Definition, list of business expenses and examples

We offer you a basic guide to managing business expenses :

• definition of expenses,
• list of business expenses
• and examples to help you understand them better.

Bonus: a few tips on how to manage them easily, the different methods of reimbursement, the Urssaf scales and professional tools to help you.

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Urssaf definition of business expenses

Business expenses are expenses incurred by an employee in the course of his or her duties, which the employer is obliged to reimburse.

Business expenses are therefore incurred by the employee in a professional capacity, at the request and with the approval of his manager, in order to carry out the tasks entrusted to him.

The employer must reimburse the sums advanced, generally on presentation of an expense claim accompanied by receipts.

The sums reimbursed are not subject to Social Security contributions or CSG-CRDS.

List of professional expenses and examples

• Mission expenses: all expenses incurred by a public service employee in connection with a given mission, when travelling away from his/her administrative residence (usual place of employment) and family residence (home). This includes the cost of meals, accommodation and travel.
• Transport costs: for example, tram, metro, bus or train season tickets, plane tickets, etc.
  
  
• Meal expenses: these may include meals bought outside canteen opening hours for on-call assignments, during training periods, or night work, but also meal baskets allocated on a flat-rate basis, or meals in a restaurant with a client.
  
  
• Accommodation costs: hotel, AirBnB, etc., incurred when travelling for several days, sometimes abroad. They can also include rental costs incurred when you are transferred to another company, and therefore have to move house while you wait for a permanent home. These are known as business travel or long-distance travel expenses, and are incurred as part of professional mobility.
• Mileage-based expenses, relating to journeys made with a personal vehicle for business purposes, be it a car, motorbike or bicycle.

• Expenses relating to teleworking or mobile working - expenses relating to new information and communication technologies (NICT ): when an employee needs to equip himself to be able to work from home or on the move in satisfactory conditions: furniture, Wifi box, second screen, ergonomic chair, smartphone, etc.

☝️ All these examples of business expenses must be reasonable and justified.

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How should business expenses be managed?

Here are a few tips for companies on how to manage expense reports and a few tools:

• Use our expense claim template as a basis for providing clear documentation to your employees, so that they can claim their business expenses on an actual basis, within the limits of the Urssaf scales.

• Or opt for compensation in the form of a lump-sum allowance, the maximum amount of which is set each year by Urssaf via scales, for professions that often incur professional expenses.
  
  
• Or apply a specific flat-rate deduction for certain categories of profession, such as sales representatives or construction workers.

• You can also :
  • create a tailor-made form to standardise the entry of business expenses, on the move, with Kizeo Forms ;
  • dematerialise the management of business expenses from A to Z, and guarantee legal archiving, with N2F.
    
    
• To calculate business expenses, particularly mileage expenses, consult the applicable Urssaf scales or use tools such as Izika to automate the process and save precious time.
  
  ☝️ What about transferring business expenses to the payslip? These solutions generally communicate with your HR tools.
  
  
• Finally, another option is to avoid advances on business expenses and provide your employees with a bank card with a ceiling, via the Spendesk solution for example.

To find out more, browse through our magazine and discover all our articles on managing business expenses.