The spreadsheet that everyone hates
Every bookkeeping firm has one: the reimbursement spreadsheet. Employees email their receipts to the bookkeeper. The bookkeeper enters the date, amount, category, and vendor into a Google Sheet. Someone approves it (usually by replying "ok" to an email). The bookkeeper processes the payment and highlights the row green.
It works — barely. Until it doesn't.
The spreadsheet has no validation. Someone enters "$47" in the notes column instead of the amount column. A receipt gets attached to the wrong email thread. The approver can't find the original receipt because it's buried in a forwarded chain from two weeks ago. The bookkeeper spends 20 minutes reconciling a $12 lunch receipt because nobody knows which row it belongs to.
If you're managing reimbursements for multiple clients, multiply this chaos by 10.
What the spreadsheet can't do
No receipt attached to the record. The spreadsheet has the amount and date. The receipt is in an email somewhere. When audit time comes, you're searching your inbox for "receipt $47 March" and hoping for the best.
No approval workflow. "Approved" means someone replied to an email or verbally confirmed. There's no structured decision with a timestamp, identity, and reason. If the IRS asks who approved a $2,000 reimbursement, "I think Sarah said it was fine in Slack" isn't going to cut it.
No categorization enforcement. Employees write "lunch", "Lunch", "team lunch", "meal — client meeting" for the same expense category. Your spreadsheet has 15 variations of the same thing, making reporting and reconciliation a nightmare.
No visibility for employees. After submitting a receipt, the employee has no idea whether it was received, approved, or paid. They ask the bookkeeper "did you get my receipt?" — which turns into another email thread.
How a structured form fixes this
The EasyRequests Reimbursement template captures everything in one submission: employee name, expense date, amount, category (from a predefined dropdown — no more "lunch" vs "Lunch"), vendor/merchant name, receipt file upload, description, and any additional documentation.
The employee clicks a link, fills out the form, uploads their receipt photo, and submits. No email. No spreadsheet row. The receipt is permanently attached to the request record.
The form enforces structure. Amount is a number field — no one can type "$47 approx" in a text field. Category is a dropdown with your predefined options — "Meals & Entertainment", "Travel", "Office Supplies", "Software", "Other." The receipt upload is required before submission.
Every reimbursement enters an approval chain. You configure the chain once: maybe the employee's manager approves first, then the bookkeeper reviews and processes. For amounts over a threshold, route to the business owner automatically using conditional routing.
Approve from Slack. The approver gets a Slack DM with the expense details — amount, category, receipt preview — and Approve/Reject buttons. They tap Approve on their phone while waiting for coffee. Done. Logged. Audit trail created.
Employees track their own submissions. Every reimbursement gets a tracking page. The employee bookmarks it or clicks the link from their confirmation email. They can see: submitted → manager review → bookkeeper processing → completed. No more "did you get my receipt?" emails.
The dashboard shows you everything
The Reimbursement dashboard gives you a real-time view across all submissions: a smart widget showing total approved reimbursement amounts, a chart of reimbursements over time, pending requests awaiting action, and recent activity.
If you manage reimbursements for multiple clients, each client gets their own workspace. The org-wide analytics page shows reimbursement totals across all clients with date range filtering and CSV export.
Closing the loop with integrations
Once a reimbursement is approved, you need to process the payment. EasyRequests is the intake and approval layer — the structured front door. It connects to your accounting workflow through:
Slack — real-time notifications to the right people at the right step. Interactive approve/reject without leaving Slack.
Webhooks — fire on every event (submitted, approved, rejected) with signed payloads. Connect to your internal systems or trigger payment processing.
REST API — pull approved reimbursements programmatically. Build custom integrations with your accounting or payroll tools.
Zapier — connect to 5,000+ apps. Route approved reimbursements to Google Sheets, QuickBooks, your payroll system, or a notification in Microsoft Teams.
Get started
Set up a Reimbursement workspace for your most active client. Share the intake link with their employees. The first time someone submits a receipt through a form instead of emailing a blurry photo, you'll wonder why you didn't do this sooner.