Procurement Automation: Top 4 Procurement Process to Automate in 2024

Business expense reimbursement is one area of spend management that business owners do not always give its due. And yet, nearly every organization will have to reimburse employees for their expenses at some point.

Part of the problem is that these expenses can vary significantly, from buying office supplies to traveling or even medical costs. If your business deals with many types of expense reimbursements, you might wonder what you need to cover and how you should handle it.

If you’ve had trouble working out your organization's different business expense reimbursements, or you want to learn more about repayments, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we’ll take a look at the different types of business expense reimbursements and even share some tips to help you streamline your expense reimbursement process.

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What is expense reimbursement?

A business expense reimbursement is simply the act of paying back an employee for expenses incurred while performing a job for your organization.

Technically, almost any type of expense can qualify as a business expense for the purpose of reimbursement, depending on the reimbursement policies of the business. But to give you a clearer idea, here are some common examples of reimbursable expenses:

• Business travel costs
• Meals and entertainment
• Employee education or training
• Medical expenses
• Gas expenses for a company-issued or private vehicle
• Business supplies or tools
• And other miscellaneous business-related expenses

You could handle these expense reimbursements individually, meaning you review each expense separately, or you could create a policy for employee expense reimbursement. 

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Do I Need to Have an Expense Reimbursement Policy?

You are not required to have an expense reimbursement policy, and in some cases, reimbursing expenses is not even mandatory to begin with. Though that largely depends on the legal framework of your country.

However, since it is customary in the UAE and the MENA region to reimburse employees for expenses, then it would be wise to create guidelines and policies to help you organize and streamline that process.

Creating a policy for reimbursements helps set the right expectations for employees about what qualifies for repayment and enables you to streamline your expense reimbursement process.

With an expense reimbursement policy, your employees will know precisely what they can be reimbursed for, how to request said reimbursement, and how long it would take to receive the funds.

Whether you have a business reimbursement policy or not, you need to have a clear picture of which expenses your employees might incur for your business and how you would go about reimbursing them.

• Is the expense tax deductible?
• Is this a common type of business expense in your industry?
• Do you have a policy in place for this expense?
• Are there any types of emergency purchases that an employee might need to make?

Types of expense reimbursements

Traveling and accommodation

One of the most common types of reimbursement requests is for travel expenses. Gas has been a particular pain point for many businesses in the MENA region due to the rising costs of fuel. Other examples of travel expenses include moving to and from an airport or travel terminal, travel tickets, public and private transportation expenses, car rentals, and lodging.

Office supplies and communication

If your organization relies heavily on digital work, you might need to reimburse your employees for supplies like laptops, tablets, software purchases or subscriptions, training materials, and more. 

Also, if your team needs to move around frequently and you need to maintain communication at all times, reimbursing them for their cell phone plans might be necessary. In particular, this applies to teams in sales, marketing, and business development. 

Food and entertainment

Business trips typically cover employee meals as reimbursable expenses. As long as the expenses are incurred in the interest of the business, they’re reimbursable.

Other expenses

Medical expenses, such as health insurance, insurance premiums, and tuition, are another form of employee expense that is often reimbursed by companies. If your business deals with these types of expenses, make sure you have a clear policy for handling them.

8 tips to simplify your expense reimbursements

1. Learn what you need to reimburse

Although the legalities of employee reimbursements vary from country to country, it’s traditionally customary for employers to reimburse their employees for expenses incurred on behalf of the company. 

It is important to note, however, that your employees cannot claim reimbursements for every purchase made, only those that are specifically tied to your business in some form.

While the specific type of expenses you have to reimburse will vary from industry to industry, you should have a general idea of what costs an employee might have to cover out of pocket in the process of working for you.

• Do they need to travel around in their own vehicle?
• Do you need them to be communicated at all times?
• What kind of equipment do they require?
• Are there any health risks associated with their job?

These types of questions can help you figure out which expenses you will have to deal with. Clear guidelines about what is and isn’t reimbursable will help reduce instances of fraudulent reimbursement requests.

2. Use a spend management platform

With the right expense management software, you would be able to automate and optimize end-to-end workflows throughout your process. 

For instance, with a spend management platform like Pluto, employees can use a mobile app to record expenses as they incur them.

