. The regulations for this travel allowance are in Section 4 Paragraph 5 No. 5 sentence 2 of the Income Tax Act Defined and integral part of the average travel expense report.
Settle travel expenses
Employees can deduct travel expenses as advertising costs, with a commuter allowance of 30 cents per kilometer for the one-way trip to the main workplace. Business trips and continuing education make it possible to bill for trips back and forth. If there are several workplaces, a main workplace is defined. Carpools can claim up to 4,500 euros, but only for direct routes.
Claim accommodation costs
Accommodation costs during a business trip are covered by the company within the agreed budget, unless the hotel bill has already been paid by a company payment. Alternatively, an accommodation allowance of 20 euros can be applied in Germany, which is usually higher abroad and is regulated by country.
Submit additional travel expenses
Employers also reimburse ancillary travel costs such as parking or tolls, fees for business phone calls and damage due to theft. All receipts must be kept; if there is no receipt, a personal document with relevant information is required to be reimbursed.
In principle, these expenses are not reimbursed
Your employees cannot claim all expenses as part of a travel expense report! These include
- Fines
- Additional private baggage when traveling by plane
- pastimes
Online travel expense calculator — simple & digital
Calculating travel expenses doesn't have to be complicated — with our online travel expense calculator on the website, you can keep track of things. Record all relevant costs such as travel, accommodation and meals directly in the browser and immediately get a transparent overview. This saves you time and prevents billing errors. Test the calculator now and easily optimize your travel expense report!
Automated travel expense reporting - with ZEP!
The rapidly developing business world requires constant adjustments, and business trip accounting is no exception. In this context, our module Travel expense report New standards and transforms the way companies manage their business travel. The module is equipped with the following functions for the programs ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional available:
Benefits of document entry
With the ZEP Travel Expense Reporting Module, you can speed up the recording of documents such as hotel invoices, taxi receipts or train tickets. This allows them to be assigned to projects almost effortlessly. Travel data and receipts can be recorded together for a specific project, which enables a transparent and precise allocation of costs.
Mobile recording on the go
With the ZEP mobile app For iOS and Android, your employees easily enter receipts and expenses while on the go. By simply uploading documents to the corresponding project, you speed up the entire billing process.
Entering individual documents
Our travel expense report software makes it possible to enter several individual amounts per document, even if they are subject to different tax rates. This ensures that no costs are overlooked and that travel expenses can be settled precisely.
Automatic currency conversion
Automatic currency conversion into customer currency eliminates manual calculations and increases billing accuracy in a globalized business world.
Additional catering expenses
The automated calculation of additional catering expenses simplifies the complex process and makes it possible to define work locations with the corresponding flat rates as well as configurable percentage deductions for meals received.
Automated Project Controlling
The module provides a comprehensive Project Controlling. A function that ensures that all costs are precisely recorded and allocated to the corresponding projects. This not only allows you to keep track of your costs, but also allows you to maximize the profitability of your projects.
Conclusion
Accurate and efficient travel expense reporting is essential for companies to keep track of things and avoid errors. With modern tools such as an online travel expense calculator or ZEP as a central software platform, billing is not only significantly simplified, but also accelerated. Mobile document entry, automatic currency conversion and efficient allocation of travel expenses to projects ensure that companies optimally manage their business trips. This makes billing transparent, error-free and time-saving — an important step towards optimising processes and minimizing administrative effort.
FAQs
What are the travel expenses?
Travel expenses include travel expenses, accommodation costs, additional meals and additional travel expenses such as parking fees or tolls. All costs incurred during a business trip can be claimed in the travel expense report.
How do you calculate the additional meal costs?
The additional meal costs are calculated as a lump sum and depend on the duration of the business trip. A one-day trip costs 14€, for trips lasting several days 28€ per day.
Which travel expenses are not refundable?
For example, fines, private additional baggage charges for air travel or leisure activities are non-refundable. These expenses are not covered by the travel expense report.
