Expense reporting
- Reimbursement due
- $880
- Lodging
- $298
- Meals and incidentals, full days
- $68
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only rates PerDiemDesk supplies are the published IRS and GSA ones, named and linked where they are used: the defaults for meals, hotels and supplies are a worked example to replace with your own.
Expense reporting is the discipline of turning a trip or a month of spending into one document that a business can approve, pay and defend. The travel expense report on this site does the hardest version: nights of lodging at the billed rate, full days and travel days of meals and incidentals at the daily rate, mileage at cents per mile, fares, less any advance, giving the amount due. The rates it starts from are the published federal ones with their sources linked, and every one of them is an input you can change to match your own policy.
Try the free expense report Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Itemise by the categories the rules recognise
Lodging, meals and incidentals, mileage, fares and other purchases are the lines a substantiation rule reads, and they are the lines the report produces. A single figure for a trip is not a report; it is a request for one.
Apply the rate that was in force on the date
The IRS business mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for January to June 2026 and 76 cents per mile from July 1, 2026, and the GSA standard meals and incidentals rate is $68 a day with $51 on the first and last day of travel. The tools carry those figures with their sources and take them as inputs, so a report for a June trip and a report for a July trip are each right.
Subtract the advance and show the balance
A report that ends in a gross total with an advance noted somewhere above it gets queried. One that ends in the reimbursement due, after the advance has come off, gets paid. The report computes it that way for the same reason the invoice on any good product does: the last number is the one someone acts on.
File it against the person and the claim
In Pro a saved report is a claim against a team member, with a state, a date and the receipts attached. The report is the document; the claim is what happens to it. Keeping them together is what expense reporting is actually for.
Expense reporting: common questions
What should an expense report include?
The date, the amount, the place and the business purpose of each expense, with a receipt for any single item of $75 or more and for all lodging under 26 CFR 1.274-5. The report tools on this site produce the itemised figures; the purpose line and the receipt are yours to add, and Pro stores both against the claim.
How is per diem handled on a travel expense report?
Meals and incidentals are paid at a daily rate rather than from receipts. The tool takes the rate as an input, defaulting to the GSA standard CONUS figure of $68 a day, and pays first and last days at three quarters, which is $51, the way the federal tables do. Your own policy can set any rate.
Can I produce a report for someone else?
Yes. The free tool has no account and no name on it; fill it in for whoever travelled and print it. In Pro, saving it against that team member turns it into their claim, and they can also log in and file their own.
Do the reports work outside the United States?
The arithmetic does, and every rate is an input, so a UK or Canadian business enters its own mileage and subsistence figures. The default rates and the receipt threshold on the page are the US federal ones and are labelled as such; they are not claims about any other country's rules.
PerDiemDesk Pro
Keeping what you file
The reports are free forever. Pro turns them into your books: your logo, no watermark, saved claims by team member, approval and payment status, and clean exports for your accountant.
- Download as PDF
- No PerDiemDesk watermark
- Save and reopen later
- Your logo and tax reference on it
- Bulk export reports for your accountant
- Payment confirmations emailed to your team
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$4per month, whole team
Start PerDiemDesk Pro PricingRenews monthly at the price above until you cancel. We email you before any price change.
Will it do what you need for Expense reporting?
Tell us what your business needs and we will tell you straight whether PerDiemDesk Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with something else. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
From July 1, 2026 the IRS standard mileage rate for business use is 76 cents per mile, up from 72.5 cents per mile in the first half of the year, so an expense report that hard-codes one rate is wrong for half of 2026.
Travel expense reports (Reimbursement due): $880, PerDiemDesk, worked example.
Cite as: "Expense reporting, PerDiemDesk", updated 2026-09-02, https://perdiemdesk.com/expense-reporting/.