In this way, your employees no longer have to save receipts or wait before entering their expenses. Plus, Pluto can automatically assign reports to the right reviewer, making the review and approval process more efficient.

Not only that, but Pluto can also tag the receipt so the categorization of the expense is much easier and reporting is real-time.

In addition to providing digital copies of relevant documents, Pluto can notify your finance team of approvals and deadlines.

3. Spend management platforms enhance collaboration

Pluto’s expense management solutions come with an employee portal so that your finance team can collaborate seamlessly with your employees. 

This allows you to save time when you need to discuss any irregularities with their expense reports. Additionally, your employees can use Pluto to check the status of their reimbursement requests.

The finance team can also use Pluto  to manage costs more efficiently due to its analytical capabilities, real-time reporting and instantaneous spend limit settings.   

4. Create a Thorough Expense Reimbursement Policy

When creating your reimbursement policy, you’ll want to make sure that it covers as many angles as possible. 

One way to do so is to invite stakeholders from multiple different departments, such as HR, finance, legal, and procurement, to a brainstorming session, as their knowledge will make it easier to draft the policy.

5. Crafting your reimbursement policy

It’s also critical to consider the following when drafting your expense reimbursement policy:

• The specific type of expenses that can be reimbursed
• The process your employees need to follow to submit their expenses, including any proof and supporting documentation
• Whether any allowances will be given for expenses, and how to manage any excess
• The specific time an employee has to submit their expense report
• How the approval process will be handled
• When and how your employees are reimbursed

6. Promote the adoption of the policy

One way to help employees adopt the policy more quickly is by making it readily available to them. The policy should be emailed to your employees or posted on your internal networks.

Employees should be informed when they will receive their payment from the company. You should set up a transparent and clear process to communicate what can be expected in terms of expense reimbursement. 

7. Be extra clear about deadlines and payments.

Be sure to let them know how they will receive the payment, such as via direct deposit or check, as well as how they will receive recorded confirmation of the payment made (such as a statement on their paycheque). You can complete this step easily with the help of an online payroll solution.

It is important to keep things running smoothly when it comes to paying employees. By processing reimbursements timely and reliably, you can easily prevent frustration caused by late payments. 

Having your employees pay out of their own pockets and not receiving payment back sooner rather than later can cause unnecessary ill feelings toward your company. When you handle reimbursements well, it reflects back on you as a respectable and considerate employer who cares about employees.

8. Make sure your employees follow the deadlines you set

You need to provide employees with deadlines for submitting expense reports, such as one week before their next pay date, so they can be reimbursed and get approval for their claims. 

Make sure the expense reports comply with the policy guidelines by giving yourself enough time to review them. By doing so, you can consult with the employee if there are any discrepancies, missing or incomplete documentation, or expenses that do not fall within the policy.

It’s important to submit expense reports on time since certain business expenses are tax deductible. 

Optimize your expense reimbursement management process

It’s not enough to know what your expenses are and to create a policy for their reimbursement. 

You also need to make sure that your reimbursement process is organized and efficient.

Otherwise, you run the risk of creating bottlenecks if you get slammed by more requests than you can handle. You can avoid this by optimizing the process used to submit reports and their attachments, ensuring all reports are reviewed in a timely manner and processing reimbursements as quickly as possible.

Having put all of this in place, it’s now time for the audit. The importance of audits is particularly important for enterprises and mid-size firms where employees incur large expenses. Auditing your expense reports also helps you identify loopholes in your policy and reduce instances of fraudulent claims.

You can also use audits to analyze your business expenses and identify areas for reduction.

Ensure there is an organized system for expense reimbursement requests

You should ensure that the system your employees need to use to submit their expense reports is easy to use and understand. 

Pluto allows the employee to submit all necessary supporting documentation, such as their receipt, the total amount of the purchase, a description of the goods or services purchased, and the date of the transaction.

Use a corporate card or direct deposits to remove the need for reimbursements

A corporate p card is a great way to prevent employees from paying out-of-pocket for business expenses.

You can track your expenses more efficiently and effectively with corporate cards, which provide spending limits that prevent employees from abusing their privileges.

Consider issuing corporate cards only to your regular travelers, or try direct deposits if you’re concerned about the cost. 

Alternatively, you can also use direct deposits of reimbursement funds to eliminate the reimbursement process. 

