What Is T&E?

T&E stands for Travel and Entertainment and refers to business expenses employees incur while traveling for work or entertaining clients, customers, business partners, or other stakeholders. If you’re asking “what is T and E?, it is essentially a category of business spending that covers costs associated with business travel and related activities.

In T&E accounting, these expenses are recorded, reviewed, reimbursed, and reported according to the company’s financial policies.

What Does T&E Stand for in Business?

What does T&E stand for in business? T&E commonly means Travel and Entertainment. Typical T&E expenses may include:

• Transportation: Airfare, train tickets, taxis, rideshares, and car rentals.
• Accommodation: Hotels and other approved lodging expenses.
• Meals: Business meals purchased during qualifying business trips or meetings.
• Client entertainment: Approved meals, events, or activities involving clients or business partners.
• Other travel costs: Parking, tolls, baggage fees, and other eligible business-related expenses.

How Does T&E Accounting Work?

T&E accounting involves capturing and categorizing employee expenses, verifying receipts and supporting documentation, applying company policies, and recording approved costs in the accounting system.

A typical process may include:

1. An employee incurs a business-related expense.
2. The expense and receipt are submitted for review.
3. The company verifies that the expense meets its policy requirements.
4. The approved amount is reimbursed and recorded in the appropriate expense category.

Why Is T&E Spend Important? 

Controlling your company’s travel and entertainment T&E spend not only allows you to keep a good handle on travel and hospitality costs but also gives insight into what employees are spending. Good Accounting T&E can eliminate errors, speed up employee repayment of their expenses, improve and expand proof, as well as increase the precision of financial statements.

The company should define and communicate to the employees the policy for expenses, authorization ceilings, receipts (proof of purchase), reimbursement timing, and business-purpose documentation.

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