what are resonable expenses
Discussion
There is only one person who can answer that, your HR Dept.
If you're Bart Becht, £1000 a night for a hotel, and £500 for meals and drinks would be fine.
If you're Joe Bloggs, then £30 for a B&B, and a Tenner for a meal might just about get approved, and £3 for a pint of lager might get you the sack.
If you're Bart Becht, £1000 a night for a hotel, and £500 for meals and drinks would be fine.
If you're Joe Bloggs, then £30 for a B&B, and a Tenner for a meal might just about get approved, and £3 for a pint of lager might get you the sack.
for me, it used to be:
£10 breakfast [to take into account motorway services & hotel prices]
£15 lunch
£25 dinner
£5misc per day [paper, phone etc.]
+ taxi's, petrol, parking as required. hotels booked by HR
alcohol except for a pint with a meal would be refused.
expenses sounds good at first but you try living in a hotel for 6 weeks and eating 3 courses each evening. it's impossible to maintain.
£10 breakfast [to take into account motorway services & hotel prices]
£15 lunch
£25 dinner
£5misc per day [paper, phone etc.]
+ taxi's, petrol, parking as required. hotels booked by HR
alcohol except for a pint with a meal would be refused.
expenses sounds good at first but you try living in a hotel for 6 weeks and eating 3 courses each evening. it's impossible to maintain.
k upSee if you can arrange to have a per diem allowance rather than receipted expenses - much more flexible, less hassle to claim and you can make a profit out of it (or eat cheap for 3 nights then have a big meal one evening).
Unfortunately only usually offered for overseas assignments (I had some very worthwhile per diems when working in Vilnius for a few months).
Unfortunately only usually offered for overseas assignments (I had some very worthwhile per diems when working in Vilnius for a few months).
JensenA said:
There is only one person who can answer that, your HR Dept.
I'm based from home, have the odd week in Manchester (at head office) and visit customers. So far the rules, as explained to me, are:Business miles @ 15p per mile (company car)
Can't claim for car washing
My first week in manchester, I've kept receipts for hotel, lunch and dinner but haven't submitted them yet.
There are no formal written expenses rules. I guess I'll learn the rules informally as things are accepted/rejected, but I would still find it useful use PH wisdom to know in general what I should/shouldn't be able to claim for.
Edited by Stevenj214 on Friday 29th October 11:56
shirt said:
for me, it used to be:
£10 breakfast [to take into account motorway services & hotel prices]
£15 lunch
£25 dinner
£5misc per day [paper, phone etc.]
+ taxi's, petrol, parking as required. hotels booked by HR
alcohol except for a pint with a meal would be refused.
expenses sounds good at first but you try living in a hotel for 6 weeks and eating 3 courses each evening. it's impossible to maintain.
About the same for my old company.£10 breakfast [to take into account motorway services & hotel prices]
£15 lunch
£25 dinner
£5misc per day [paper, phone etc.]
+ taxi's, petrol, parking as required. hotels booked by HR
alcohol except for a pint with a meal would be refused.
expenses sounds good at first but you try living in a hotel for 6 weeks and eating 3 courses each evening. it's impossible to maintain.
Re the 3 course thing though it depends on how you embrace it.
1st week in I hit the wall and was nearly beaten by the constant barrage of food.
2nd week in I levelled out.
3rd week in the challenge was on and there was no way I was going to be beaten by weiner schitzel and schweinshaxe.
By the time I came home after week 4 I was a changed man
My rule on expenses, especially if I'm on an extended stay i.e. more than 2 nights, is that I shouldn't have to compromise my normal quality of life. That means I need to eat decent food, sleep in a good bed, have freshly laundered clothes and have the odd drink (or two).
A lot of this boils down to how much you travel. If the company expects you to travel a lot, you shouldn't compromise on basics, as above. If you travel once a year say, then it's different, you might go overboard because you get overexcited or you might show you're responsible and go budget.
What I would say is that I try extra hard to keep costs down if I'm on a training course. If it's a fully funded business trip then rules as above.
One last thing. There's some people out there who think business travel and expenses are a perk. I have no patience for those people. They tend to be bitter underachievers who can't be trusted out of the office.
ETA: Also one other golden rule. Never try to make money on expenses. It's a dumb thing to do.
A lot of this boils down to how much you travel. If the company expects you to travel a lot, you shouldn't compromise on basics, as above. If you travel once a year say, then it's different, you might go overboard because you get overexcited or you might show you're responsible and go budget.
