Trying to claim back missus' expenses
Discussion
My other half fairly recently started a new job (July) which is for a large company that is parented in North America. As such, they requested she went over in her 3rd week there in August to go and meet the rest of her team.
Naturally she ran up pre-agreed expenses on her travels to which met the usual company rules on personal expenses and is owed in total somewhere up to £2k (they actually made her front up the flights herself too!).
On return however, the company has still not set her up on the employee expense system (managed apparently out of the Caribbean) and therefore haven't allowed her to submit her expenses. Still being paid her normal salary, she's asked and chased various managers to get it sorted but nothing has materialised.
Unfortunately she's fairly young and junior so doesn't have the confidence to 'kick up a fuss' like I perhaps would in a similar position, and I seem to keep getting the brunt when I chase her on what's happening with it.
I'm now actually getting quite cross, as the £2k is actually causing her to be charged overdraft fees on her account and quite frankly I find the whole thing disgusting given her employees know that she's not on the largest salary and it's quite a considerable amount of money (2 months mortgage).
Can someone suggest what a) she should do? b) is there anything I can do to help? It's never happened to me before as being quite senior in finance departments I can normally get about expense issues quite easily.
Naturally she ran up pre-agreed expenses on her travels to which met the usual company rules on personal expenses and is owed in total somewhere up to £2k (they actually made her front up the flights herself too!).
On return however, the company has still not set her up on the employee expense system (managed apparently out of the Caribbean) and therefore haven't allowed her to submit her expenses. Still being paid her normal salary, she's asked and chased various managers to get it sorted but nothing has materialised.
Unfortunately she's fairly young and junior so doesn't have the confidence to 'kick up a fuss' like I perhaps would in a similar position, and I seem to keep getting the brunt when I chase her on what's happening with it.
I'm now actually getting quite cross, as the £2k is actually causing her to be charged overdraft fees on her account and quite frankly I find the whole thing disgusting given her employees know that she's not on the largest salary and it's quite a considerable amount of money (2 months mortgage).
Can someone suggest what a) she should do? b) is there anything I can do to help? It's never happened to me before as being quite senior in finance departments I can normally get about expense issues quite easily.
Other than escalate it further up the chain (strongly worded email to head of finance, copying her manager in) it's a pretty difficult situation. I've had more than enough issues with these types of "shared services" centres where certain functions are taken away at the local level and administered from a central location, most of them are pretty ineffective or downright incompetent.
The only other thing would be to keep a note of all additional overdraft/interest charges she incurs and claim those back as well (and outline them in the email above).
The only other thing would be to keep a note of all additional overdraft/interest charges she incurs and claim those back as well (and outline them in the email above).
pretty poor behaviour from the employer - I was going to suggest that she asks ask her immediate boss as I would have though that anyone half decent would fix an issue like this as a matter of priority. I know I would.
But you say that she has already done this - I'd be sending an email or 2 to make sure that it is written down that she has been asking and then I'd spend all afternoon phoning people until it's sorted. there must be someone in accounts that deals with this issue every day, you just need to find them. Ask around and get phoning.
But you say that she has already done this - I'd be sending an email or 2 to make sure that it is written down that she has been asking and then I'd spend all afternoon phoning people until it's sorted. there must be someone in accounts that deals with this issue every day, you just need to find them. Ask around and get phoning.
Thanks for the responses.
These were my responses to her, but it seems to have gone past that - her line manager is based in NA and is sending the odd email and phone call chase between other things.
She sits next to the director of her department and even he seems to lack any traction on it - I suspect because she's not using enough forceful/convincing language with her requests and not holding people to account on their promises to do it. Instead she seems to save her venom for when I nag at her.
I've told her to get an actual person/contact in this mystery Caribbean office and their personal telephone number (no doubt they'll have it on an email signature) and she should just hammer the phone every afternoon and they'll soon get tired and just do the damn thing.
I'm worried (with my accountant's hat on) that the receipts she's been carrying since August are now starting to fade - last thing she needs is it being declined because the receipts aren't legible!
These were my responses to her, but it seems to have gone past that - her line manager is based in NA and is sending the odd email and phone call chase between other things.
She sits next to the director of her department and even he seems to lack any traction on it - I suspect because she's not using enough forceful/convincing language with her requests and not holding people to account on their promises to do it. Instead she seems to save her venom for when I nag at her.
I've told her to get an actual person/contact in this mystery Caribbean office and their personal telephone number (no doubt they'll have it on an email signature) and she should just hammer the phone every afternoon and they'll soon get tired and just do the damn thing.
I'm worried (with my accountant's hat on) that the receipts she's been carrying since August are now starting to fade - last thing she needs is it being declined because the receipts aren't legible!
I'd be firing off a firm but polite emailt o direct line manager, CCing Boss of Dept and HR saying still owed expenses and now incurring overdraft fees. Advise them you will be submitting a claim for the additional fees as well.
I don't think she needs telling that in future simply refuse to pay for flights up front.
I don't think she needs telling that in future simply refuse to pay for flights up front.
pb8g09 said:
Thanks for the responses.
These were my responses to her, but it seems to have gone past that - her line manager is based in NA and is sending the odd email and phone call chase between other things.
She sits next to the director of her department and even he seems to lack any traction on it - I suspect because she's not using enough forceful/convincing language with her requests and not holding people to account on their promises to do it. Instead she seems to save her venom for when I nag at her.
I've told her to get an actual person/contact in this mystery Caribbean office and their personal telephone number (no doubt they'll have it on an email signature) and she should just hammer the phone every afternoon and they'll soon get tired and just do the damn thing.
I'm worried (with my accountant's hat on) that the receipts she's been carrying since August are now starting to fade - last thing she needs is it being declined because the receipts aren't legible!
Get them scanned now, so you have at least a copy with good details.These were my responses to her, but it seems to have gone past that - her line manager is based in NA and is sending the odd email and phone call chase between other things.
She sits next to the director of her department and even he seems to lack any traction on it - I suspect because she's not using enough forceful/convincing language with her requests and not holding people to account on their promises to do it. Instead she seems to save her venom for when I nag at her.
I've told her to get an actual person/contact in this mystery Caribbean office and their personal telephone number (no doubt they'll have it on an email signature) and she should just hammer the phone every afternoon and they'll soon get tired and just do the damn thing.
I'm worried (with my accountant's hat on) that the receipts she's been carrying since August are now starting to fade - last thing she needs is it being declined because the receipts aren't legible!
SSC - sometimes OK, mostly a massive bag of s
te that wastes time and money as those that commission them have often zero idea what they are doing...Although I'd bet this SSC is great at managing snr American expenses, or they have a VIP escalation route that cuts out the crap.Still a pretty bad company that expects a jnr employee to pay expenses upfront themselves.
Edit to add: Also check to see if their policy has a max time between incurring & submitting expenses. If this is their normal behaviour I would not be surprised for the SSC to say 'sorry you're too late, we wont pay them' when she finally is able to submit them
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