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Receipts to reimbursement · Free downloads

16 Free Expense Report Templates

An expense report has one job: turn a pocketful of receipts into a number somebody can approve and pay back. These templates do that job in whichever format your workplace actually uses — an Excel spreadsheet that totals every row, subtracts the cash advance, and breaks the month down by category on its own; a printable PDF for the folks who staple receipts to paper; a Word file you can put a company name on; or a Google Sheets copy that lands straight in your Drive. Every sheet has the fields the IRS expects — date, purpose, category, amount — and signature lines for both sides of the approval.

The whole library

Every expense sheet we make.

Pick your situation

Sixteen sheets, from a simple blank form to a full year.

Each card downloads the Excel version with working totals — or opens a Google Sheets copy in your own Drive. Want a simple blank form to print and fill in by hand instead? Every sheet has a print-ready PDF and an editable Word version too.

Expense Report

The standard: one row per expense with a category dropdown, subtotal, less cash advance, total reimbursement.

Travel Expense Report

One trip on one page — day rows date themselves from the trip dates, with a column per expense type.

Monthly Expense Report

Thirty-one self-dating rows plus a category summary that totals itself as you enter expenses.

Expense Tracker

The running spending log — category and payment dropdowns, with category and month summaries that keep themselves.

Mileage Log

Odometer start and end per trip — miles and reimbursement calculate at the IRS standard rate.

Reimbursement Form

The compact submission form: list the expenses, attach receipts, route for approval and signature.

Petty Cash Log

Money in, money out, a running balance that keeps itself — count the box and the over/short computes.

Annual Expense Summary

Category-by-month grid for the whole year — quarters and the year total calculate as you fill it in.

Credit Card Report

Match every statement line, split business from personal, and reconcile to the statement balance.

Simple Expense Report

Date, description, category, amount, one total — the blank short form for people who don't need the payment column.

Weekly Expense Report

Enter the week's first date and the header dates itself; one row per receipt with a category summary and reimbursement total.

Daily Expense Report

One day per page with time-stamped rows and a mileage line at the IRS rate — the field-sales sheet.

Quarterly Expense Report

Categories down, three months across, quarter totals both ways and an over/under line against the budget.

Medical Expense Report

Billed minus insurance paid gives out-of-pocket per visit — the record for HSA claims and the Schedule A threshold.

Contractor Expense Report

Reimbursable expenses to bill a client: billable flag, markup percent, total billable, non-billable rows kept for Schedule C.

Nonprofit Expense Report

Tag each expense to a program or fund; the by-program summary totals itself, volunteer mileage at the 14¢ charitable rate.
Skip the spreadsheet, or see one finished

Fill one in online, or look at the examples first.

Online expense report
Expense Report Generator
Type the header and each expense in the browser, subtract the advance, download a finished signable PDF. No account.
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What finished looks like
Expense Report Examples
All sixteen templates filled in with sample data — see a completed travel grid, monthly summary, or medical log before you download.
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The standard form
Expense Report Form
The detailed general-purpose report most companies mean — payment-method column, cash advance, both signatures.
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Definitions

What is an expense report?

An expense report is the document an employee, contractor, or volunteer submits to get paid back for money spent on the organization’s behalf — or, for a business owner, the record that turns a drawer of receipts into deductible expenses. It itemizes each cost with a date, a description of the business purpose, a category, how it was paid, and the amount; totals them; subtracts any cash advance; and carries the signatures of the person who spent the money and the person who approved it.

The form matters for tax reasons, not just tidiness. Under the IRS’s accountable-plan rules, a reimbursement is tax-free to the employee only when the expense is substantiated this way and submitted within a reasonable time; reimbursements paid without that paper trail count as wages. A good expense report template is simply the fastest way to meet that standard every time — which is why every sheet here carries the same core fields, whether it’s the one-page daily sheet or the quarterly summary.

From the owner

Why these sheets are built the way they are.

“There’s no premium tier hiding the good version here — the dropdowns, the reimbursement math, and the category summaries all ship working, because this is a free library and not an expense app’s lead magnet. The house rule these sheets are built to: a report should answer the approver’s three questions — what, why, how much — before they’re asked.”
— David, Apollo’s Templates

A few deliberate choices, so you don’t have to reverse-engineer them:

  • Categories are a dropdown, not a suggestion. The Excel sheets validate against one shared category list — the same list the monthly sheet’s summary totals against — so “food,” “meal,” and “lunch” can’t split one category three ways.
  • The cash-advance row is on the sheet. Reimbursement disputes almost always start with an advance nobody wrote down. Subtotal, less advance, total — printed on every report.
  • Both signature lines are printed on every sheet. An expense report only one side signed is a reimbursement that hasn’t happened yet.
  • Amounts stay blank until entered — not $0.00 — so a half-filled report never shows a misleading total.

