sethb

The company did require a receipt. But a gift card would pass muster. (A $100 gift card, rather than a $1,000 hotel bill? They're not stupid.)

darthbimmer

My previous employer had a similar policy allowing gifts for family/friends playing host, and it also specified a reasonable limit. Thus nobody cared what the gift was. I never tried to write in "Paid cash, no receipt" though. It's always easier to expense something with a receipt.

roberino

You are correct. They audited the rest of his expenses and found that he was booking and expensing flexible air tickets, then cancelling them and booking the discount/budget alternative, not always with the same airline. He was doing the same with hotels - maxing out his nightly allowance on cancellable bookings then booking cheaper alternatives. Also car rental. They're starting a civil action against him to recover the difference and they're handing over their findings to the police and the inland revenue.

MSPeconomist

It's stupid if his hotel costs were being reimbursed based on reservations and not the actual bill.

TuxTom

Someone should have caught on right away that he wasn't submitting a final bill for his hotel or car. Those quotes given at booking are meaningless.

roberino

It is possible to pre-pay on a refundable basis for cars and hotels. That would give a VAT receipt to make a claim.

roberino

Don't know if this qualifies as ridiculous, or just someone riding the rules too far on many points. A colleague of a friend recently went to South Africa for business and tacked on a week of vacation before and two days after his business window (5 working days) so he spent a total of 14 days away. His wife accompanied him. He was called up on several points.

1. He bought an upgradeable economy fare for both his and his wife's tickets instead of the lowest available (company policy) and then upgraded to J using miles. He expensed the higher fare for his ticket and the increase in taxes/fees that resulted from the upgrade for BOTH tickets. His excuse for that was that he just subtracted his wife's original fare and it was an honest mistake.
2. He rented a vehicle for the entire stay in South Africa and expensed it all, not just the five days (Mon-Fri) he was working (plus one day either side would be reasonable). He also expensed fuel that equated to three full tanks. His excuse was that he got a lower class of vehicle than usual (he didn't) so it worked out about the same price.
3. He expensed all but three days of his hotel stay, rather than just seven that would have been justifiable. The room rate was well above his average spend, even though the ZAR is weak right now (i.e. can't be justified on location basis). His excuse was that he felt that's how long he would have been there on his own if his wife hadn't been there.
4. He expensed dinner receipts for the same days as the hotel he claimed. They clearly all included meals for his wife and some were extravagant. He falsely claimed that he was dining with clients or distributors.
5. His hotel receipt contained two spa treatments on two days when he was on site that weren't subtracted from the expense claim. He claimed that he simply overlooked this.
6. He submitted a receipt from the airport for a purchase from a gift shop claiming it was a meal. He was clearly trying to get rid of his remaining ZAR currency but didn't want it to come out of his pocket.
7. He travelled out and back on working days but didn't claim those as vacation days, even though the start and end of his trip were vacation.

I was stunned that he wasn't fired as this single expense claim must have resulted in several thousand pounds worth of fraud. He was given a final warning and his expense claim was stripped back to the barest bones.

Mwenenzi

I have fired people for less.

Travel to/from South Africa was needed for the business activity, so is valid. For me business travel should be in normal working hours, where possible, and Mon to Friday. If travel is during a weekend then time off in lieu at home or destination (at the travelers option)

Depending on the corporate rental car agreement, insurance for obvious private use may not have been covered.

Not unusual for people to take vacations at start/end of business trips. But for me 101% of cost should be to persons private account.

emma69

The rest is pretty bad, but on point 7 I am firmly with the traveler, he should not be using vacation days for travel for work. I often tag on vacation and usually fly back on the weekend as it suits me (versus a work day) and I do not claim it as anything (I don't expect to be compensated for the day in lieu, because it was my choice to come back later because of vacation) but if I was flying on a week day, equally that should not come out of my vacation bank, as it would be necessary even if I didn't take vacation at the same time.

WillCAD

Being an hourly employee, not salaried, I once had a debate with my boss who didn't want to allow me any billable hours for travel days because I was tacking four days of vacation on the end of a trip. I argued with him until he relented and allow me the six hours each way that the travel took (only a two-hour flight, plus drive time to and from the airport). I had intentionally booked at an airport that was 75 minutes away from the destination in order to save several hundred dollars on rental car, and he was nickle-and-diming me on chargeable hours. I was inches away from cancelling my vacay time and just coming straight home, leaving him with no excuse for disallowing the travel time.

Travel time for work travel is definitely always on the clock, whether you're taking personal time during the trip or not. In fact, it can amount to overtime, if you're going to a meeting, conference, class, or other function that starts on a Monday morning and requires you to fly in on Sunday. And although there are those who would finish a work day on Friday and immediately head to the airport to fly home, turning an eight or ten hour day into a fifteen or twenty hour day, I certainly won't unless there is a serious, compelling reason to do so. And saving the cost of one night in a hotel and one day of per diem is not a serious, compelling reason, IMHO.

darthbimmer

As you note, there are definitely a lot of things about the preceding anecdote that are abusive and poor personal ethics. But corporate types need to understand that it's possible for traveling employees to extend their trips with personal time such that it's genuinely a "win-win" arrangement for the company.

As an example, at a previous job my travel responsibilities included working in the Washington DC area one week a month (though I live in California) to meet with clients and shoulder with colleagues. I proposed flying home on Saturdays instead of Fridays. The switch gave me a full day of f2f work on Friday, instead of a half day followed by rushing to the airport then flying home. The Saturday flights were typically $150 cheaper than Friday afternoon, about the cost of staying the extra day. I used the extra day not only to have a more productive workday on Friday but also to visit relatives: typically my parents and youngest sister for dinner on Friday, and my grandmother for lunch on Saturday. I'd fly home Saturday afternoon, often arriving in time for a late dinner with my wife. Visiting relatives was the "win" for me; the "win" for the company was the extra productivity plus avoiding burnout. My boss and colleagues respected how much I traveled to support work in DC and other locations around the country without complaining about the travel.

deniah

Should be locked up tight in the doghouse for clear breach of ethics.

davie355

To complement the other thread on ridiculous things people have claimed, I'll start with a couple of things that happened to me

• when claiming mileage on a personal car, had to attach a printout of MapQuest directions. This was in 2017. Had to be MapQuest and not Google Maps
• restaurant receipts had to be itemized and scotch taped to a blank 8.5x11" piece of paper

and something I've heard

• alcohol excluded from eligible expenses (okay, sure), and margherita pizza not reimbursed because it sounds like it could contain alcohol (!!!)

jrl767

Jaimito Cartero