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How to make a business travel report + free template

30 Dec 2023 · 6
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How to make a business travel report + free template
A business travel report is a document that summarizes all aspects of a work-related trip, including travel details, activities conducted, expenses incurred, and supporting documentation. Travel managers and those in charge of organizing business trips and corporate travel will need their travelers to submit a business travel report. This type of report gives travel managers an overview of expenses and budgets to help improve future business travel.
Key Takeaways
  • A business travel report documents trip details, activities, expenses, receipts, and notes
  • Essential components include: trip overview, itinerary, meetings, activities, expense report, attachments, and additional comments
  • Gather all receipts and documentation during your trip for accurate reporting
  • Use a structured template or travel management platform to streamline the process
  • Reports help improve budgeting, policy compliance, and future travel planning

How to make a business travel report: Step-by-step

  1. Gather all trip information – Collect travel dates, destinations, purpose, and participating employees
  2. Document your itinerary – Record flights, hotels, car rentals, and places visited
  3. List all meetings and activities – Note conferences, seminars, and business events attended
  4. Compile your expenses – Itemize all costs with amounts and payment methods
  5. Attach supporting documents – Include receipts, invoices, contracts, and certificates
  6. Add relevant notes – Document cost-saving opportunities, issues encountered, and follow-up actions
  7. Submit for review – Send the completed report to your travel manager or finance team

What is a business trip report?

The business trip report is an important management tool for budgeting, reporting, and auditing costs. Put simply, it ensures your company has a comprehensive view of the trip, which helps improve reporting accuracy.
Travel Request Form

Preparing for a business trip? Simplify travel requests with our form. Outline goals, meeting schedules and budgets in minutes with our easy-to-use template.

This printable business trip report template provides an overview of travel expenses and budgets to help improve future business travel. It also helps corporate travel managers identify and gather learnings to improve your company’s travel policy and optimize your budget for future business trips.

What does a business travel report include?

A complete business travel report includes the following components:
  1. Trip details – Destination, dates, purpose, and participating employees
  2. Itinerary – Flights, hotels, car rentals, and locations visited
  3. Activities – Meetings, conferences, seminars, and events attended
  4. Expenses – Itemized costs for transportation, accommodation, meals, and other expenditures
  5. Receipts and documents – Invoices, contracts, certificates, and proof of payment
  6. Notes – Cost-saving opportunities, issues encountered, and follow-up actions
Let's take a look at what sections this business trip report template includes, and what information you need to add for each to it.

Business trip overview

In the trip overview section, you will give an executive summary of the business trip. The business trip summary report section includes:
  • Travel destination
  • Duration of the trip
  • The purpose of the trip
  • Participating employees
Plus any other information needed to summarize the business trip.

Trip itinerary

Right after the business trip report summary, you’ll find the trip itinerary.The trip itinerary collects information on the places visited, flight tickets used, hotels booked, and car rental information to enable efficient expense reporting.
Juggling multiple business trip reports at the same time can be challenging. Simplify travel planning with our fully customizable template for business travel itinerary.

Meetings, events, and activities

Now that you’ve established all the important information about the trip, transport, and accommodation, you’ll need to specify the different activities that took place during the business trip. In this section, you can add meetings, conferences, seminars, and other events the traveling employee took part in.

What expenses should be included in a business travel report?

In this section, you’ll present the travel spend —including amounts and payment methods used for things like:
  • Airfare, bus tickets, and other transportation costs
  • Accommodation expenses
  • The cost of your meals

Sample expense breakdown:

Category
Amount
Transportation (flights, taxis, rideshares)
$450
Accommodation (3 nights)
$320
Meals and per diem
$150
Ground transportation (car rental, parking)
$85
Miscellaneous (tips, Wi-Fi, business supplies)
$45
Total
$1,050
This will enable the finance team to accurately report travel costs, check if the reported travel expenses are in-line with your company's travel expense policy, and process any necessary reimbursements.
For this part, we recommend you add your business travel expenses to a table or to an Excel sheet that you can import into your main travel report once done. This will keep your travel data easier to process.
If you've decided to use our report template, you can skip this step since the report format is based on Microsoft Excel.
Of course, you can create your field trip report or sales business trip report using any tool - from Google Docs to MS Word. But, if you want to make your travel manager's life easier, we recommend adding it to a spreadsheet.

Attachments and documents

This part of the report can be divided into two important categories:
  • Invoices and receipts: the proof of each expense
  • Other relevant documents: contracts, certificates, and declarations that were produced during the business trip

Additional comments

In this last section, you can mention important things that happened during the trip, including:
  • Cost-saving opportunities you’ve identified
  • Feedback about issues encountered during your travel experience 
  • Whether there are any important follow-up actions for the activities taken during the trip
The bottom line is that you should include any relevant information that could help optimize your company’s corporate travel policy and budget for future business trips.

Business travel report checklist

Before submitting your report, ensure you have gathered:
  • Trip dates and destination details
  • Names of all participating employees
  • Purpose and objectives of the trip
  • Complete itinerary (flights, hotels, car rentals)
  • List of all meetings, events, and activities attended
  • Itemized expense list with amounts and payment methods
  • All receipts and invoices
  • Relevant contracts or certificates
  • Notes on cost-saving opportunities or issues
  • Follow-up action items

Get your business travel report template

Compiling a business travel report is easier with a pre-made template—just plug your travel information into the relevant section. While using travel report templates is helpful, it’s not the best way to get the job done.
Travel Request Form

Preparing for a business trip? Simplify travel requests with our form. Outline goals, meeting schedules and budgets in minutes with our easy-to-use template.

A travel management platform like Perk enables you to book and manage your travel and automatically creates a business travel report following any trip. You can connect it with your expense management solution to include expenditure details and automatically compile travel reports.

Frequently asked questions

Why is a business travel report important?

Who needs to submit a business travel report?

How long should you keep business travel reports?

What happens if I lose a receipt?

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