Bye, Expense Reports: Using Stampli Card for Employee Reimbursements
Paper expense reports are still common in the business world, even if the word is out about how inconvenient they can be.
Employees make a purchase with their own money, hang onto a receipt, fill out an employee expense report, and wait. Finance receives the request later and has to work out whether the expense is allowed, coded correctly, supported by the right documentation, and ready to move into payroll. If any detail is missing, the whole thing bounces back.
There are better ways to handle employee reimbursements, though. Modern expense reimbursement software can help employees capture receipts and submit out-of-pocket expenses, mileage, and per diem with less friction. It can also give finance the policy context, coding, approvals, and final review needed before an approved reimbursement is prepared for payroll processing.
Basics of Employee Reimbursements
It’d be great if whenever an employee needed to make a purchase, they could use an approved company payment method and go forth. Business doesn’t always work this linearly, however.
Sometimes, an employee is out in the field and discovers something they have to buy for business purposes. Other times, a company card isn’t available or the purchase is one of those occasional costs that is easier for the employee to cover. There are also mileage and per diem claims, which begin with an employee’s activity rather than a merchant transaction.
Whatever the cause, there will always be times when employees temporarily use their own money for legitimate business expenses. Employee reimbursement is the process of reviewing that spend and paying the employee back under the company’s policy. A sound process should make submission straightforward for the employee while giving finance control before reimbursement money moves.
Common Sources for Employee Reimbursements
Employee-paid business expenses generally fall into a few familiar buckets:
- Hotels, airfare, ground transportation, and other business travel costs
- Mileage driven in a personal vehicle for business purposes
- Meals, client entertainment, and per diem allowances
- Office supplies, equipment, postage, and delivery charges
- Professional memberships, training, tuition, and subscriptions
- Phone, internet, or other approved work-related services
The exact list depends on the company’s expense reimbursement policy. That policy should explain what is reimbursable, what receipts or business justification are required, which mileage or per diem rules apply, and how soon an employee must submit the request. The U.S. Department of Labor notes that reimbursement of the actual or reasonably approximate amount of an employee’s business expenses may be excluded from the regular rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act; finance and legal teams should apply the current federal guidance alongside applicable state and local rules.
Finance also needs to know whether the same purchase already appeared on a company card. A duplicate or card-overlap check matters because an employee-paid claim and a card transaction can look like two separate expenses even when they refer to the same purchase.
How Employee Reimbursements Have Traditionally Happened
For a long time, employees filled out expense reports at the end of the week, month, or trip. They listed each purchase, stapled receipts to a form, handed it to a manager, and waited for accounting or payroll to finish the process.
The basic information has not changed much. A useful employee expense report still needs the date, merchant, amount, expense category, business purpose, receipt, and any project, department, entity, or general ledger coding the company requires. Mileage claims need the trip details and applicable rate. Per diem claims need the dates, location, and policy context.
What has changed is how that information can move. Instead of treating the expense report as a piece of paperwork, expense report automation can keep the request, receipt, comments, coding, approvals, and exceptions connected from submission through final finance review.
4 Tips for Easier Expense Management and Employee Reimbursements
Expense management can sometimes lag down the list of priorities for businesses and accounts payable departments. The problem is that every reimbursement still creates work. Someone has to verify the business purpose, review the policy, confirm the coding, resolve exceptions, approve the request, and prepare it for payroll.
Here are four tips for making employee reimbursements easier without giving up finance control.
1. Maintain and Use an Expense Reimbursement Policy
A practical expense reimbursement policy tells employees what the company will reimburse and what it will not. It should also spell out receipt requirements, submission deadlines, mileage and per diem rules, approval thresholds, and what happens when a request falls outside policy.
The policy should be easy to find and easy to understand. If employees can see the rule while completing an expense, they have a better chance of sending finance a complete request the first time.
2. Know the Difference Between Accountable and Non-Accountable Plans
The tax treatment of reimbursements depends on how the plan is structured and administered. IRS Publication 15 explains that an accountable plan requires a business connection, timely substantiation, and the return of excess reimbursement within a reasonable period.
That is one reason documentation matters. Receipts, business purpose, dates, and amounts should remain connected to the approved request. Your tax advisor or legal counsel can help you apply current federal, state, and local requirements to your policy.
3. Also Know the Per Diem Rules
Per diem can simplify certain travel claims by using a daily allowance for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses. It does not remove the need for policy context, though. Employees still need to provide the trip dates, destination, business purpose, and any information the company requires. The U.S. General Services Administration publishes current federal per diem rates by location.
The same goes for mileage. A mileage claim should identify the business trip and distance, then apply the company’s approved rate. The IRS publishes optional standard mileage rates and their effective periods. Keeping mileage and per diem inside the reimbursement workflow makes them easier to review alongside other employee-paid expenses.
4. Ditch Paper Expense Reports in Favor of a Spend Management Platform
Paper makes it easy to lose receipts and hard to see where a request is sitting. A digital workflow can guide employees through submission, route the request to the right approver, flag missing information or possible duplicates, and keep finance from piecing the story together across email, spreadsheets, and payroll files. IRS guidance also recommends keeping records at or near the time of the expense because timely records generally carry more value than statements prepared later.
Look for a platform that handles more than submission. Finance still needs coding, exception handling, AP Review, payroll readiness, ERP alignment, and an audit trail after an employee taps submit.
Easier Employee Reimbursements With Stampli
Stampli Expense Management brings employee-paid reimbursements and company-card expenses into one finance-ready workflow. Employees get a simpler way to submit expenses, while finance keeps the context needed to review, code, approve, prepare, post, and audit them.
Capture the Purchase and the Proof
Employees can submit out-of-pocket purchases, mileage, and per diem with the supporting details attached. Receipt capture keeps the documentation with the expense, and Stampli AI can help complete details and flag what may need attention. Finance and approvers keep control of the final decision.
Review Before Reimbursement Money Moves
Reimbursements give finance a chance to review employee-paid spend before it is paid back. Policy context, approval routing, coding suggestions, comments, and exceptions stay connected to the request. AP expense management provides a final finance control point before approved reimbursements are prepared for the customer’s payroll process.
Stampli does not replace payroll or pay employees directly. It prepares approved reimbursement data for payroll processing so the customer can handle payment through its existing payroll workflow.
Catch Duplicate and Card Overlap
Company-card transactions and reimbursement requests start differently, but they can collide when the same receipt or purchase appears in both paths. Keeping both inside one Expense Management workflow gives finance better context to spot possible overlap, ask questions, and resolve the exception before the expense moves forward.
Employee reimbursements shouldn’t require a paper chase. See how Stampli Reimbursements supports employee-paid spend.
