Originally Posted by Doppy
Yeah, really. Having all of these silly policies probably ends up costing the firm more than it's saving. Because then your time jerking around with stupid policies is getting billed to the office, rather than billed out to a client.
SOME of them (but trust me, not all) actually do make sense.
We have a lot of individual client contracts that require certain receipt detail levels to get reimbursed. Hospitals, for whatever reason, don't want to allow expense per diems in their contracts. We also work with a lot of faith-based organizations and for many, alcohol is a no-no... so if THEIR reimbursement policy doesn't allow it, ours doesn't either. Our accounting department apparently decided a long time ago that with 700 people (plus 10,000 subcontacters) submitting expenses, that they didn't want to have to always be dealing with the client exception so they made the exception the rule.
I think to them, the cost of verifying the expenses outweighs the cost of collecting the expenses when clients don't end up paying for them.
As far as taxi receipts go, a "common" audit/accounting practice is to check going taxi rates in the area. If the hotel website says the average taxi from airport to hotel is $10 and you turn in for $30, you may have an issue on your hands.