Two benefits result from this: One great perk of following either process is that your finance teams will have better visibility into the reimbursement process, making auditing employee expenses easier.

Key Takeaways

• The best way to deal with business expense reimbursements is to have a rock-solid reimbursement policy in place. This way, you can reimburse employees for their costs on your terms.
• Another great way to manage your expenses is to make use of a corporate card to eliminate the reimbursement process altogether, though this might not be feasible for all cases.
• As in many situations, your best option will most likely come in the form of digitization. Using a spend management platform like Pluto, will not only give you much better visibility over your employee spending but also streamline the reimbursement process for you.

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The realities of the modern business world require companies to keep a tight hold on their spend management.

We’re not just talking about how you track expenses or reconcile your debts; that’s basic stuff. No, we’re talking about the entire process, from deciding who has the spend rights to analyzing how business spending affects your cash flow and taxes.

The more your business expands, the more crucial (and complex) your expense management process becomes. Spending analysis allows you to correct imbalances, watch for fraud and employee theft, and prepare for regulatory filings.

However, it’s also a cumbersome, time-consuming process that, without the use of the proper platform, requires quite a bit of man-hours to complete.

Modern spend and card management needs to be more sophisticated, intuitive, and built on the needs of finance teams, accountants, CFOs, owners, and employees!

That’s why, at Pluto, we firmly believe in the power of proper corporate card management. Establishing clear policies, outlining appropriate spending limits, and designing airtight analysis protocols can keep your finances in check.

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Modern Corporate Credit Card Programs

Traditionally, businesses relied on employee reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses to facilitate team and department spending. While using employees to frontload business costs helps with float, it also creates potential hardships and liabilities.

Moreover, the process of submitting, reimbursing, and properly cataloging expenses is grotesquely time-consuming for your finance team.

In part, corporate credit cards were designed to take the pressure off corporate finance teams. They make expense management easier, simplify spending procedures, and digitize the bulk of your spending.

Managing corporate credit cards can get quite complex. Adding new cardholders, suspending or closing accounts, or untangling business and personal expenses could take hours of paperwork and phone calls.

But it does not have to be like that. At Pluto, we leveraged our corporate experience, had countless talks with our users, and came up with solutions to every bottleneck of card management.

On-demand corporate cards

For employees to be able to make business expenses, they will need a corporate p card. In our day and age, most of their spending will be online.

Pluto provides you with an unlimited number of virtual cards that can be easily issued right from the dashboard.

If a physical card is needed, you will go through the same simple process, and the card will be delivered to you in just a couple of days.

Receipt Capture and Expense Tracking

Corporate credit cards feed your business expenses into a centralized monthly report. With Pluto, submitting a receipt is as easy as taking a picture with your phone, literally.

When the expense is submitted, it is immediately reflected in the account report.

These reports provide each department head and finance team with the visibility needed to:

• Link credit card transactions to the right employee
• Crackdown on overspending
• Maintain business-wide cashflows
• Maximize efficiency

With Pluto, you can easily filter through various expenses, check which expenses are still pending, and see the details of that particular spending team-wide.

Increased Flexibility

Corporate cards also provide businesses with the flexibility to take the approach that suits their needs. For instance, your business may assign corporate cards only to key employees and management or traveling employees.

Workers who make only occasional purchases can use Pluto virtual or pre-loaded cards with one-time or limited spend codes.

Ultimately: More Control

Aside from these perks, company credit cards allow you to maximize your data collection and improve your analytics.

You can use this information to curb unnecessary spending, generate insights, and even negotiate better rates with vendors.

But without a proper corporate card management program in place, it’s all too easy for the system to turn upside-down.

What is Corporate Card Management, and Why is it Important?

A corporate card management platform allows business leaders to proactively wrangle company expenditure concerns from multiple fronts.

But to keep everything running smoothly, you also need a well-designed corporate card policy that ensures you are not limiting employees in their work while you are tracking the expenses.

Using corporate cards for operational expenses allows your team to work more efficiently—no more complicated approval processes when buying an online subscription or plane tickets.

But to achieve the balance between flexibility and control, you must have a corporate card management policy. Good corporate card programs:

• Outline rules for use, such as where and how much employees may spend.
• Capitalize on issuer-provided controls to set spending limits.
• Monitor and analyze employee cash flow to minimize inefficiencies.
• Are quick to catch or counteract employee or outside fraud.
• Simplify real-time expense reporting.
• Save time and money by reducing or eliminating physical paperwork.

