When someone pays for a train ticket, a hotel night or a box of display hooks out of their own pocket, the business owes them that money back. This builder puts the claim and the rules on one sheet: dated lines by category, receipts marked, mileage worked out from distance and your rate, subtotals by category, any advance taken off, a signed declaration and an approval and payment block. Under the claim sits a short outline of your expense reimbursement policy, so the person claiming and the person approving read the same rules. The editable sample is a fictional shop assistant manager's claim for October 2026.
Make an expense claim form
- Enter the employee's name and role, the business, a claim number if you use them, the claim period and the date submitted. Choose the currency.
- Fill in the reimbursement policy: what can be claimed, what cannot, how many days people have to claim, the amount from which a receipt is needed and the mileage rate per mile or kilometer. Add who approves claims and how they are paid.
- Add a line for each expense with its date, category and description. Categories are Travel, Mileage, Meals, Accommodation, Supplies and Other. Enter the amount and tick Receipt attached when the receipt goes with the claim.
- For a Mileage line, describe the journey and enter the distance instead. The amount is the distance times the policy's rate.
- Enter any advance the employee received, check the declaration, then print the claim for signing. You can list up to 40 lines.
The claim period must end on or after it starts, and each line's date must fall inside the period and not after the date submitted. Every line needs a description and an amount, or a distance for mileage, and mileage needs a rate. Recording an approval needs the approver's name, and the amount approved cannot be more than the total claimed; approving less needs a note saying why. A payment date needs an approval date on or before it and a payment method. Use Start blank for a new claim or Reset sample to see the example again.
What should an expense reimbursement policy include?
A policy short enough to fit under the claim, written before anyone spends money. The outline in the builder covers these points:
- What can be claimed. Public transport, mileage in a personal vehicle, parking, meals while working away from the usual place of work, accommodation agreed in advance and supplies bought for the business.
- What cannot. Commuting between home and work, fines, alcohol, personal items and anything already paid with a business card.
- The deadline. How many days after an expense the claim must arrive, such as 30.
- Receipts. Whether every item needs one or only items above an amount you set.
- The mileage rate. The amount per mile or kilometer you repay for business journeys in the employee's own vehicle.
- Approval and payment. Who approves, that nobody approves their own claim, and when and how approved claims are paid, including what happens to an unspent advance.
Keep the wording plain and the same for everyone. If a rule matters enough to refuse a claim over it, it belongs in the policy.
How to fill in an expense claim form
Use one line per receipt, dated the day you paid, and describe the expense the way the approver will recognize it, such as "Train to the trade fair, return". Pick the category that matches the receipt, because the subtotals feed the business's records by category. Claim mileage with the start, the destination and the distance for each journey, and keep a note of trips as you make them rather than rebuilding them at the end of the month.
Attach the receipts in line order and submit within the policy's deadline. If an advance covered part of the trip, enter it, so the claim shows what is still owed to you or what you need to hand back.
Mileage, subtotals and the claim check
A mileage line's amount is the distance times the rate, rounded half up to the cent. In the sample, 24.5 miles at Meadow Corner's own rate of $0.65 a mile is $15.925, so the line claims $15.93. With a second trip of 6 miles, mileage comes to $19.83. The sample's total claimed is $221.38. Take off the $150.00 advance and $71.38 is due to the employee. When an advance is larger than the claim, the sheet shows how much the employee repays.
The claim check never blocks printing. It lists lines without a receipt that the policy asks for, such as the sample's $27.50 trade fair dinner, lines older than the policy's deadline on the date submitted, and a line with the same date, category and amount as another, which is often a receipt claimed twice. It notes when the advance is more than the amount claimed.
Mileage reimbursement rate and tax treatment
Rules on reimbursed expenses and their tax treatment vary by country and change from year to year, and this tool is not tax advice. In the US, IRS Publication 463 explains the rules for an accountable plan: a business connection, an adequate account to the employer within a reasonable time, and the return of any excess. Reimbursements under a plan that meets these rules are generally not reported as the employee's wages. For July 1 to December 31, 2026, the IRS standard mileage rates list 76 cents a mile for business use.
In the UK, HMRC sets approved mileage rates that an employer can pay without reporting them: for cars and vans, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles a year from 6 April 2026, then 25p. Check the current figures where you are before you set the rate in your policy.
Print or download the claim
Print / PDF gives a printable expense claim form with the line table, category subtotals, the advance and amount due, signature lines for the employee and the approver, and the policy outline at the end. Blank approval fields print as lines to fill in by hand. Untick the policy option to print the claim on its own.
To reuse it as an expense reimbursement form template, keep the business, the policy and the approver, then use Start blank each month. The text download keeps a readable copy. The CSV has one row per line with the date, category, distance, rate and amount as plain numbers, ready to paste into an employee expense report or the income and expense tracker. Cash paid out of the till belongs in the petty cash log, and hours worked go on the timesheet calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make an expense claim form without an account?
Yes. The builder runs in your browser and needs no sign-up. Download or print the claim to keep it, since the draft lives only in this tab.
Does the form pay the employee or send the claim?
No. It prepares a printout, a text file and a CSV. Nothing is approved, paid or sent. Pay approved claims the way your business usually pays people, and record the payment date, method and reference on the claim.
Who should approve an employee's expenses?
Someone other than the person claiming, such as the owner or a manager with the budget. The owner's own claims are best checked by a second person, such as a business partner or bookkeeper.
What if the employee has no receipt?
Ask for a short written note of the date, place, amount and reason, and decide against the policy whether to accept it. The claim check flags missing receipts so the decision is made on purpose rather than by accident.