Expense policy for small teams: a one-page template, receipt rules and an approval flow that fits ten people

What an expense policy for a small business must cover

Large companies write expense policies to stop abuse. Small companies should write them to remove decisions. Every time someone wonders whether a £14 taxi is claimable, or sits on a receipt because they are not sure who approves it, the policy has failed.

The sections that earn their place on the page:

1. Scope. Employees, contractors, or both. Contractors usually bill expenses on their invoice instead.
2. What is reimbursable. A short list by category, with the common edge cases named.
3. What is not. Shorter still, but explicit, because the "no" list is what people actually look up.
4. Receipts. The threshold below which no receipt is needed, and what counts as a receipt above it.
5. Approval. Who approves what, by amount.
6. Submission and payment. How to submit, the monthly cut-off, and when money lands.
7. Company cards. Which to use when, if you have cards at all.

Per diem tables, travel class rules and entertainment caps belong in an appendix once you have a reason to write one. Most teams under 15 people never do.

The one-page expense policy template

Copy this into your handbook or your People workspace and change the bracketed values. Amounts are shown in US dollars; use whichever currency you reimburse in.

EXPENSE POLICY — [Company name]
Version 1.0 — effective [date] — owner: [name, role]

== 1. Who this covers
All employees. Contractors bill agreed expenses on their invoice
instead of using this process.

== 2. What the company pays for
We reimburse reasonable costs you incur doing your job. Typical
categories:
- Travel: economy flights, standard rail, taxis and rideshares when
  public transport is impractical, mileage at the national rate.
- Meals: your own meals while travelling overnight, up to [$50] a day.
  Team meals or client meals when approved in advance.
- Software: tools under [$30] a month that you need for your work,
  if the company has no existing licence.
- Equipment: items under [$200]. Anything above that is bought by
  the company, not reimbursed.
- Other: anything else with a clear business reason, approved first.

== 3. What the company does not pay for
- Alcohol outside an approved team or client event.
- Fines, parking tickets, upgrades, and personal travel added to a
  work trip.
- Anything claimed more than [60] days after the date on the receipt.

== 4. Receipts
- A receipt is required for any single item over [$25].
- A receipt is a photo or PDF that shows the merchant, the date and
  the amount. Card statements are not receipts.
- Missing receipt over the threshold: write a short note explaining
  why. Your approver may still decline it.

== 5. Approval
- Up to [$100]: your manager.
- [$100] to [$1,000]: your manager, and the founder or finance lead
  is notified.
- Over [$1,000], or any software subscription: approve BEFORE you
  spend, not after.
- Nobody approves their own claim. Founders' claims go to another
  founder or the finance lead.

== 6. Submitting and getting paid
- Submit claims as you go, or at least weekly. Group items into one
  claim per trip or per month.
- Monthly cut-off: [last working day of the month]. Claims submitted
  by then are paid with [the next payroll / by the 10th].
- Reimbursement goes to the bank account on your People profile.

== 7. Company cards
- Use the company card for anything over [$200] and for all
  subscriptions, so nothing recurring sits on a personal card.
- Card spend still needs a receipt and a note of what it was for.

Questions: ask [name] in [#ops / People].

That is the whole policy. The numbers in brackets are where the thinking goes, so the next three sections explain how to set them.

Receipt rules: pick one threshold and stop arguing

The receipt threshold is the single number that decides how much admin your policy creates. Set it to zero and every coffee needs a photo. Set it too high and you have no evidence for the items that actually matter at tax time.

Three things to weigh:

• Tax rules in your country. Record-keeping expectations differ between HMRC, the IRS and other authorities, and the figures change. Ask your accountant for the current number rather than copying someone else's.
• Your accountant's preference. Many are happy with "receipt above $25, note below" because small items are not what an auditor queries.
• How receipts are captured. If people can photograph a receipt from their phone at the moment they pay, a low threshold costs nothing. If the process is "find it later and email it", every threshold feels too low.

Our rule is a receipt for anything over the equivalent of $25, and a one-line note for anything below. The note matters more than people expect: "lunch with candidate, second interview" is enough for the accountant and the manager, and takes five seconds.

Approval thresholds that match a ten-person company

Big-company policies route approvals through grade levels. A small team does not have grade levels; it has a founder, maybe one or two leads, and everyone else. So tie approval to amount, and keep the number of approvers tiny.

Two rules that matter more than the amounts:

Nobody approves their own claim. At founder-led companies this is routinely broken. Founders should approve each other's claims, or route them to whoever runs finance. If you are a solo founder, the approval is your bookkeeper's monthly review.

Pre-approval beats post-approval for anything big. Not for control, but because anything over about $1,000 should usually be bought by the company directly, with its own invoice and tax handling, rather than reimbursed to a person who has fronted the money.

