What is an expense claim? Definition

Are you looking for the definition of an expense claim and an example of how to standardise your documents internally?

Then you've come to the right place! And if you want to go further and find out how to deal with them, you'll find a few useful links along the way.

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What is an expense claim?

The expense claim: definition

Addressed to the company's accounting or administrative department, an expense claim is a form, which may or may not be paperless, used by employees (or those in a similar position) to claim reimbursement of their business expenses.
The document is supplied by the department in question, to ensure consistency, standardisation of claims and ease of processing.

Who can apply?

All types of organisation (associations, SMEs, start-ups, large groups, etc.) are eligible for reimbursement of business expenses:

• non-executive employees
• managers
• managers
• volunteers.

The reimbursement of expenses is a right: it is not compulsory for the employment contract to stipulate that expenses will be reimbursed.
However, when the contract is negotiated and signed, the employer may propose either actual reimbursement or a flat-rate payment.

The different types of expense claim

An expense claim may cover several types of business expense or focus on just one, as with :

• mileage expenses
• meal expenses, etc.

Expense claim: model

To give you a better understanding of what an expense claim is, here's a template:

Actual or flat-rate expenses: when does the expense claim apply?

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If the company pays actual expenses, it reimburses the exact amount of the expenses incurred.

This involves issuing an expense statement and presenting supporting documents for all expenses incurred.

If the flat-rate allowance option is chosen (in only 5% of cases, according to a wity.fr study), the employer pays a lump-sum allowance that includes all potential accommodation, meal and travel expenses.

This is a more flexible solution that does not require expenses to be filled in or justified, and does not require expense claims and related supporting documents to be processed.