An expense policy should help someone make a purchase correctly and know what to do next. It needs clear owners, realistic instructions and an exception route that works when the ordinary process cannot.
Open the free expense policy template. This English working document includes editable sections for your own rules. Replace the prompts, have the relevant owners review it, then print or save a PDF for distribution. It is a starting document, not an approved company policy.
Start with the decisions people make
A useful policy answers five questions: what can I buy, how should I pay, what evidence do I need, who reviews it and when will a personal payment be reimbursed?
Use the template to name the legal entities and people covered. Set an effective date and a policy owner. For a one-person business, that may be the owner working with an accountant. A growing company may need local finance owners and delegated approvers.
Define permitted spending and approval
Describe the categories relevant to the business, such as travel, meals, supplies, software, fuel, charging and parking. Enter your own limits, currencies and approval requirements. Explain whether a limit applies per transaction, day, person or trip.
Make it clear who can approve an exception and what employees should do if that person is unavailable. Decide how an approver's own expenses are reviewed. Avoid leaving a new employee to guess which message or document counts as approval.
Explain company payments and reimbursements separately
Set out when employees should use a company payment method and when they may pay personally. Describe how to obtain access, request a budget or report a problem. For prepaid fuel cards, assign someone to manage the available balance as well as spending permissions.
For employee-paid expenses, define the submission deadline, review process and reimbursement schedule. Explain how advances and earlier payments are recorded so the same expense is not paid twice. The expense report template provides a consistent submission format.
Make evidence requirements practical
Tell people where to send receipts and what context to add: business purpose, project or entity, and any information a receipt cannot provide. For business meals, include attendees and organisations. For an unclear document, request a better copy while the employee can still obtain it.
Describe the missing-receipt process: request a duplicate, record available evidence, complete a declaration and send it to the named reviewer. The policy should not promise acceptance of every declaration.
Give overseas spending its own instructions
Keep the purchase amount and original currency. Specify the approved source for the reporting amount or conversion rate, and explain how fees, tips and refunds should be recorded. State who owns country-specific invoice and accounting questions.
Use a common submission process with local rules where needed. A company-policy approval does not determine deductibility or VAT recovery. The cross-border expense guide provides an operational checklist for the handoff between employee and finance.
Set the role of AI agents
Define which expense tasks the team expects an agent to help with and which decisions require a person. Employees should know where to correct a receipt, add context or flag an incorrect match. Finance should know who reviews exceptions and authorises the accounting handoff.
Rally combines a WhatsApp agent for the employee's expense workflow with a platform agent for work inside the platform. AutoMatch connects receipts with transactions. Build those steps into the policy alongside human review and the supported accounting outputs.
Keep the policy usable as the business grows
Before publishing, walk through an ordinary purchase, a missing receipt, an overseas payment and an urgent exception. Check whether a new employee can complete each one using the policy alone. Resolve contradictory limits and replace every template prompt.
After rollout, review recurring questions and exceptions. Update the policy when entities, payment methods, accounting processes or responsibilities change. A short policy people can follow is a useful foundation for expense management across the business.
For drivers and vehicle spending, add the fleet card policy and register. Keep employee-owned vehicle reimbursement separate using the UK mileage-rate guide where those rules apply.
