In this guide, Iโ€™ll give you three examples of an expense report template for Excel under different categories. Read on for a detailed guide on how to use each expense tracker.

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What is an expense report template for Excel?

An Excel expense report template is a pre-made spreadsheet that can be used by businesses and individuals to record and track their expenses.

Excel expense tracker templates are customizable, meaning you can change them based on your needs and requirements. You can add or remove rows and columns, adjust formatting, and include formulas to automate some of the calculations.

Using expense report forms can help you maintain an organized record of your business expenditures, which is crucial for tax purposes, budgeting, and financial planning. Depending on your company policies, a free template could be the best possible solution for accurate reporting regardless of the size of your team.

Related: Get a free business expenses spreadsheet

Benefits of using an Excel expense template

Using an expense tracking template in Excel has been a game-changer for managing my business finances. Here are some of the benefits I experienced.

Easy expense tracking

Using an expense tracking Excel template has simplified my expense tracking process for travel expenses, contractors, and timely reimbursements. It lets me have an organized format to add all my financial transactions. This has eliminated the need for old-school manual records, making it a hassle-free experience.

Tailored categories

When I create an expense Excel template, I can add a category section by using a dropdown button. This makes filtering data easier, as I can use a formula and search for rows containing Rent or Groceries. Removing or adding categories in a separate list also allows me to update the template in real-time, keeping the data accurate.

Automatic calculation

Excel allows users to use functions and formulas to automate calculations. By using formulas, I don’t have to worry about manually updating the totals in my spreadsheet. Using simple formulas also allows me to perform calculations with changing values. For example, I can add the gas price in a cell and use it to calculate fuel prices based on the updated rates.

Effective management

Budget management has become more accessible using a free expense report template in Excel. I can set a budget limit, monitor my spending, and see how much money I have left. Using conditional formatting, I can add rules to my budget to show a specific color based on how much funding I have used. For example, I can set it so my budget stays green when it’s less than 75%, becomes yellow between 76% and 90%, and goes to red above 90%.

Creating charts

Excel’s graphs are one of the best features to use if you’re looking for visual insights. Making a chart allows me to visually represent my spending patterns. I tend to use bar graphs and pie charts to help me quickly identify my spending habits.

Simplified tax preparation

Using Excel expense report templates can be great for simplifying the process of consolidating deductible expenses into a single spreadsheet. This ensures that I always have an organized record of tax deductions, which helps save time and reduces the stress of the tax season.

Excel expense trackers are a valuable tool for businesses and individuals to manage their finances effectively. Using an expense template has become a daily part of my financial toolkit.

It streamlines the process of finance tracking, offers customization, real-time insights, automated calculations, budget management, charts, and graphs, and helps prepare you for tax season.

Related: Free trucking expenses spreadsheet template

What should I include in a good expense report template?

Although you can customize an expense report template according to your needs and preferences, let’s take a look at some essential elements I can add to an expense report template.

Headers

When creating templates for personal use, I don’t tend to add a lot of headers unless I need to add information for future reference. However, when creating templates for business use, I generally add cells for the company’s name, the expense report’s title, the date, or the reporting period.

Details

Some of the details you should look to have in your expense template include the date of the expense, description or name, category, amount spent, and payment method.

Expense categories

I like to divide my expenses into categories for easier sorting. You should look to create a separate column with a dropdown menu using Excel’s Data Validation feature. This way, you can have preset categories which you can add with a click.

Budget tracking

Although this isn’t entirely needed in an expense tracker, having a budget tracker is certainly nice. I also like to create a cell for the money I have left, which uses a simple formula to check how much I have spent.

These are some of the things I like to add to the expense tracker template I make. However, feel free to add more elements to your expense tracker template based on your needs.

Related: How to create a budget spreadsheet

Best Excel expense report templates for 2026

Here are some expense report examples you can use in Microsoft Excel. To use the template, simply download it and open it using Excel. Feel free to make any changes and delete the previously added data to start from scratch.

If you like the following templates, you should also check out our premium templates library, where you can use the code SSP for the current SpreadsheetPoint discount (when available).

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Simple expense tracker

Expense report template for Excel, simple tracker preview

I created this expense tracker template to be as simple as possible for the user, as not everyone is looking for a template that allows them to micromanage their expenses.

This is a simple, hassle-free way to monitor your budget and expenses. The template was designed with both mobile and PC users in mind. This expense tracker features two distinct sections.

The first section records your expenses. Here, you can add a Name for the expense, choose its Category from a drop-down menu, and enter an Amount and the Date. You can also add optional Notes to describe the expense.

The second section allows you to add your Budget and Categories to the selected expenses in the first section. The top ribbon shows the Total Spent, your Budget, and the Money Left. The Total Spent is calculated automatically using a formula that sums the values in Amount. Add your Budget in the cell, which will then show the Money Left using a formula that subtracts the value in Total Spent from the Budget value.

Finally, you can add the Categories, shown in the Category section, by clicking on an arrow showing a drop-down menu.

Business expense tracker

Expense report template for Excel, business tracker preview

I made this free Excel expense report template for people looking to track their business expenses. The template features a simple, intuitive design, which should make this template easy to use, even for the basic user.

The template consists of three sections. The first one allows you to add some basic information about the report. This includes the Company Name, ID, Employee Name, Department, Purpose, and the From and To dates.