What I would say is that I try extra hard to keep costs down if I'm on a training course. If it's a fully funded business trip then rules as above.
One last thing. There's some people out there who think business travel and expenses are a perk. I have no patience for those people. They tend to be bitter underachievers who can't be trusted out of the office.
ETA: Also one other golden rule. Never try to make money on expenses. It's a dumb thing to do.
Edited by Olf on Saturday 30th October 22:03
We don't have specific limits. But Accommodation should be booked through the office. Then if you have a meal and a drink at the place your staying it'll never be refused regardless of the cost.
I've never been seriously challenged on any expenses because I've never taken the pee. Anything big will have been checked out as OK before hand and then don't spend anything I wouldn't be happy to pay for myself with my own cash.
I've never been seriously challenged on any expenses because I've never taken the pee. Anything big will have been checked out as OK before hand and then don't spend anything I wouldn't be happy to pay for myself with my own cash.
Tough one, but general rules as far as I'm concerned is no profit should be made and you should neither enhance or compromise your normal living standards. As an example if you would normally go to a restaurant & drink a bottle of average quality wine with your own money, it's reasonable to expense a bottle of average quality wine if you have to eat in a restaurant on a business trip.
I travel an awful lot (mainly western Europe) and my company (large American multinational) is pretty good with expenses.
No business class, no 5 star hotels (both ok if prior approved and for reason - eg customer you're travelling with is in same hotel), but other than that don't take the piss and all is fine.
Simply, any cost while away is covered, be that alcohol, cars, taxis etc, dinner etc.
No business class, no 5 star hotels (both ok if prior approved and for reason - eg customer you're travelling with is in same hotel), but other than that don't take the piss and all is fine.
Simply, any cost while away is covered, be that alcohol, cars, taxis etc, dinner etc.
Stevenj214 said:
There are no formal written expenses rules.
This seems to be the case in my company and several others I've worked for.I'm sure it is something they must teach in Accountancy School.
RULE 1. Keep everyone (especially junior staff) in the dark with regards to allowable expenses. This will make everyone slightly nervous about claiming expenses. The results will be: -
a. Fewer and smaller claims
b. Less cost to the company
c. Less work for us to do
RULE 1 does not apply to senior managers or anyone else we want to 'suck up to'.
It is rare to get hard and fast rules on expenses, and they never really take account of the situation.
Customer comes out for the evening with you, at your expense..... In 1999, £450 meal for 4 – yikes! I had problems with that one – it was Oslo though.
Ask HR/Accounts as to what they think is appropriate. Do they know how much hotels cost in Stockholm? New York? Shanghai? In addition, is the hotel near where you are going? - cheaper hotel, but a 50 minute taxi drive through traffic?
You would be gob smacked as to how much most directors screw expenses compared to staff.
Spend what you think is appropriate, and what you feel you can justify. Next time they can send another poor sap instead.
Customer comes out for the evening with you, at your expense..... In 1999, £450 meal for 4 – yikes! I had problems with that one – it was Oslo though.
Ask HR/Accounts as to what they think is appropriate. Do they know how much hotels cost in Stockholm? New York? Shanghai? In addition, is the hotel near where you are going? - cheaper hotel, but a 50 minute taxi drive through traffic?
You would be gob smacked as to how much most directors screw expenses compared to staff.
Spend what you think is appropriate, and what you feel you can justify. Next time they can send another poor sap instead.
bucksmanuk said:
Customer comes out for the evening with you, at your expense..... In 1999, £450 meal for 4 – yikes! I had problems with that one – it was Oslo though.
That's not bad! I spent a lot of time in Oslo and Bergen, and used to go to this little bar place (on my own) down by the water. Typical pub type thing, nothing extravagant, and 2/3 beers and a light pub meal was around £60!I too travel a lot, and we don't have real set rules - guidelines of <£20 for evening food + £5/day HMRC allowance.
Although I had mine refused last month regarding mileage claims - which were in line with general policy anyway - but some bean counter decided they could save around £50 by challenging just mine. Reasonable explanations were met with a 'computer says no' type response - but a declared freeze on my personal credit facility I extend to my company, along with a outline of the non-billable time I was taking up to my manager resulted in a red faced bean counter
Although I had mine refused last month regarding mileage claims - which were in line with general policy anyway - but some bean counter decided they could save around £50 by challenging just mine. Reasonable explanations were met with a 'computer says no' type response - but a declared freeze on my personal credit facility I extend to my company, along with a outline of the non-billable time I was taking up to my manager resulted in a red faced bean counter
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