Claiming miles instead of receipts? That’s its own arithmetic — use the mileage log, which multiplies your business miles by the IRS standard rate.

Keep it tax-free

The three IRS rules worth knowing.

Reimbursements are tax-free to the employee only under what the IRS calls an accountable plan — which is less a document than three habits. Miss them and the reimbursement legally becomes taxable wages:

Substantiate. Every expense needs a date, place, amount, and business purpose. Receipts are required for all lodging and for any other single expense of $75 or more — below that, the report entry itself can serve as the record.

Submit in reasonable time. The IRS safe harbor treats expenses substantiated within 60 days as reasonable. A report that sits in a glovebox all quarter is how tax-free money quietly becomes W-2 income.

Return the excess. If an advance exceeded the actual expenses, the difference goes back — which is exactly what the “less cash advance” row documents. Source: IRS Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses.

Three ways to use them

Download, copy, or print.

  1. Excel: download the .xlsx, pick categories from the dropdown, and the subtotal, advance math, and category breakdown calculate as you type.
  2. Google Sheets: click “Open in Google Sheets,” then Make a copy — the totals and dropdowns come with it, in your own Drive.
  3. Paper: print the PDF version from the situation pages and keep it with the receipt envelope. Same layout, hand-totaled.
Common questions

Expense report FAQ

What should an expense report include?
Five things per expense: the date, what it was for (the business purpose), a category, how it was paid, and the amount — plus the receipt stapled or scanned behind it. At the report level, add who's submitting, who approves, and the period covered, then a total with any cash advance subtracted. That set isn't arbitrary: it's the substantiation the IRS expects under an accountable plan, so a report built this way keeps the reimbursement tax-free. Every template on this page carries exactly those fields.
Are these expense report templates really free?
Yes — every format downloads directly with no signup, no email wall, no watermark, and nothing that expires. The Excel files include the working totals and category math, not a crippled preview. We're a free template library, not an expense-software company fishing for subscriptions; there's no upgrade to sell you.
When do I need a receipt, and when is the report enough?
IRS rule of thumb: documentary evidence — a receipt, canceled check, or bill — is required for every lodging expense regardless of amount, and for any other single expense of $75 or more. Below $75 the report entry itself (date, place, amount, business purpose) can stand alone. In practice most employers require receipts for everything, which is the safer habit; the report's job is to organize them, not replace them.
What's a cash advance, and why does the template subtract it?
If your employer fronted you money before the trip — say $200 for meals — the reimbursement you're owed is your total expenses minus that advance. The Subtotal / Less cash advance / Total reimbursement rows at the bottom of the standard and travel sheets do that arithmetic so nobody has to. If there was no advance, leave the cell blank and the total simply equals the subtotal.
What is an expense report used for?
Three things at once. For the person who spent the money, it's the claim for reimbursement. For the approver and bookkeeper, it's the itemized record that gets posted to the right expense categories. And for the tax return, it's the substantiation that makes a reimbursement tax-free under an accountable plan and a deduction defensible in an audit. One document serving all three is why the fields on it aren't negotiable — date, purpose, category, amount, receipt.
Why itemize expenses instead of submitting one total?
Because a total can't be approved, posted, or audited. The approver needs to see that the $340 was a hotel night and two client meals, not a guess; the bookkeeper needs categories to post against; and the IRS needs the date, place, amount, and business purpose of each expense to accept it. Itemizing also catches the errors — the duplicate receipt, the personal charge on the company card — that a lump sum hides.
How long should expense reports be kept?
The IRS statute of limitations makes three years from the tax filing date the practical minimum for the records behind a business deduction, and many businesses keep seven to be safe. The habit that satisfies it cheaply: scan or photograph each approved report with its receipts and file it by month. Paper receipts fade — thermal ink can be illegible within a year — so the scan isn't bureaucracy, it's preservation.

Free expense report templates · Updated September 2026 · by David Nelsen — built for the small shops where the expense system is a spreadsheet and an envelope of receipts.

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