Maximum time to repay expenses
Discussion
I work staff for a large multinational company and I'm struggling to get my employer to repay my expenses.
The expenses in question were incurred throughout July this year. I submitted the claim at the very beginning of August and have yet to be paid.
The policy says expenses should be repaid with two weeks of submitting. There is no issue with my claim and it has sat approved by management for quite a while now. The issue is due to a computer problem, change of system, incorrect personnel details storred for me and lack of staff to sort the issue out.
I've raised various 'tickets' to HR, IT, my mangers etc and they are all aware there is an issue but nothing has actually been done.
I couldn't find anything about an acceptable time for an employer to repay an employee expenses when I searched online, so just wondering what others thought? Should I submit some kind of formal complaint? I'm concerned if I don't keep kicking up a fuss they will never pay me. They keep marking the 'tickets' I raise as resolved, so if I did nothing more I would definitely not be paid and from their point of view the issue would go away.
For reference the claim is similar to a month's pay.
The expenses in question were incurred throughout July this year. I submitted the claim at the very beginning of August and have yet to be paid.
The policy says expenses should be repaid with two weeks of submitting. There is no issue with my claim and it has sat approved by management for quite a while now. The issue is due to a computer problem, change of system, incorrect personnel details storred for me and lack of staff to sort the issue out.
I've raised various 'tickets' to HR, IT, my mangers etc and they are all aware there is an issue but nothing has actually been done.
I couldn't find anything about an acceptable time for an employer to repay an employee expenses when I searched online, so just wondering what others thought? Should I submit some kind of formal complaint? I'm concerned if I don't keep kicking up a fuss they will never pay me. They keep marking the 'tickets' I raise as resolved, so if I did nothing more I would definitely not be paid and from their point of view the issue would go away.
For reference the claim is similar to a month's pay.
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
I'd track down exactly where they are in the system a talk to that person if possible.
I think the company it's outsourced to is in hungry. I drove to another office to speak to someone when the case was assigned to an actual human. They seem as frustrated as I am and are trying to resolve a couple of similar cases.I don't want to complain about the people trying to help, because they are trying. Maybe I can make that clear if I figure out a way to write a complaint.
I would go f
king nuts, it's pretty unacceptable behaviour.
Previous employer issued us all with AMEX Charge Cards, i.e. the ones which you have to clear the balance by the due date. Which was fine, unless you have two levels of approvers above you, who were both very tardy with doing what was essentially a core part of their role. If you didn't chase them, you'd be liable for the late payment charges, and in theory it could even affect your credit rating.
My current employer's process is pretty slick for repaying, once fully approved they are paid into your bank account the following week. My direct manager is spot on for approving and usually does it within the hour. The manager above us is slack as fk and can take weeks to approve, usually involving me giving him a text to hurry the fk up.
I now keep a slop fund of about a couple of grand from my savings to pay off my personal AMEX on time, of which the work reimbursement just gets paid straight back into the account. But it can still be a bit twitchy if you've been on a long trip and racked up £6k of expenses.
king nuts, it's pretty unacceptable behaviour.Previous employer issued us all with AMEX Charge Cards, i.e. the ones which you have to clear the balance by the due date. Which was fine, unless you have two levels of approvers above you, who were both very tardy with doing what was essentially a core part of their role. If you didn't chase them, you'd be liable for the late payment charges, and in theory it could even affect your credit rating.
My current employer's process is pretty slick for repaying, once fully approved they are paid into your bank account the following week. My direct manager is spot on for approving and usually does it within the hour. The manager above us is slack as f
k and can take weeks to approve, usually involving me giving him a text to hurry the fk up. I now keep a slop fund of about a couple of grand from my savings to pay off my personal AMEX on time, of which the work reimbursement just gets paid straight back into the account. But it can still be a bit twitchy if you've been on a long trip and racked up £6k of expenses.
OP - it shouldn't be any longer than 4 weeks as a maximum (but it depends on various things e.g. Levels of authorisation, how closely receipts are scruitinised, how often the expenses payment run is done). At my current employer expenses are submitted electronically and paid within 7 days from approval.
I would suggest Informal Word with manager --> Informal word with HR --> Formal Grievance.