Above all, a responsible management program frees up resources, putting money back on your balance sheet.

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Best Practices for Efficient Corporate Credit Card Management

The key to managing corporate cards successfully is setting expectations, communicating responsibilities, and setting controls for employee and employer accountability.

Whether you set card limits, lock and unlock cards, issue virtual cards, or code and track expenditures daily is up to you.

Just as long as you design a system that balances control and comfort.

Set Up a Corporate Card Policy

Your company policy should:

• Set expectations and communicate cardholder responsibilities
• Lay out eligibility requirements to receive a card
• Set spend limits for teams, departments, or specific expenditures
• Outline the process for submitting receipts
• Establish clear review and penalty processes for violating these rules

Written properly, your policy should ensure everyone understands their rights and responsibilities. 

Decide Which Employees Will Get Cards

One of the most important components of managing your corporate cards is deciding who receives them.

At first, you may want to stick with assigning cards to upper-level management or department heads. But as your business grows, you may enact policies to permit other employees to receive cards conditionally or permanently, such as your sales team.

Ensuring your cards are in the right hands for the right reasons gives your employees a sense of flexibility and responsibility.

Consider Virtual Cards

You might consider issuing virtual cards when an employee may need one-time or limited access to a corporate card.

With Pluto, you can issue unlimited virtual cards in a matter of minutes and set spending limits as needed.

So the time from the employee request to delivering the virtual card credentials is minimal.

Set Budgets for Each Team and Department

Clear budgets take the guesswork out of reconciling your expenses and provide a “pool” of funds for teams to pull from.

These controls can help curb spending while still providing the funds your business needs to succeed.

Separate Personal and Corporate Expenses

When you design your budgets, it’s crucial to ensure employees know what constitutes a business expense and what doesn’t.

For instance, some companies provide generous food allotments for traveling employees, while others limit corporate card spending to hotel and transportation expenses. In this instance, employees purchasing their own meals would qualify as a personal expense.

You also want to clarify that employees can’t use their company cards for personal expenses that don’t relate to business. Even if they plan to repay you, it must be clear that the corporate card can not be used for these matters.

Have Limits on Cards and Spending Categories

Another way to crack down on corporate card expenses is by setting limits. With Pluto you can set limits when creating a new card, or adjust the limits on the go. 

Review these limits regularly to make sure that everyone has limits that are sufficient to support them in their work. 

Make Expense Reporting Simple

The card expense reporting process shouldn’t take you hours. Submitting an expense in Pluto is a matter of just a couple of clicks.

Drag and drop the receipt into Pluto, add a couple of details and that is it. This efficiency ensures that employees submit all their expenses on time. 

Document Every Purchase – Digitize Receipt Management

When it comes to your expense policy, your corporate credit card statement isn’t reliable enough.

Mandating receipt uploads means that you can verify the accuracy of each transaction for internal and tax-related purposes.

But in the modern world, many vendors are moving away from physical receipts that tear, smudge, or blow away in the wind.

For these instances, consider setting up a corporate email address to provide all-digital vendors.

And for expenses that do generate physical receipts - Pluto allows you to simply take a picture of the receipt with your phone and upload it to the expense management system!

Monitor Employee Spending Habits

One enormous benefit of corporate cards is the sheer transparency involved.

Every transaction is recorded and automatically categorized, allowing you to monitor corporate card expenses using credit card statements. You can also use this information to identify overindulgent employees and limit any unscrupulous spending habits.

But don’t just wait for the statements to show up monthly. Pluto allows you to proactively set alerts, notifications, and monitor transaction activity, helping you catch problems before they snowball, such as “double-dipping.” (Submitting the same expense twice, by mistake or intent.)

Analyze Expense Reports Regularly

Another facet of corporate card expense reporting is regularly analyzing your reports.

With Pluto, businesses can sort expenditures by vendor, department, employee, or internal expense codes.

Sorting and analyzing your expense reports ensures that even if you have dozens of cards floating around, you can readily monitor and manage the ins and outs.

Integrate with Your Accounting Software

The best way to unlock your corporate cards’ potential is by integrating expense software with your accounting software.

Doing so feeds each corporate credit card expense right into your accounting log, saving hundreds of hours entering, verifying, and double-checking that your corporate card statements match actual business expenses.

