Originally Posted by
rumbataz
Meals are a whole new kettle of fish for us! We have to specify the exact type of meal and cannot claim lunches if we're based in the UK - even if we travel and work for another territory abroad and the customer's paying.
And if we do claim a meal, we have to specify the type of meal it was, and whether we ate alone or with colleagues, partners, etc. If with colleagues, we have to name them individually. Each major city in the world has a different 'allowance' for meals - and it's a random number!
We can also no longer combine a week's worth of meals at the hotel and specify '4 meals' on a single expense item. We have to declare every meal separately.
Then there's a 7-day rule for when expenses need to be submitted or you get a warning. That's pretty hard to do when you're travelling and expenses from your corporate card take several days to get into the expenses system.
I have to set aside a full two hours every week (an hour each on Mondays and Fridays) to do my expenses. It is a total PITA and one of the worst parts of my job.
Once I was staying in a hotel (conference hotel, so not my choice) on a Sunday that only did a very modest brunch, not breakfast or lunch. [For the record, there wasn't any other restaurant within easy walking distance and I didn't have a rental car.] When I turned in a reasonable receipt for brunch that day (and didn't have either breakfast or lunch), reimbursement was denied because the meal was neither breakfast nor lunch. Of course, if I had had both breakfast and lunch, it would have cost more than the brunch I was forced to take.