How to set up the approval workflow

The steps are the same whether you run them in a spreadsheet, a People tool or dedicated expense software. The tool changes the effort, not the steps.

1. One claim per trip or per month, not one per receipt. Fewer claims means fewer approvals and fewer bank transfers. A claim is a container; items go inside it with their receipts.
2. Capture the receipt at the moment of payment. Phone photo or PDF, attached to the item straight away. This is the step that fails when left for later.
3. Submit to a named approver. Whoever the policy says for that amount, and the system should refuse self-approval.
4. Approve or decline with a note. A decline without a reason creates a conversation; "over the meal cap, resubmit at $50" closes it.
5. Mark as reimbursed when the money is sent. Approved is not paid. The claim needs a separate reimbursed state so the person can see where their money is.
6. Close monthly. Everything approved by the cut-off is paid in one batch; everything else rolls into next month.

In Atrix, this flow lives in People, alongside leave, agreements and policies. A claim holds up to 50 items, each with a category (travel, meals, software, equipment, other), a merchant, an amount in one of eleven currencies and a receipt as a photo or PDF up to 8 MB. The workspace sets one receipt threshold, and items above it will not submit without a receipt. Claims move through Draft, Waiting, Approved or Declined, and Reimbursed. The approver must be a manager above the person, nobody can approve their own claim, and decisions carry an optional note. Claims can also be submitted through the REST API or the MCP server, so someone can tell their AI assistant "submit my Tuesday train ticket" from chat.

What Atrix does not do is worth stating plainly. There is no payroll and no accounting sync: approved claims are not pushed to Xero, QuickBooks or a payroll provider, and Atrix does not send the money. For a team of ten that means a monthly export and a batch of bank transfers, a twenty-minute job. If you want cards, automatic receipt matching and a ledger feed, that is a different category of tool.

Expense software for small teams: when a People tool is enough

There are three tiers, and the honest answer is that most teams under 15 people sit in the first two.

Our own trigger for the third tier: company cards for more than a couple of people, or monthly claims passing about fifty items. Ramp's free tier makes the jump cheap in dollars, but it is still another login, another approver inbox and another place receipts can live.

The monthly close ritual

A policy without a close date drifts. People submit when they remember, approvers approve when nagged, and someone reconciles four months of receipts in one weekend. The fix is a fixed, boring, monthly ritual that takes under an hour.

1. Three working days before month end: a reminder in team chat. "Expense cut-off is Friday. Anything submitted by then is paid on the 10th."
2. Cut-off day: approvers clear their queue. In Atrix the Waiting filter in People shows everything that needs a decision; any tool with a status field has the same view.
3. First working day of the month: export the approved list, total it per person, make the transfers, and mark each claim reimbursed as the payment goes out.
4. Same day: hand the receipts to the bookkeeper, one folder or export per month.
5. Quarterly: read the declined claims. If the same thing is declined three times, the policy is unclear. Fix the sentence, not the person.

The ritual also surfaces problems early. If software claims keep appearing, somebody needs a company card. If meal claims cluster around one person, they are travelling more than their role was scoped for. Those are management signals, and the monthly close is where you see them.

FAQ

What should a small business expense policy include?

Seven things: who it covers, what is reimbursable, what is not, the receipt threshold, who approves by amount, how and when to submit and get paid, and when to use a company card instead. One page is enough for a team under 15.

What is a reasonable receipt threshold for employee expenses?

Most small teams land between $20 and $75. Below the threshold a one-line note is enough; above it a receipt showing merchant, date and amount is required. Check the figure your tax authority and accountant expect before you set it.

Who should approve expenses in a startup?

The person's direct manager for routine amounts, and a founder or finance lead for anything over about $1,000 or any recurring subscription. Nobody should approve their own claim, including founders, who should approve each other's.

How long should employees have to submit expenses?

Set a deadline of 30 to 60 days from the receipt date, with a monthly cut-off for payment. Older claims are hard to verify and make month-end books wrong.

Do I need expense software or is a spreadsheet enough?

A spreadsheet works for up to five people and a few claims a month. At ten people, a People tool with built-in claims and approvals removes most of the chasing. Spend platforms like Ramp or Expensify earn their place when you issue company cards or want receipts synced into your accounting ledger.

Does Atrix handle expense reimbursement payments?

No. Atrix tracks the claim from draft to reimbursed, with receipts, approvals and a decision trail, but it does not move money and has no payroll or accounting integration. Payment is a bank transfer you make, then mark the claim as reimbursed.

Next step

Put the template above into your handbook and set the three bracketed numbers this week; you can change them next quarter once you have seen a month of real claims. If you also want receipts, approvals and reimbursement status in one place with leave and policies, Atrix People includes expense claims on every plan. New joiners should get the policy on day one, which is why it sits in our employee onboarding checklist.