SEARCH: Automated Travel Reimbursement System
my role
WordPress Developer
tools
WordPress, Formidable Forms Pro, QuickBooks Online API, GSA Per Diem API, PHP, JavaScript, CSS
Overview
SEARCH hosts twice-yearly membership meetings drawing 100+ attendees, along with smaller events year-round, all requiring travel reimbursement processing for both staff and non-staff participants. To streamline this workflow, I designed and built a custom WordPress plugin that automates the entire reimbursement process from form submission to bill creation in QuickBooks Online.
Challenge
Travelers were completing Excel spreadsheets to document their expenses, which finance staff then manually entered into QuickBooks Online to generate bills. This was a time-consuming, error-prone process that created bottlenecks after every event.
Solution
I built a custom WordPress plugin integrating Formidable Forms Pro with the QuickBooks Online API:
- Travelers complete a post-trip reimbursement form with expense details and receipt uploads
- GSA per diem rates are calculated automatically based on destination and travel dates
- Upon submission, the plugin calls the QBO API to create a bill automatically
- Finance staff receive a complete, ready-to-process bill in QuickBooks with no manual data entry required
Result
What was once a manual, multi-step process is now fully automated. Finance staff no longer re-enter traveler data into QuickBooks, eliminating a significant source of administrative overhead and reducing the potential for data entry errors across every SEARCH event.