Expense Report Functionality For Consideration

[neilt]

As a subcontract consultant my expense reports have the following needs.

Header:

• Contractor or Employee Name -
• Week Ending Date - Could be a date range, but we always required 1 expense report per week per project or client.
• Project/Client Name - Client name, project number, etc.

Columns:

• Date - Date on the turned in receipt or the date of the expenditure if there is no receipt.
• Description - Freeform entry, may have pickable values. But usually the description is something like 'Hampton Inn 25 Nov thru 28 Nov 2024", "Avis Car Rental 24 Nov thru 29 Nov 2024", "McDonalds Dinner 25 Nov 2024", etc. See below for the reasons that the date is in the description and may be different than the receipt date in the first column.
• Ab - Checkmark column for expenses that should be absorbed and not charged to the client. Typically this is taking the client to lunch or dinner. Only one of Ab or R can be checked for a given row.
• R - Checkmark column that should be billed to the client (reimbursed by the client). Only one of Ab or R can be checked for a given row.
• X - Checkmark (boolean) that receipt is included. Some expenses may not have a receipt depending on company policy.
• Travel Expenses $$- Actual expenses for air fare, rental car, uber, taxi, etc.
• Meals $$ - Meals are separated out because they may be per-diem or actual not to exceed per day or per week.
• Other $$ - Other expenses that are not travel or meals. For example preparing presentations, printing large drawings, office supplies, etc.
• Row Total $$ - Total per row

Rows:
There are typically rows for the following:

• Rental Car - For example, "Avis Car Rental 24 Nov thru 29 Nov 2024".
• Hotel - For example, "Hampton Inn 25 Nov thru 28 Nov 2024". Hotels may be booked with charge before the date of stay so the date in the date column (receipt date) may not be the same as the date of use in the description. In this case the description may be something like "Hampton Inn Prepay for 25 Nov thru 28 Nov 2024 stay"
• Air Fare - For example, "United 25 Nov 2024 Kansas City to Chicago". Note that tickets may be purchased in advanced and reimbursed in advance so the receipt date column may not be the same as the travel date in the description.
• Each meal - For example, "McDonalds Dinner 25 Nov 2024" (and no I haven't eaten at McDonalds since I was a teenager, but I figured that would be more universal than Rhea's Cafe).
• Milage with a standard reimbursement rate per mile. This rate changes every year and in my case it is the maximum US IRS allowance. A company may reimburse less than the maximum. For example, "Travel from Kansas City MO to Topeka KS 28 Nov 2024 100 miles at $0.65/mile". Note that the Date column usually applies for milage.

Footer:

• Total number of receipts included with the report
• Total Travel for the week ending
• Total Other for the week ending
• Total Meals for the week ending
• Total reimbursed for the week ending
• Total absorbed for the week ending
• Total for the expense report for the week ending. This is the actual amount of the payment to the employee once approved.

[neilt]

Yes, I agree that electronic attachments do not need to be attached per line item on the expense report. With that said, it really would be better if they were. That way the column X listed above could be eliminated. The row would simply have an attachment marker.