An employee pays for travel, parking or materials while doing their job. The expense reaches accounts with a receipt attached, and reimbursement looks straightforward. Yet a receipt alone does not confirm the business purpose, approval, correct amount or whether the claim has already been paid another way.
A consistent review protects both the employee and the business. It helps valid claims move quickly while exceptions are identified before money leaves the account.
Start with one complete claim
Each submission should identify the employee, expense date, supplier, amount, currency where relevant, business purpose, project or cost area and the person responsible for approval. Keep the receipt and supporting information with the claim rather than collecting evidence from separate messages.
If several expenses are submitted together, each line should still be clear. A total without item-level detail makes it difficult to review policy, coding and duplicates.
Check the evidence
Confirm that the receipt or other evidence is readable and matches the claimed date, supplier and amount. Look for missing pages, cropped totals or documents that appear to support only part of the claim.
When evidence is unavailable, follow the organisation’s approved exception process. The reviewer should not invent a replacement rule or approve an unsupported claim simply because the amount is small.
Confirm the business purpose
The description should explain why the cost was incurred for work. “Meeting” or “travel” may be too vague to assess. A useful note identifies the relevant client, event, project, site visit or operational need without including unnecessary personal information.
Where the expense includes both business and personal elements, the claim should show how the reimbursable portion was calculated. The organisation’s policy should guide what is allowed.
Apply the policy consistently
Review the claim against the current expense policy: permitted categories, limits, required approval, submission periods and any special rules for travel, meals, accommodation or client costs. The same standard should apply across teams and seniority levels.
If an expense falls outside policy, record the reason and route it for the appropriate decision. An exception should be visible as an exception, not quietly treated as normal practice.
Check for another payment route
Before reimbursement, confirm that the cost was not already paid using a company card, petty cash, supplier account, travel advance or another employee’s claim. Match the supplier, date and amount, but also consider near-duplicates where rounding, tips or currency conversion create a small difference.
Where an advance was provided, reconcile the claim against it. The final record should show whether money is due to the employee, recoverable by the business or fully balanced.
Verify the calculation
Check line totals, taxes where applicable, currency conversion and the final reimbursement amount. Use the organisation’s approved rates and treatment rather than an informal estimate. If mileage or another rate-based calculation is claimed, confirm the units, route or basis required by policy.
The reviewer should be able to reproduce the total from the evidence. Any adjustment needs a clear note so the employee understands why the paid amount differs from the submitted amount.
A practical example
An employee submits a parking receipt and lunch cost after a client meeting. The claim is correctly dated and approved by their manager. During review, accounts sees that the parking amount also appears on the employee’s company-card statement.
Instead of rejecting the full claim, the reviewer flags the duplicate parking line, confirms that the lunch falls within policy and asks the employee to clarify the card transaction. The employee confirms that the parking was paid with the company card and removes that line.
Accounts records the adjustment and reimburses only the valid lunch amount. The employee receives a clear explanation, and the business avoids paying the same cost twice.
Confirm approval and separation of duties
The approver should have enough context to assess the expense and should not approve their own claim unless an authorised alternative process applies. Accounts should confirm that approval covers the final amount being paid, including any changes made during review.
High-risk or unusual claims may require another level of review under the organisation’s controls. Keep that decision with the claim so the payment can be explained later.
Protect payment details
Use the employee payment details held through the organisation’s authorised process. A last-minute request to pay a different account should trigger the same verification controls used for other payment-detail changes.
Limit access to receipts and claims because they may contain location, travel or payment information. Store only what the organisation needs and follow its retention and privacy requirements.
Record the outcome
Use clear statuses such as submitted, evidence required, manager approval, accounts review, exception decision, approved for payment, paid or rejected. Each open claim needs an owner and next action.
When payment is made, record the date, amount and reference. Close the claim only after the employee-facing outcome and the accounting record agree.
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A good expense process is fair, consistent and easy to explain: the evidence supports the claim, the policy supports the decision and the payment matches the approved outcome.