I would suggest Informal Word with manager --> Informal word with HR --> Formal Grievance.
I hope you have not been submitting more expenses in the meantime OP? AS mentioned above 1. Submit a formal grievance with HR. If that doesn't bear fruit...2. No more expenses without a float upfront?
My employer uses SAP Concur managed by Accenture for expenses and outsources the admin to the Philipines. When the system was introduced up to 2 months was not an unusual delay before we had a payout and interest was incurred. We back charged the interest. Now the bugs appear to have ben ironed out and 3 weeks is the norm between submittal and payment.
My employer uses SAP Concur managed by Accenture for expenses and outsources the admin to the Philipines. When the system was introduced up to 2 months was not an unusual delay before we had a payout and interest was incurred. We back charged the interest. Now the bugs appear to have ben ironed out and 3 weeks is the norm between submittal and payment.
A previous employer was quite tardy at paying expenses. After a particularly heavy month, I was book for another trip the following week without having been paid. I therefore merely turned up at the office as normal and was pleased to see the MD getting so excited he turned red.
When he finally calmed down, I pointed out that my credit card was maxed out and as no one had bothered to pay my expenses, there was no way I was going to deposit myself in a foreign country with no way to pay the bills.
Strangely, I was fuly paid within 3 hours, so I took the rest of the day off to go home and rebook for my trip for the following day.
My current employer pays out within 3 days of submitting any claims which works out well.
When he finally calmed down, I pointed out that my credit card was maxed out and as no one had bothered to pay my expenses, there was no way I was going to deposit myself in a foreign country with no way to pay the bills.
Strangely, I was fuly paid within 3 hours, so I took the rest of the day off to go home and rebook for my trip for the following day.
My current employer pays out within 3 days of submitting any claims which works out well.
My last place took 3-4 weeks after submission, though at one stage was up to 6. Not great if you’ve got grads racking up 2x net salary in travel costs. Typically you’d be incurring ~£500 a week, but if you were travelling that could easily double.
Current job the submission and approval process is more involved, but once approved is paid the following week. But we also don’t travel nearly as much, so the claims are just much lower.
Current job the submission and approval process is more involved, but once approved is paid the following week. But we also don’t travel nearly as much, so the claims are just much lower.
Our place is quite good in this respect; People who regularly incur business expenses have a Company CC so none of the hassle of submitting claims and awaiting reimbursement.
With modern expense claim processing systems there’s no Eason why they can’t be turned around in a week (or 2 at most)
With modern expense claim processing systems there’s no Eason why they can’t be turned around in a week (or 2 at most)
Some Guy said:
A previous employer was quite tardy at paying expenses. After a particularly heavy month, I was book for another trip the following week without having been paid. I therefore merely turned up at the office as normal and was pleased to see the MD getting so excited he turned red.
When he finally calmed down, I pointed out that my credit card was maxed out and as no one had bothered to pay my expenses, there was no way I was going to deposit myself in a foreign country with no way to pay the bills.
Strangely, I was fuly paid within 3 hours, so I took the rest of the day off to go home and rebook for my trip for the following day.
My current employer pays out within 3 days of submitting any claims which works out well.
^^ I was gonna say, what's the blowback (OP), what are the expenses incurred?When he finally calmed down, I pointed out that my credit card was maxed out and as no one had bothered to pay my expenses, there was no way I was going to deposit myself in a foreign country with no way to pay the bills.
Strangely, I was fuly paid within 3 hours, so I took the rest of the day off to go home and rebook for my trip for the following day.
My current employer pays out within 3 days of submitting any claims which works out well.
I'd have to desperately need the job to not be requesting them pay upfront or issue a company card to cover all expenses at this point.
I have been unable to travel in my current role, due to my expenses issues. It's certainly holding back my work which is an issue for me and my management. Although, I guess not a big enough issue for them that the right people want to get involved and sort it out though.
It's not a case of getting them approved. That happens quite quickly. I understand it to be HR/IT issues that mean all the data they store about me and what projects I'm on, who pays my expenses etc are incorrect. Nobody I can talk to has the power, inclination or ability to resolve it though.