Pluto allows you to integrate with all major accounting software.

Key Takeaways

• Efficient corporate card management requires you to use a platform that will allow you to have complete spend control and flexibility.
• This is where Pluto comes in – our platform provides you with all the features and tools necessary to fully manage your corporate card spending.
• A corporate card usage policy is another critical element to keeping spending under control – by setting clear guidelines on what can and cannot be purchased with corporate cards, you can avoid unnecessary expenses.
• Finally, effective communication and training for employees will ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to using corporate cards responsibly.

Corporate Cards FAQs 

What is a Corporate Card Program?

A corporate card program issues cards to – and establishes rules for – employees who make purchases for a business.

These purchases can range from buying office supplies to airline tickets. Corporate card programs set guidelines for who can use a card, their spend allowance, and the expense reporting process, among other facets.

What is the Advantage of a Corporate Card?

Corporate credit cards offer multiple advantages, including:

• Eliminating cumbersome reimbursement programs
• Centralizing your expense management system
• Integrating expense tracking features to simplify taxes
• Restricting employee spend based on spend limits, vendors, or products
• Reducing potential delays in the reconciliation process

Plus, many corporate cards connect to accounting software to allow businesses to slash time and hours wasted on expense report management.

What is Corporate Card Expense Management?

Expense management refers to the systems that organizations use to track, review, and pay for business and employee expenses.

Keeping expense management processes tightly controlled ensures that businesses can reconcile their balance sheets.

These expenses include any purchases an employee makes to improve the business, from office supplies to business travel costs.

Often, modern expense reports reflect tons of digital items too, like subscriptions and cloud space.

What is Corporate Card Reconciliation?

The corporate card reconciliation process verifies that corporate card statements match a company’s general ledger.

Businesses rely on these processes to validate transactions, keep expenses reasonable, and prevent fraud. (Not to mention, reconciling the books is essential - come tax time.)

With reports that Pluto generates, the work is minimal. You issue corporate cards, put limits on them, and all the receipts and transactions are stored in the Reimbursement report.

Who is Responsible for a Company Credit Card?

From a legal and liability standpoint, employers and businesses are responsible for all expenses charged to a corporate credit card.

That said, businesses may outline use cases in which an employee is responsible for repaying their own charges, such as when they make personal purchases on their employer’s dime.

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All companies and businesses will incur business expenses, but how can you know what exactly is considered business expenses? And how will the introduction of UAE corporate taxes affect business expenses and income reports?

What are business expenses?

Business expenses are costs a business incurs to run the business properly. In simpler terms, they're expenses made by the business for the business.

With the UAE introducing corporate tax laws in 2023, it's crucial for businesses to be able to track and categorize their business expenses, as some of them may be tax deductible.

While the IRS may divide business expenses into ordinary and necessary business expenses, the UAE takes a different approach.

Ordinary business expenses are anything that is "common and accepted" to a business, whereas necessary expenses are anything that is "helpful and appropriate" to a business but not essential.

The federal tax authority in the UAE does not take a similar approach and only considers business expenses as tax deductible or not. We will discuss this in a later section.

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Examples of business expenses

Business expenses include a wide range of expenses, from insurance to office space, to online subscriptions, such as Zoom, Figma, or Adobe.

Let's break it down; if a design agency bills a client AED 120K per year, that doesn't mean they made a profit of 120K. When a business brings in revenue, it must account for the business expenses made to provide its clients with its services. These services include digital software subscriptions, office rent, employee wage, and/or wifi fees.

Here are some examples of the most common business expenses:

• Advertising and marketing
• Business travel (fuel, airfare, taxis, etc.)
• Employee costs (payroll, salaries, insurance, perks, etc.)
• Employee equipment (such as laptops, monitors, phones, etc.)
• Legal fees
• Office space rent & utilities
• Software subscriptions

While many more expenses are considered business expenses, these are the ones most businesses will incur.

Types of business expenses

When setting up a budgeting plan, business expenses play a vital role in keeping the businesses' financials in check. When preparing a budgeting plan, finance teams typically begin by looking at the three types of business expenses incurred.

These business expenses include:

1. Fixed expenses

Fixed costs are costs that do not change; they happen at known intervals, such as month to month.