The next section allows you to add information about the expenses. This includes the Date, Description, Transport Costs, Fuel, Meals, Lodging, and Other expenses. Finally, the third column adds the Total for the specific day. A row towards the bottom of the table also shows individual totals for Transport, Fuel, Meals, Lodging, and Other expenses.

Additionally, two cells allow you to add the Date and the signature of the person by whom the payment was Authorised By.

Related: Google Sheets expense tracker

Travel expense tracker

Expense report template for Excel, travel tracker preview

This is the perfect template for anyone looking for an expense tracker template for travel. The template has two sections. The first section allows you to add details like your Name, Position, Department, Manager, Purpose, Start Date, End Date, and Mileage Rate. The total costs of the expenses are color-coded for easier viewing.

The next section allows you to add the Expense name, Date, and Account. You can also add the expense amounts directly in the Hotel, Meals, and Other sections. To calculate the Mileage, write the starting and ending reading. It will be automatically calculated based on the Mileage Rate.

Finally, the grand total of the expenses can be found towards the top right part of the template under Expense Report Total. The result? More timely reimbursement requests formatted the same way every time.

Receipts, proof of purchase, and reducing the risk of errors

If youโ€™ve ever had to backtrack through bank statements or email confirmations, you already know why receipts matter. Even a simple Excel expense report template gets a lot more useful when it includes a clean way to connect every line item to proof of purchase. It also lowers the risk of errors, especially when youโ€™re tracking expenses across multiple cards, multiple people, or multiple business trips.

If youโ€™re using one of the templates above, here are a few receipt-friendly additions I recommend.

  • Add a Receipt column where you can paste a link to a file stored in OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or your company system.
  • Add a Receipt ID column if you prefer to number receipts and store them in a single folder.
  • Add a Reimbursable column so you can separate employee expenses from business purchases quickly.
  • Add a Status column for Submitted, Approved, and Paid. This is simple, but it prevents a lot of confusion later.

These fields arenโ€™t complicated, but they create a basic audit trail. That matters if youโ€™re submitting employee expenses for reimbursement, or if youโ€™re trying to keep expenses clean for tax prep.

Expense reports for small businesses and business owners

Small businesses tend to have two problems at the same time. You want something simple enough that you will actually use it every week, but you also need enough structure that the spreadsheet holds up when you are looking back at trends or preparing reports. Thatโ€™s where Excel still works well.

For business owners, an expense report template is less about perfection and more about consistency. If the same type of expense is logged the same way every time, you can sort, filter, and spot patterns without having to rebuild your spreadsheet later.

If youโ€™re using the business expense tracker above, these are a few additions that make it much more useful for specific needs.

  • Vendor or Payee, so you can quickly see where money is going.
  • Payment method (card, cash, ACH), which helps reconcile statements.
  • Tax category if you work with an accountant and want cleaner handoff at year-end.
  • Recurring flag for repeat expenses, which makes trends easier to analyze.

Excel gives you flexibility here. You can keep it lightweight, or you can add structure gradually as your tracking becomes more consistent.

Business travel and business trips, what to track and why

Travel is where expense reports often fall apart. There are more transactions, more moving parts, and more opportunities for mistakes. If you travel for work, youโ€™re usually tracking the same categories again and again, hotel, meals, transportation, and mileage, but you also have to prove what happened and when.

For business trips, I like templates that make it hard to forget key details. A few columns that reduce confusion later are:

  • Trip name or project, so you can group costs across a single business trip.
  • Client or department, so costs can be allocated correctly.
  • Travel day or day number, which helps when you are reconciling receipts.
  • Per diem or policy notes, if you have employee expenses with rules that change by location.

Once those fields are in place, it becomes much easier to review employee expenses, confirm totals, and catch obvious errors before they become a reimbursement problem.

Monthly expense report template, how to summarize trends in Excel

A lot of people start by tracking expenses daily, then realize they want a monthly view. The monthly expense report template approach is mostly about summarizing the data you already have, and doing it in a way that is repeatable. A monthly view helps you spot trends, identify categories that are creeping up, and make decisions earlier instead of waiting until the end of the quarter.

If you want to convert any of the templates above into a monthly expense report template, this is the simplest structure:

  • Use a Month column (or create one from the Date) so every line item can roll up into a month.
  • Create a summary table that totals spending by month and by category.
  • Add a chart to visualize changes over time. Even a basic column chart can make trends obvious.

If youโ€™re comfortable with Excel tables and pivot tables, this becomes even easier. The key point is consistency. If the date and category are entered cleanly, Excel can summarize the entire year without you doing manual work every month. That is also where you avoid the risk of errors that come from copying totals by hand.

Do you need a PDF expense report template too?

Excel is great when you want flexibility and automation. But there are cases where a PDF makes sense, usually when someone needs a fixed form to print, sign, or submit, or when the process is built around a standard document layout.

If you need a PDF, I still recommend doing the tracking in Excel first. Then export a clean version as a PDF when you are ready to submit. This gives you the best of both worlds, the flexibility of Excel during tracking and the consistent formatting of a PDF at the end.

Wrapping up

Hopefully, you now have the perfect expense report template for Excel to cater to your needs. If not, remember you can edit templates to suit your specific purposes.

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Fact checked by Jim Markus.