I will keep pressing informally for now at least. But I will raise the possibility of a formal complaint with HR team members that are trying to help. I think they would support it.
It's good to hear other people's experiences and timescale expectations as well.
It's not a case of getting them approved. That happens quite quickly. I understand it to be HR/IT issues that mean all the data they store about me and what projects I'm on, who pays my expenses etc are incorrect. Nobody I can talk to has the power, inclination or ability to resolve it though.
I will keep pressing informally for now at least. But I will raise the possibility of a formal complaint with HR team members that are trying to help. I think they would support it.
It's good to hear other people's experiences and timescale expectations as well.
cml24 said:
It's not a case of getting them approved. That happens quite quickly. I understand it to be HR/IT issues that mean all the data they store about me and what projects I'm on, who pays my expenses etc are incorrect. Nobody I can talk to has the power, inclination or ability to resolve it though.
I will keep pressing informally for now at least. But I will raise the possibility of a formal complaint with HR team members that are trying to help. I think they would support it.
It sounds like you enter the Department/Project Code for the budget that your expenses should be charged to, and then your Expenses system sends the approval request to the budget holder for that dept/project.I will keep pressing informally for now at least. But I will raise the possibility of a formal complaint with HR team members that are trying to help. I think they would support it.
Do you work on lots of different projects? If so I can understand why this would happen. We use SAP and it doesn't notify the Budgetholder that there are expenses awaiting approval. Best thing to do would be to email Budgetholder and cc in their line manager.
Yeah, that's pretty unacceptable in my book.
We're OK - you are expected to submit one claim per month, and once it is approved it should be back with you within 10 days but usually less - they run the expenses account on the 1st, 10th and 20th of the month.
Finally I got myself a company issued CC to account for some of the ludicrous expenses that rack up when travelling around for work as I do, airport car parks are not cheap as we all know but there's little option to pre-plan and book in advance to save money. So now my only out-of-pocket expenses are for fuel which is much more amenable.
We're OK - you are expected to submit one claim per month, and once it is approved it should be back with you within 10 days but usually less - they run the expenses account on the 1st, 10th and 20th of the month.
Finally I got myself a company issued CC to account for some of the ludicrous expenses that rack up when travelling around for work as I do, airport car parks are not cheap as we all know but there's little option to pre-plan and book in advance to save money. So now my only out-of-pocket expenses are for fuel which is much more amenable.
I only have a company credit card & a fuel card now so I don't have this problem. If my manager can't be arsed to sign off the expenses or Concur throws a wobble not my problem. If my credit card or fuel card gets put on stop then I stay at home. Last time my fuel card got blocked, lucky I was near home, I just left the car at the petrol station until they sorted their s
t out.It's amazing how quick they sort stuff when productivity is impacted.
I started at a new firm in July, it took them 2 months to set me up on the system (Concur) to claim expenses, it should have taken 2 days. After 6 weeks I started ringing IT to get set up, they made the mistake of giving me the name of the chap who deals with it so I rang him twice a day until it was sorted. I’m still waiting for expenses from when I started to be paid, hopefully I’ll get it next week!
shep1001 said:
I only have a company credit card & a fuel card now so I don't have this problem. If my manager can't be arsed to sign off the expenses or Concur throws a wobble not my problem. If my credit card or fuel card gets put on stop then I stay at home. Last time my fuel card got blocked, lucky I was near home, I just left the car at the petrol station until they sorted their st out.
It's amazing how quick they sort stuff when productivity is impacted.
That's odd. Every place where I've worked the Credit Cards/Fuel cards get paid off automatically. That's the whole point of having them. The only time they've been blocked is when they go missing (and most of the fuel cards tend to be linked to a specific vehicle so cant be misused). CC's do tend to have a monthly cap but that would be set based upon the person who was using it.t out.It's amazing how quick they sort stuff when productivity is impacted.
If your fuel card got blocked I assume every card on that particular account got blocked?
I had a fuel card for 8 years (Arval). The only time it ever seemed to fail to work was occasionally at shell stations, or when i put a mega bill through (full tank + 2x 5Ltr cans of oil). Normally i paid out of my own pocket and just claimed it back from work. No need to throw a strop over it.
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