With predictable costs, budgeting is more straightforward, as these costs are always expected and never come as a surprise.

Examples of fixed expenses include:

• Rent
• Employee payroll/salaries
• Utility bills
• Insurance

2. Variable expenses

Variable expenses are business expenses that change from month to month. These costs vary depending on a company's production or sales volume; if production or sales increase, variable expenses increase, and if production or sales decrease, variable expenses decrease as well.

Variable expenses are typically a business's largest expense, as some may be unexpected or unaccounted for.

To calculate the variable cost, multiply the quantity of the output by the variable cost per unit of output.

Total variable cost = Total quantity of output X Variable cost per unit of output

Examples of variable expenses include:

• Shipping expenses
• Sales commissions
• Raw materials (used in production)

3. Periodic expenses

Periodic expenses are business expenses that happen infrequently or, sometimes, semi-regularly.

Typically, periodic expenses happen on a quarterly or yearly basis, such as annual car insurance, but can also come as a surprise, such as a company car repair.

Budgeting can be tricky with periodic expenses, especially when expenses are infrequent.

Examples of periodic expenses include:

• Maintenance & repairs
• Merger and acquisitions costs
• Major equipment purchases

Profit and loss statement report

A profit and loss (P&L) statement, also known as an income statement, is commonly used when businesses record business expenses. Through the P&L, businesses can determine their taxable income. This is especially important for UAE businesses with an annual net income above AED 375,000.

The 3 categories of an income statement include the following:

1. Costs of goods sold (COGS)

Costs of goods sold are the costs associated with the production of goods sold by a company. This typically includes direct costs only, such as materials used and labor costs to create the goods sold. Indirect expenses are not calculated regarding COGS; these include sales and marketing.

For a business to determine gross profit, the costs of goods sold must be deducted from its revenue. They also affect how much profit a company makes on its products.

2. Operating costs

For a business to run, operating costs are unavoidable.

Generally speaking, operating costs relate to a business's daily maintenance and administration. These include costs such as COGS, payroll, rent, and overhead costs. However, non-operating costs, such as interest and investments, are excluded from an income statement.

An income statement reflects operating income after operating costs are deducted from revenue.

3. Depreciation

When accounting for depreciation, there are two types to look at:

a. Depreciation expense

A depreciation expense is a loss in value of fixed assets that companies record through depreciation. During the period you use an asset, its value decreases, and the price you originally paid for it is allocated over time.

An example would be a physical asset that loses value over time, such as a car or vehicle.

b. Accumulated depreciation

Accumulated depreciation refers to the accumulated depreciation charge a specific asset has taken as it wears down or becomes obsolete. Accumulated depreciation is shown on the balance sheet, unlike depreciation expenses reported on the income statement.

Personal and business expenses

Knowing the difference between personal and business expenses incurred is vital, especially with the UAE corporate tax law coming up. Business expenses can be used to lower a business's taxable income; however, personal expenses incurred are not considered deductible expenses.

So, what's the difference between personal and business expenses?

Personal expenses

Personal expenses are purchases made for personal reasons and cannot be used as deductible expenses.

If you make a purchase for the business but add in an item for personal use, it is crucial to have two transactions to avoid mishaps coming your way. Having two receipts will help you record and store the receipt so the business expenses can be used as deductible expenses.

Business expenses

If you're making purchases that benefit the business, such as driving more revenue, they can be considered business expenses. When making business expenses, it's essential to keep a record of the purchase by storing the receipts. By doing so, you can use these business expenses to lower your tax liability by deducting the amount from your income.

Tax deductible expenses

We've reviewed personal expenses, the 3 types of business expenses, and what goes into P&L statements. But which of these are considered tax-deductible expenses? In a nutshell, all the above, other than personal expenses. Let's delve deeper into tax-deductible expenses.

Tax deductible expenses are business expenses that help businesses generate revenue. These expenses are deducted from the company's income before applying any taxes.

Examples of tax-deductible expenses:

• Administration fees
• Advertising and marketing
• Bank charges
• Insurance
• Legal fees
• Maintenance and repair
• Office expenses
• Office rent
• Payroll/salaries
• Supplies
• Travel and transportation
• Utilities

Non-deductible tax expenses

Non-deductible tax expenses cannot be deducted from a company's income.

