invisible

I want to ask one question - you stay at a hotel during business trip but travel policy says that only expenses with receipts are reimbursable, so company won't pay for any tips you give to hotel staff. Would you still give tips?

And want to propose thought experiment, again - just a thought experiment - imagine that T/E policy says that during travel breakfast/dinner/lunch is expensable, but not tips. So you take customer to a dinner which is $200 and $40 tips, but company would only reimburse $200. Would you still leave tip? If yes, how much?

blue2002

A while back when doing weekly travel working for a three-letter technology company, I submitted my usual weekly mileage expense. It was rejected. Reason: missing receipt. It took a while to explain and the emails were hilarious. A new guy, I can only guess.

bergamini

I've never expensed tips for porters or house keepers but make it a policy to do so. I actually had an employer who had the most generous expense policy possible and, in fact, explicitly approved those tips without receipts and even ATM fees. That was the weirdest thing I've seen in the good sense.

COSPILOT

Some let them get filthy, others suck it up and keep them clean on their own dime.

emma69

Worst one I saw was when the dancer had clearly not used Charmin....

Proudelitist

I had a boss yell at me once regarding my per diem.

It's not that I exceeded it...it's that I came close. I think it was something ridiculous, like 65 dollars and I came in at 58 one day.

My response that I was still below and that he both should wait until I exceeded it to yell at me and lower it if he thought it was too high was met with even more yelling. Something about me not needing a steak dinner. The per diem is the maximum amount one can spend on food per day..so it should have made no difference if I ate steak or spent it on cotton candy. I told him as much too, and he stormed out.

Eventually of course, he was fired for expensing pornography and trying to alter the receipts to hide it.

Stand by the river long enough, and you can watch the bodies of your enemies float by.

invisible

I'm sorry if I am mistaken, but... I thought that per diem means 'here is $xx for your meals/transportation/etc for day, take it and no questions asked how you spend it unless you submit receipts in the same category', no?

In the current company policy was switched from requiring receipts for everything, including from a parking meter (yes, I had this case) to like $50 per day for meals. If you travel to one of company's offices and have breakfast/lunch at cafeteria, (meals are free for employees) than you need to deduct cost of these meals (pre-populated in Concur) from per diem. I am telling that at least for me it made my life (well, until I was travelling) way better when submitting ERs.

But if you are on field/with customer it is up to you how you spend that $50 - you can dine three times per day at MC or you can go and spend all of it on a steak, just don't submit additional receipts for meals.

Well, if you need counseling/prozac after 'long enough', screw this 'victory'.

darthbimmer

IME it's common in the US for people with job travel responsibilities to slightly misuse the term per diem to mean the maximum amount allowed per meal or per day for meals, when receipts are still required and reimbursement is paid at actual cost.

roberino

In a previous company the customer was charged a per diem for the engineer/specialist on site at a fixed rate. The engineer was then told that this was their per diem but still had to claim meals by submitting receipts. Even if the engineer spent less than the per diem the company still charged the customer the fixed amount and skimmed the difference.

Annalisa12

I don't understand how my thought about washing the company car equates to tipping however I will answer.

Yes I would still tip. Whatever is the acceptable practice in the country I am in as the money goes to the staff. If I wash the car for free my super rich employer gets a saving.

Badenoch

A client dinner would be paid by credit card so the tip would be included in the final amount and therefore it is an expense with receipt.

For cash tips such as hotel staff, cabbies, etc. the amounts are quite small so I'd continue to pay and cover it myself.

MissJ

In the last expense policy I wrote, I included a guide for tips and how much was allowed without receipts. We had a ton of international employees that came to work for us in the US so it really helped them. I would have things like $X for porter, $X for housekeeping. No one abused it that I ever saw. Most people carried their own bags and were pretty experienced travelers but I saw the amounts show up when they were in certain full-service hotels for things like conventions.

Proudelitist

You are not wrong. Per Diem is what you are alloted each day for food. You don't have to use it all, but so long as you don't exceed it, you are well within the rules. The boss was a nutter.

invisible

There are countries where tips need to be paid in cash. Consequences - no receipts.

Kevin AA

Isn't that cheating the customer?