How do I track expenses by business trip?

Looking for the tax rules rather than the how-to? This entry covers tracking a trip. For which parts of a trip that mixed business with personal time are actually deductible — the all-or-nothing treatment of getting there versus the day-by-day treatment of lodging and meals, the sandwiched-weekend distinction, companion travel, and the foreign-travel thresholds — see A business trip that's also a vacation. Estimates — confirm with your tax professional.

Use a trip tag — one tag groups every expense from a trip (flights, hotels, meals, rides) across all categories, then one report pulls it all together. Trip Intelligence can also find a likely trip in expenses you already recorded and propose the group for you.

1. Create the trip tag

Three ways, pick one:

• From your calendar: Settings → Automation Hub → Calendar tags. The wizard scans your Google Calendar for travel events and proposes tags like Trip – Vegas Conference automatically.
• With AI: Settings → Tags → "Create a Tag with AI" — describe the trip ("my Singapore client visit next month") and it builds the tag.
• Manually: Settings → Tags → add a tag like Trip – Bali.

2. Get receipts tagged

• Forwarding a receipt? Add the tag to the subject line: tag: Trip – Bali (or for: bali) — it's tagged on arrival rather than matched afterwards.
• Receipts already in your spreadsheet? Open Review expenses. If Trip Intelligence finds a high-confidence travel pattern, a compact Possible trip suggestion appears above the expenses. Open it to see the exact receipts, dates, locations, and travel evidence. Edit the trip name, then group them in one action or dismiss the suggestion.
• Calendar-connected tags auto-apply to receipts that match the trip's events — same-day meetings with the people on the invite, or merchants matching the event location.
• Anytime: pick the tag from the Tag column dropdown in your spreadsheet.

Trip Intelligence looks for a tight travel window supported by evidence such as a flight, hotel, train, or rental car plus related rides, parking, meals, or fuel. Airport and destination expenses can use different city labels when the other travel evidence connects them, and foreign-currency purchases can be included. A few meals in the same week are not enough by themselves.

Your choices stay in control:

• A suggestion does not change your expenses until you accept it.
• You can inspect every proposed expense first, edit the trip name, dismiss it, or undo an accepted group.
• It does not overwrite custom tags or include Personal, omitted, or read-only expenses.
• It does not guess a client or project from a city or merchant.
• Only high-confidence suggestions are shown. If the evidence is weak, ExpenseBot stays quiet.

3. Pull the trip report

My Reports → Create a report → By Tag → select the trip tag. You get every expense from that trip — all categories, all dates — in one report, ready to share or export. Your master spreadsheet isn't altered; the report is created as a separate sheet.

Works the same for recurring destinations: keep one tag per trip (Trip – Bali, Trip – Bali 2) if you need per-trip reporting, or one ongoing tag per destination if you just want totals.

Ask ExpenseBot or your AI assistant

The same current Trip Intelligence proposal is available in Ask ExpenseBot and through connected assistants such as ChatGPT or Claude. Ask "Do I have any trips to organize?" to review suggestions, or make a direct request such as "Group my Mexico trip last month."

The assistant shows the exact matching expenses before asking for confirmation. It uses the same grouping action as Review expenses and does not write through a separate shortcut. If nothing safely matches, it tells you instead of inventing a trip.

After grouping, create the report from My Reports → Create a report → By Tag. Trip Intelligence organizes the expenses; it does not decide tax deductibility or automatically submit a report.