Entering & Recharging Out of Pocket Expenses

[Mike007]

About Me

I work as a Management Consultant. I invoice monthly but submit expenses to my client weekly. The expense process is long winded and time consuming and I am trying to streamline this.

Current Process

Between Monday to Friday every week, I collect receipts during my day to day client business activities. All of my expenses on client business are chargeable and reimbursed to me as part of my invoicing process.

1. Every Sunday, I begin the dreaded task of “doing my expenses”! I normally have around 30-50 receipts per week for things like coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, accommodation, travel etc etc
2. I have to use a client spreadsheet (which is actually quite good) and on this, I add the date, expense category, description and value for each receipt on a line by line basis. Once I have completed the expense sheet, I have to write on each receipt a reference number which relates to the line item eg “1” on receipt “1” etc
3. To do this, I glue the actual receipts onto an A4 blank page and then write the number on each receipt (to line up with expense line).
4. Once this is done, I scan the physical receipts (all scans are A4 size) and save these scans in a folder. I then combine these scans with the electronic receipts I have collected eg flight tickets, accommodation etc to create a Wk 07 pdf to accompany the week 07 spreadsheet in the week 07 folder.
5. I double check that all completed correctly then email the spreadsheet & scans to client
6. At the end of each month, I invoice the client with a simple invoice showing days worked + expenses (for the weeks worked in the month)

Notes

(a) All “out of pocket expenses” are paid for by me personally and repaid back to me from my business bank account on a monthly basis. So on my bank statement, I have a “drawings” reference which aligns with reimbursement.
(b) That means that I do not have single expense line items in my bank account for day to day transactions (eg coffee etc) so I cannot reconcile on this basis (and nor do I want to).

How do I streamline my process to deliver better results using this system?

Kind regards

Mike

[QFMathew]

Hi @Mike007

I think there may be a quicker way to do this using QuickFile, although this way is how I would do it; other users may have suggestions (and they can freely add these to this topic if they wish).

1. When you have the receipt, write the name of the client on the top (for your reference)

2. Use an app such as ‘CamScanner’ and photograph the receipt as it is (front and back)

3. If you use Dropbox and it’s linked to your account, add it using your phone to Dropbox to import into QuickFile. Otherwise, set up the “email your receipts” feature, and email them in.

4. Create a generic supplier in QuickFile, something like ‘Client Expenses’. As long as everything can be matched up if asked by HMRC, you should be fine

5. On a regular basis (for example, each Sunday), go through the receipt hub and create a new purchase for each receipt linking them to the above supplier. Perhaps even set the description to something like “Supplier - Brief Description”, e.g. “Costa Coffee - Hot Chocolate & Tea”

6. Once you’ve done them, you could even use our rebilling feature and rebill to your client, without entering any more data - just confirm and send! This also gives the client a complete breakdown too

@Mike007

All “out of pocket expenses” are paid for by me personally and repaid back to me from my business bank account on a monthly basis. So on my bank statement, I have a “drawings” reference which aligns with reimbursement.

You would use either your proprietor drawings account, or director’s loan account (depending on whether you are a sole trader or limited company respectively). This should reflect the payments, which could be tagged to the individual expenses. When you take the money from the business bank account, it would be tagged as a transfer to the drawings or loan account.

I hope that makes sense?