In the UAE, there are 3 main categories for non-deductible tax expenses:

1. Related party payments from the mainland to a Free Zone Person

The related party payments made to a Free Zone Person that is taxed at 0% on receipt of the income will not be deductible for CT purposes. However, if the payment is attributed to a mainland branch of the Free Zone Person, the related party can claim a deduction.

2. Entertainment expenses

Because these types of expenses often also have a non-business or personal element, businesses can deduct up to 50% of the expense incurred to entertain customers, shareholders, suppliers, and other business partners.

3. Other expenses

No deduction will be allowed for certain specific other expenses, such as 

• Administrative penalties
• Recoverable VAT
• Donations paid to an organization that is not an approved charity or public benefit organization.

How to keep track of business expenses

To maintain your business, it's important to track your business expenses. There are several ways to track business expenses; however, you will need to establish a system to account for costs and accurately manage your business.

Here are 6 steps to keep track of your business expenses:

1. Open a business bank account

A business bank account should be completely separate from your personal checking account and must only be used for business expenses/purposes. This will help you manage your business expenses easily and give you eligibility for business credit cards or, even better, Pluto corporate cards.

2. Select an accounting system

If you haven't chosen an accounting system yet, choosing one that's appropriate for your business is vital. Some businesses opt for spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel; however, to simplify the accounting process, we recommend going for accounting software that will automate the process for you.

3. Choose cash or accrual accounting

Choosing cash or accrual accounting typically depends on the size of your business.

Small businesses can use cash accounting and record transactions when they happen, as volumes are small.

For bigger businesses, accrual accounting is essential, as they have high volumes of transactions. With accrual accounting, only the product sold is recorded, rather than payment received for the product. Similarly, an expense is recorded when a bill is received rather than when an invoice is paid.

4. Store receipts

Storing receipts is essential, as they are proof of business expenses made. You can store receipts by scanning them, taking photos, and keeping digital copies.

5. Regularly manage and record expenses

It's important to track spending and categorize them accordingly. Examine every transaction to compare these business expenses to your revenue.

6. Consider subscribing to an expense software

For some businesses, it is worth looking into expense management software to automate the process of tracking, managing, and recording expenses.

Tracking business expenses with Pluto

If you choose to go for an expense management software, it will help you automate the tracking, managing, and recording of expenses. But Pluto's expense management software offers more than just tracking, managing, and recording your business expenses.

Pluto will keep detailed records of all your expenses, reduce your taxable income, and help you if you are audited or need to reconcile accounts.

With Pluto, you'll be able to do the following:

Store receipts

• Upload your receipt through Whatsapp or the Pluto app as soon as a business expense is made
• Store all digital receipts on Pluto's software

Record business expenses

• All transactions are recorded on the software automatically when using Pluto corporate cards
• Petty cash is automated, meaning expenses are recorded on the spot
• If an expense is made using an employee's personal card, the expense is recorded automatically as soon as they file for a reimbursement

Track business expenses

• All business expenses made by employees can be tracked through Pluto's dashboard
• Daily, weekly, or monthly expense reports are available in real-time

Accounting integrations

• Pluto integrates with all major accounting platforms

Auto-categorization

• All expenses recorded are auto-categorized through Pluto's AI technology
• Pluto categories are synced to your GL codes

Create tax codes

• Create and activate tax codes that sync with your accounting platform to mark expenses as tax deductible or not

Business expense FAQs

More often than not, business expenses have many different rules. Here are the commonly asked questions about business expenses:

How do I categorize expenses?

Most accounting software already has business categories incorporated in the software, so you can use them and amend them as needed.

Pluto's expense management software allows integrations with significant accounting platforms and automatically syncs to your GL codes and chart of accounts.

Do fuel costs count as business expenses?

If the fuel cost was made for business purposes, such as travel for a client meeting, then yes, it is counted as a business expense and can be considered tax deductible.

However, driving to and from work is rarely considered a business expense.

Can business expenses be carried forward?

The UAE corporate tax law details report still hasn't come out yet. We will update this question once the Federal Tax Authority shares more details in the UAE.

Is personal expenses tax deductible?

No. Personal expenses are not tax deductible.

Is my rent deductible if I am self-employed and my home is my office?

In some cases, yes, it is possible if you are self-employed, but only a certain percentage of your rent will be considered a business expense, for example, 25% of your rent.

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