How I turn an expense dump into a reimbursement claim sheet

Client travel, software receipts, and a pocketful of card screenshots are not a reimbursement claim. They are a pile that waits until payroll or the client asks again.

Here is the workflow I use when someone dumps expenses (photos, PDFs, CSV exports, or a Slack thread) and wants a claim-ready spreadsheet back in about a day.

What "good enough" looks like

• One sheet a finance contact can approve without a follow-up scavenger hunt
• Each line has date, payee, amount, currency, category, and business purpose
• Receipt / source link or filename so nothing is "trust me"
• Totals by category and a grand total that matches the line sum
• Flags for missing receipts, personal spend, or unclear purpose — not silent guesses

Intake checklist

1. The raw dump (receipt photos, PDF invoices, bank/CSV export, email forwards, or a pasted list)
2. Who the claim is for (you, a contractor, a team member) and who pays (client, employer, retainer)
3. Policy hints if you have them (per-diem, mileage rate, what is out of policy)
4. Date range the claim covers
5. Anything that must stay out (personal charges, other clients, sensitive vendor names)

The pass order that saves time

1. Inventory the dump — list every receipt/file once; note blanks (no date, no amount).
2. Normalize lines — date, payee, amount, currency; convert only when the source is clear.
3. Attach purpose — one short business-purpose phrase per line ("client onsite — Project X").
4. Categorize — travel, meals, software, shipping, other; keep the list short and consistent.
5. Link sources — filename or URL crumb so an auditor can find the receipt.
6. Flag gaps — missing receipt, personal-looking charge, duplicate, or out-of-range date.
7. Total and spot-check — category subtotals + grand total; three random lines back to the dump.

Sheet columns that work

Column	What goes here
Date	Purchase / charge date
Payee	Merchant or vendor
Amount	Line amount as charged
Currency	As on the receipt
Category	Short shared list
Business purpose	Why this was work
Project / client	If the claim needs it
Paid with	Card / cash / invoice
Receipt	Filename or link
Status	Ready / missing / excluded
Notes	Flags only — no novels

Common traps

• Submitting a photo dump with no purpose column
• Mixing personal and client spend on the same claim without exclusions
• Inventing categories or project codes the client never used
• Rounding away currency conversion instead of flagging it
• Leaving duplicates from "email + photo of the same lunch"

Soft handoff

When the sheet is done, send:

• The reimbursement claim spreadsheet
• A short list of lines still missing a receipt or purpose
• Category totals so the approver can skim in 30 seconds

That is the whole job. No full bookkeeping suite required.

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