Expense Report – Meal and Accommodation Exclusions in Per Diems

When you use per diem expense type in your expense report it is often the case a meal was provided as part of a conference or a business meeting.

The question is how can you exclude this meal or another expense such as lodging from a daily per diem rate?

In Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software there are two types of exclusions that allows a user to exclude an expense:

1. Daily exclusion – In this type of exclusion the meal or accommodation you exclude affects the day you are working on.
2. Exclusion for the trip duration – This type exclusion impacts the complete duration of trip. As an example the business conference you attended provided lunches throughout the conference and you would like to exclude all the lunches, it would be a better choice to use this type of exclusion because you will achieve the result quicker.

Following images depicts daily exclusion. First, click on “Exclusion” link on the day you would like to exclude the meal or accommodation. Second, check the box next to the meal or accommodation and click “Save” button. 

Following images depicts duration exclusion. First, click on “Per Diem” link on any day you would like to exclude the meal or lodging. Second, check the box next to the meal or lodging and click “Save” button. The meal or lodging will be excluded from all the days associated with that trip.

 

If you have any comments or questions about this blog post an entry or contact us through Web2Expense portal.

Expense Report Integrated With Expense Approval

From a financial perspective a business trip has two distinct processes, these are:

• Expense Approval Process
• Expense Report Process

Some may argue that business trip in itself also a seperate the process. However, there are a lot of grey areas in that argument. I have to admit that I am also confused from time to time about this subject. Recently I came up with an idea which will clarify the muddy waters in my mind. Here is the revelation.

Think of business trip or any other Travel and Entertainment (T&E) expense as a product you would like buy. In a regular business process you create a purchase request to purchase the product and you get an approval to purchase the item. After your purchase you submit the invoice to get reimbursed or the the vendor automatically gets reimbursed.

There are no differences from a process perspective whether what you buy is a widget or a business trip. Just with one exception, the business trip is much more complicated product to buy.

That is why in Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software there is only one integrated process. With that one integrated process we eliminate the complexity and the ambiguity associated with expense approvals and expense reports.

You can watch the following videos to learn more.

• Employee Expense Approval Process
• Employee Expense Report Process

If you have comments about this topic feel free to comment in this blog or contact us directly.

Using Per Diem In Expense Reports

In this blog we will concentrate on using the per diem expense type and the advantages associated with it.

If you are interested in what per diem is or what the rates are for different states you can take a look at our earlier blogs.

• What is per diem?
• GSA – IRS Per Diem Rates Within Continental US
• Expense Report Policies for GSA Per Diem Rates and IRS Publication 1542

Why bother with per diem rates?

I think this is a very valid question instead of using actual expenses why do you bother using per diems. There can many different answers as with every question, let’s try to summarize them:

• Financial – Per diem provides a financial cap on what the employee or a contractor can spend.
• Operational – When per diem expense type is used instead of recording actual expenses you do not need expense receipts to process the expense. Operationally, this will significantly reduce the paperwork and allow your accounting department to process expense reports quicker.
• Economical – If a company pays actual expense incurred for meals, incidentals and lodging, it is not in the best interest of an employee to find a more economical alternative for meals and lodging expenses.

From a business perspective, all of the reasons above are valid. However, it is easy saying to use per diem expense type in an expense report process what’s not so easy is implementing it.

At that point you should be thinking the pros and the cons of an automated versus non-automated expense report management solution.

You should also be thinking about the differences between alternative automation solutions.

Web2Expense provides a web based expense reporting solution that requires no initial software or hardware investment. Don’t get me wrong Web2Expense is an enterprise class software therefore you need to invest minimal time and effort to learn and understand the software. Once you understand and configure the software according to your needs everything runs like a well oiled machine.

Adding per diems into an expense report literally requires a few simple clicks.

Next screen shots provided as an example for this usage.

Step 1 – Start Per Diem Entry Process

Step 2: Enter Required Information

Step 3 – View Expense Report

As you can see in this example the employee’s meals and incidental expenses for the New York trip is capped at $64.

The system brings this information from a policy/project document that was configured for the project in New York. To learn more about how to setup an expense policy and other important documents you can watch our flash videos posted on Screencast.com.

•  ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Business Scenario
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 1
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 2
• Expense Approval – Employee Perspective
• Expense Approval – Managers’ Perspective

Got questions? Post them to this blog or visit our portal to learn more.

Advanced Expense Reporting

First of all let’s clarify what expense reporting is and what it is not.

1. Expense report management is not a simple task if you would like to do it properly.
2. Expense report software is not an accounting software and if you think your accounting software is capable of what a good expense reporting software can do think again!
3. Expense report software is not travel management software.

Basically, expense reporting is composed of three basic parts:

1. Pre-trip activities – Expense Approval Process
2. Trip activities – Incurring expenses
3. Post-trip activities – Expense Reporting Process

At Web2Expense we focus on parts one and three because there are a number of excellent companies out there for part two, like Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity just to name a few.

Pre-trip activities – We believe this is the step where a lot of companies and organizations misses the boat because they do not do a good job in planning the expense activity which will take place in a trip.

Post-trip activities – This is where what has been planned in pre-trip meets the actual spending. Digital receipts is a big part of expense report automation so is the flexibility of the system you are using.

Web2Expense can automate your expense approval and expense reporting processes end-to-end.

Basically, Web2Expense can give you the upper hand when managing your expenses.

Watch the following videos and understand why?

• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Business Scenario
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 1
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 2
• Expense Approval – Employee Perspective

Got questions? Post them to this blog or visit our portal to learn more.

PS. Did we mention that you can use Web2Expense on your mobile device like Apple iPhone?