Travel & Meal Journal.
Collecting receipts for your traveling and meal expenses is not enough to make them tax deductible.
The IRS requires extra substantiation when you are deducting travel and meal expenses. In a nutshell, they want you to list out all of the details - the things that won't necessarily show up on the receipt - that will clarify that it's a legitimate business expense instead of a personal one:
Who was there?
What was the event?
Where was it?
When was it happening?
How was it a business activity?
The best practice for collecting these details is to maintain a Travel & Meal Journal that acts as a companion to your bookkeeping records. It's a dedicated space to make sure you've collected all of the necessary details to connect travel or meal expenses to business activities. If you do not currently maintain a Travel & Meal journal, now is a great time to start!
How to use the Travel & Meal Journal:
If you only occasionally have business travel or meal expenses, set up a quarterly reminder to update your travel journal. However, if you travel frequently, you'll probably be best served by updating your travel journal monthly.
A Profit & Loss Detail report filtered to show only travel and meal expense categories will highlight all of the transactions you'll want to log in your travel journal.
Your purchase of our Travel & Meal Journal includes a printable and spreadsheet versions of our tried-and-true template.