It can be untrue that employees are unhappy with company policy for corporate travel. The truth is, employees like to know what is expected of them and how to comply with a corporate policy as long as that policy is fair and give them the ability to what they need to do on the road. So a well thought out corporate travel policy is a benefit to the company and the business traveler alike.
If it has been given to you to put together a corporate travel policy, your mission from the stand point of the company is to develop a policy that standardizes business expenses, eliminates waste and excess on the road and puts some controls around that part of the business expense picture. So there are some definite focus areas you should include in the stated corporate policy including…
* Reservations. If you utilize a travel agent that is looking for the best deal for the company. The best rates can be identified and taken advantage off but only while making sure the business traveler’s needs to meet the business objective of the trip are satisfied. Requiring that employees utilize the corporate travel agent again is not harsh and it clarifies for the employee how to handle the situation.
* Use of credit. It is a bit of effort and expense to set up corporate credit cards that you can require your traveling employees to use. But by trapping expenses to the corporate account, you can get a record of a good percentage of the business expenses that the employee is incurring. Many of the expenses of travel such as airline and hotel can be direct billed back to the company thus taking both the hassle and the opportunity for creativity out of the hands of the business traveler.
* Travel rewards. If you have your corporate travel coordinated by an internal or external travel agency, corporate accounts with the major airlines can be established so the frequent flyer miles can be collected by the business. As such the business can redeem those miles and realize those benefits as a significant discount on the travel that must be paid for.
* Daily limits. Your corporate travel policy must communicate clearly to the traveling employee what their limits are for hotel, rental car and meals on the road. You want to head off before it starts any tendency by the employee to go to expensive restaurants and see the business trip as some form of all expenses paid vacation. But you also must allow for some leverage for the employee to eat well while traveling. This part of the policy should be reviewed annually to update to current costs.
* Reporting. One of the chief complaints employees have about corporate travel policies are that the expense reporting system is cryptic and hard to fill out. You will give the employee a standardized form that each traveler in the company must fill out to get reimbursed for expenses while traveling. But review these forms and even design your own so the format is understandable and you have categories to cover all types of expenses the employee might encounter.
Along with these general categories, your corporate travel policies should include some leverage for employees who are faced with exceptional situations. Room and food expenses can vary widely depending on where the employee must travel. So you don’t want to set the hotel limit to $125 per night because it is reasonable to stay in a comfortable hotel for that rate in Lincoln Nebraska but enforce that same limitation for an employee who must do business in New York City.
If you create good general policies to cover your employees while they are on the road, there is a win win situation for you and your employees, and there will be a productive outcome that is cost-effective for the company overall.
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Showing posts with label expense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expense. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Monday, 21 May 2012
Make your business portable - Business Trips are a Company Expense.
One of the perks of traveling for business is that your company picks up the tab for almost everything. Since you are on bona fide business for the sake of your business, being reimbursed for the costs of the trip is routine in the business world. Now we don’t want to abuse the expense account but if you live in a reasonable fashion on the road, you can get reimbursement for most expenses of the trip.
But problem about getting reimbursed for your business travel expenses is that you have to file a report when you get back. While it seems like a nuisance, you cannot expect the company to reimburse you for expenses if you don’t know what they are. But this calls for a certain amount of discipline on the road so you have some documentation as you travel that you can use to compile that expense report when you return. There are some things you can do to make this process of managing that expense report less of a headache.
For starters, before you leave, make sure you are very aware of the company’s expense policy and what is covered and what is not. Some companies use a per diem system which means that the company may allocate you a set amount each day for room and board and anything you spend above that is an expense you will cover. If your company uses the per diem system, make sure you know it well so you know what you can expense before you run up the charge.
Keeping track of businesses expenses on a busy trip may become a nuisance as you travel. But you don’t want to get home and not be able to document the trip. The good news is there are some simple systems you can put in place that don’t take a lot of your time but will make keeping those business expenses tracked and ready to report for reimbursement when you return. They include…
* Use Credit. Your credit card statement can be a running “tale of the trip” that can serve as emergency backup should you need it.
