Same here.

There is a freely available font called "fakereceipt" that comes in handy for me. ;)

I work in the lab in a big tech company, travelling for standards activities,

in reverse:

use of corporate AMEX is required where accepted (enforcement for anything but the hotel bill seems to be minimal),

receipts required for all hotel stays (as other mentioned re: itemized expenses),

receipts required only for cash expenses > $75,

automated reporting system will ask for justification when any single meal exceeds $50, though local management deems ~$30 to be fair (I'll split the bill on to a personal card to keep everyone happy).

I work for a sub of a conglomerate I'll call Giant Enterprise.

We have an automatic feed to Expense accounts from the corporate MasterCard, which is very convenient. They still require an itemized hotel receipt. Use of corporate MC is mandatory. Apparently my boss gets a nasty-gram if I use another card. I choose the rules I break carefully and this isn't worth it to me.

The receipt rules vary- I had to submit one for about $15 (coffees and pastry at a Konditorei, which was breakfast for 4 of us) but that may have been because it was for multiple employees. Ordinarily $25 seems to be the boundary.

My previous job, a consulting firm, gave no reimbursement without a receipt. You tipped a porter or a hotel maid, it was your own dime. I had to get 35 cent Garden State Parkway toll receipts. I did it just to load them up with paperwork.

Receipts for meals over $25;
Receipts for pretty much everything else (not for a 50 cent toll, but a $3.50 toll it's probably a good idea. I have an EasyPass toll tag - I'd probably need to print out a statement if I used it to go to Pittsburgh). Receipts for rental car gas (as much to prove that you filled the rental car as anything else).

Corporate MC, employee is still responsible to pay the bill when it comes; not required to be used (when the co. switched from Amex to MC I never used the MC). I can even charge airline tickets through the travel office to my USAirways Visa instead of the company-issued card.

When we had the Amex we could get the MR points but the delta cost for MR was more then the standard MR fee (I think at the time MR was $25/yr and we had to pay $50).

No, don't worry about it. Some corporate Amex cards are eligible, and some aren't. Either way, they'll know. So just call Amex and ask; if the card is eligible, they will put you in for MR with no hassle. No magic words needed, it all depends on the deal your corporation has with Amex on the corp cards.

looks like a lot of ppl hv their meals and other expenses treated separately.

previously, i had only 1 rule -- $25 and i need a receipt regardless of what the $25 is for. but it seems that no one has a $10 rule ... ack.

I work for a mid-size bank and travel fairly often.

We are required to use the Corp. M/C for everything we can possibly use it for. Cash expenses are discouraged as it is difficult to keep track of them. We input our expenses into an electronic system (we don't receive an M/C statement) and submit them for authorization. The bill is then paid automatically. The cash expenses listed are deposited directly into my personal bank account.

Now, we don't have to submit receipts of less than $25, unless they are M/C receipts. Other than that, just about anything goes.

I tend to be somewhat of a bean counter about my expenses simply because I've been burned before. For the last few years I've been part of a special initiative within the organization that required an obscene amount of travel. I'd come back with a wad of receipts and drop them on my secretary's desk for her to figure out. I never audited what she was doing. Apparently I was missing some receipts and my expense account was about $3000 in the hole. I audited the account and discovered that I actually had $3000 in receipts that were either missing (as in I lost them) or hadn't been claimed. Here's the best part, my boss at the time, when I did up a claim to square everything away, refused to pay the expenses because they occurred in previous fiscal periods. I had to eat the totally legitimate expenses out of my own pocket. The only things I can say is "What a D**k!". It is for this reason that I track everything. However, my current boss is pretty cool with things.

My own personal nightmare.

its just not coming to me now, but whats MR? :confused:

We need receipts for everything over $25. Official policy is that we use our corporate AMEX for all places that accept it. This rule has never been enforced on me. the only place that forces me to use my Corp AMEX is AMEX Travel which is our official travel agent. They have our Corp AMEX number on file. As employees we are allowed to collect Membership Rewards points but we have to pay the annual fee for MR. I have now switched to my United Airlines Visa for all expenses other than air travel just because I don't want anymore AMEX MR points than I already have. We are responsible for paying our AMEX bill on time and are reimbursed for qualified expenses twice a month. Detailed hotel receipts must be turned in and if you lose a hotel receipt you need to call the hotel and get a replacement. If you lose any other receipt you can just use your credit card statement.

Membership Rewards program by American Express.

AX corporate card $75 receipts
 

I work for a large company that gives us per diem for lodging and meals based on the US Government per diem charts. Overseas travel is actuals for lodging and a perdiem for Meals..

However we must use the Corp Card (AX) for lodging, cars, airfare.. additionally all expenses in excess of $75 or more require a receipt and although they don't bust your chops over use of the AX for these purchases I try to use it. Any expense that isn't lodging, car rental, or airfare does not require a receipt. Additionally we must book lodging, airfare and car rentals through the corp website. They (travel acct) are more anal about this than the corporate card.

However for promo's like the FFN at Hyatt where a MC is required to participate. It takes a bit of creative work to use my MC.

FYI, IRS publication on T&E expenses is #463. Here is a link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p463.pdf

Documentation requirements are discussed on pp. 25-26. One point, except for lodging, general requirement for a receipt is $75.

One quotation: "However, a canceled check by itself does not prove a business expense without other evidence to show that it was for a business purpose." I would expect the same to hold true for charges on a credit card bill, even a business credit card.

A few years ago, some of the CPAs and other service firms got in trouble because they were getting kickbacks based on travel expenses for clients documented by the business credit card. If such kickbacks are not improper, the business may be getting some benefits or discounts based on the documentation provided by the credit cards.

I tried to persuade a former employer that it should negotiate with UA for a corporate discount. The response was that UA required a base percentage of the firm's air travel to be on UA or the firm would have to cough up more, which was not acceptable. If a firm had such an arrangement, it would likely need the data from a corporate card to support that the base had been met.

You have to use AmEx travel to get the corporate discount, but I have also used PTS for companion tix with no problem.

Receipts are required for all meals, but you can lose a few if you're not too bad.

You can use your personal Amex, or get a company one. I use my platinum card for everything.

250,000 points and counting. Amex must love me.

Our accountants are more worried about what you charge, than how you record it. No movies, stuff like that.

Reading this thread makes me appreciate working for a small company even more :eek: :eek:

General rule: "Use common sense". Any hotel under US$100/night is pretty much OK (and this works out well in South-East Asia), you can book on your own or via travel agent; all flights through corporate travel agent though. Expenses can be paid cash or on your own card and refunded. Receipts preferred but not mandatory for small, untraceable and/or obvious expenses (taxis in 3rd-world countries, airport departure taxes, etc). Per-diems are paid and how you use them to cover meals and such sundries is up to you.