3 Ways to Track Spending While Traveling
Traveling for work has become a necessity in most industries. Whether you’re going across the country for a meeting with colleagues at a satellite office or to woo a potential client, you’re probably going to incur a lot of expenses along the way. Some companies provide these work travelers with a company credit card so they don’t have to worry about keeping track of expenses. With a company card, the expenses are already there on the statement with details so there really isn’t anything you would need to do to keep up with those costs. However, not every company has the ability to provide their employees with a company credit card for all of the trips they may end up taking. This is when you will have to track your spending and expenses out of pocket to ensure you are fully reimbursed once you get back to your home office.
It’s not always easy keeping up with everything you spend, especially since you tend to be running around quite busy the entire time you’re away. This is why you have to figure out the best ways to manage your travel expenses on the go.
Save Your Receipts
When traveling away from home for work, you should make it a point to hold on to every paper receipt you get. Everything you spend while out of town should be reimbursed to you at a later time; including your food, gas, lodging, and in some cases, entertainment. If you aren’t automatically offered a receipt, be sure to request one.
Since your pockets and wallet or purse can only hold so much, you may want to consider packing a folder to store everything in at your hotel. For the tech savvy traveler, you may even consider packing a portable scanner like the Epson WorkForce DS-40 Color Portable Scanner we’ve mentioned before. Since it can run off of a batter or a USB cord, you can take it with you everywhere you go. The software included can send the scanned file to Dropbox so if you do lose the paper receipt, you’ll still have access to it.
Cashbook
Yet another tech savvy option for managing your expenses is by downloading the Cashbook app to your Android devices before heading out of town. Since most people tend to carry their smartphones with them everywhere they go, you’ll never be without a way to document and track almost all of your expenses while away.
This incredible app not only allows you to take pictures of your receipts and send them to your Dropbox or Google Docs, it can also track your mileage via GPS in real time so you don’t have to try and keep up with tracking mileage if you’re driving yourself. At the end of your trip, you can also use the app to generate a report that can be sent to the finance department for reimbursement.
Expensify
The Expensify app has the ability to track every aspect of your travel expenses into one place with minimal effort on your part. You can import your company and personal credit cards and compile the expense from each into one easy to use system. It even has an integrated SmartScan feature that preloads all of the important information off of each receipt and matches it with the expenses so you don’t have to do it for each one. Additionally, you get access to eReceipts for bank transactions under $75 that are IRS compliant. Not only does Expensify make the reporting and tracking of your travel expenses fast and easy, it also gives your company’s financial administrators the ability to pay you for reimbursements, whether through direct deposit or even PayPal.
Hopefully these three options will make it easier for you to track your expenses the next time you have to travel out of town for business. Never again will you have to worry about paying for everything out of your own pocket with the fear of not getting your money back.
Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net/patpitchaya