* Receipt retention. It is easy to lose receipts if you put them in pockets with other documents or let them float loose in your briefcase. Maintain a daily envelope that you religiously put receipts into as soon as you get them. That can ride comfortably in the inside pocket of your jacket or in your briefcase so you know you have that record of your spending.
* A running log. Even if you keep receipts, you can get home and find the task of sorting through them and trying to remember details about that expense can be a challenge. Make it a daily practice to sit down at night with a small notebook and go through your receipts and make a ledger of what you spent that day and on what.
* For when you don’t get a receipt. Carry a pocket notebook and jot down when you spend cash or don’t get a receipt for an expense. Tips or snacks needed to get through the day should be recorded in this way.
* Lock those receipts down. Just as you kept your receipts secure during the day, put them someplace secure at night so they will be locked down until you return. Sealed envelopes work well for this purpose.
If you want to take the system to the next level, you can actually bring an expense report form with you and fill it out each day as you go. Then when the trip is over, you just sign it, bundle up the receipts and submit it to accounting. For an even more secure method, you can use Microsoft Excel on your laptop or a digital version of your company expense report to update each night as you move your receipts to storage for the rest of the trip.
The important thing is to develop a system that works for you without fail as you travel. Then make your dedication to that system a priority as you travel. It is not that hard to save money while traveling, it is just a matter of planning and good organization.
But problem about getting reimbursed for your business travel expenses is that you have to file a report when you get back. While it seems like a nuisance, you cannot expect the company to reimburse you for expenses if you don’t know what they are. But this calls for a certain amount of discipline on the road so you have some documentation as you travel that you can use to compile that expense report when you return. There are some things you can do to make this process of managing that expense report less of a headache.
For starters, before you leave, make sure you are very aware of the company’s expense policy and what is covered and what is not. Some companies use a per diem system which means that the company may allocate you a set amount each day for room and board and anything you spend above that is an expense you will cover. If your company uses the per diem system, make sure you know it well so you know what you can expense before you run up the charge.
Keeping track of businesses expenses on a busy trip may become a nuisance as you travel. But you don’t want to get home and not be able to document the trip. The good news is there are some simple systems you can put in place that don’t take a lot of your time but will make keeping those business expenses tracked and ready to report for reimbursement when you return. They include…
* Use Credit. Your credit card statement can be a running “tale of the trip” that can serve as emergency backup should you need it.
* Receipt retention. It is easy to lose receipts if you put them in pockets with other documents or let them float loose in your briefcase. Maintain a daily envelope that you religiously put receipts into as soon as you get them. That can ride comfortably in the inside pocket of your jacket or in your briefcase so you know you have that record of your spending.
* A running log. Even if you keep receipts, you can get home and find the task of sorting through them and trying to remember details about that expense can be a challenge. Make it a daily practice to sit down at night with a small notebook and go through your receipts and make a ledger of what you spent that day and on what.
* For when you don’t get a receipt. Carry a pocket notebook and jot down when you spend cash or don’t get a receipt for an expense. Tips or snacks needed to get through the day should be recorded in this way.
* Lock those receipts down. Just as you kept your receipts secure during the day, put them someplace secure at night so they will be locked down until you return. Sealed envelopes work well for this purpose.
If you want to take the system to the next level, you can actually bring an expense report form with you and fill it out each day as you go. Then when the trip is over, you just sign it, bundle up the receipts and submit it to accounting. For an even more secure method, you can use Microsoft Excel on your laptop or a digital version of your company expense report to update each night as you move your receipts to storage for the rest of the trip.
The important thing is to develop a system that works for you without fail as you travel. Then make your dedication to that system a priority as you travel. It is not that hard to save money while traveling, it is just a matter of planning and good organization.
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