Pushing the policy: Would you approve these expense claims? 

The goal of a business travel and expense (T&E) policy is to support the success of your business. It also means respecting employee autonomy, wellbeing, client relationships and team morale.

While trust is important, there will always be those tricky expense claims that require a second look. These can range from “They can’t be serious!” to “OK, we’ll need a little more information on this one.”

In this blog we’ll explore five “grey area” expense claims and give you an opportunity to think about what is and isn’t acceptable, how well your business travel and expense policies are working in practice and  establish if you need to make any adjustments to them.

1. What time is it? 

The timing of a meal or a coffee is an important piece of information when checking expense reports and receipts. What if the meal was a Deliveroo breakfast to the employee’s address before they departed for the airport?

When asked if this kind of meal expense claim would be approved, the overriding response from our customers was “no”, but there are caveats of course. The question is: Does your meal expense policy clearly define when a business trip begins and ends? Is it an hour before or after a trip? Do you make allowances for the time of the day (or night) a trip starts or ends?

Compared to 17% of SAP Concur customers surveyed who said they have clear language defining when a business trip begins and ends in their T&E policy, only 10% of those without SAP Concur said the same. In both cases, around half said they would now consider adding it to their policy.

Your T&E policy check: What does the timing of the business trip include?

2. The pie's the limit 

How an employee decides to pay for their meals shouldn’t matter, should it? If your employee has a £50 limit for dinner and decides to submit a claim for a £50 gift card they purchased, presumably to pay for the meal, would you approve it?

Perhaps if the gift card had restrictions on the date and type of service it can be redeemed for, and these fell within the length of the business trip, the answer would be yes. Or if the expense claim was for the meal purchased with the gift card but not the gift card itself, that would pass approval?

This also raises questions about how personal meals are structured in your T&E policy. It’s more common in EMEA region to have a ‘per diem’ approach, where there are no limitations on the cost of a personal meal, only the overall amount spent on expenses on one day. Limits per meal are most common in the UK.

Organisations using the SAP Concur platform favoured a per-meal limit, while those yet to introduce an intelligent spend management platform favoured daily limits. The breakdown of meals as a specific expense item offers more visibility and control of spend.

Your T&E policy check: What are the per diem vs daily limits on personal meals?

3. Access all areas 

Your employee hands you an expense report for a one-day airport lounge access pass. There are no specifics of the meals taken, just the price of the pass. Would you approve it? Do you need to have an airport lounge access policy?

It might be that the employee used the WiFi and plug sockets in the lounge to work, which would be something a follow up call might clarify. Is the price of the pass, taking into account airport WiFi costs,, a reasonable amount to spend on lunch?

In our surveys, only 11% of SAP Concur customers said lounge access would be approved, while 53% of organisations without SAP Concur said they would approve.

Around a quarter of organisations agree that valet parking and laundry are worthy “extras”, but spas and gym visits are not so readily approved.

Your T&E policy check: What are your rules about those little (or big) “extras”?

 

Would You Approve It? Food and Beverage 

Join our webinar to watch how others reposed to these types of questions, and grab some tips on T&E policy formulation. 

Watch now

4. Gratuitous expenses  

We’ve all been caught out by the sneaky additional service charge added to a meal receipt. If this happens to your employee who then submits an expense report that’s over their spend limit for the day, but only because of an automatically added gratuity, would you approve it?

There’s a clear delineation between an over generous tip and one that the employee has no choice in. Some stipulate that the meal allowance is for the meal, not the gratuity. Of the organisations we asked, two thirds would approve these expenses, but organisations with the SAP Concur platform in place are twice as likely to have set limits on gratuities.

In Concur Expense, with itemised billing, this would be automatically split out, eradicating any confusion or discrepancy.

Your T&E policy check: Do you have a gratuity limit in expense reports?

5. One, two, three, drink 

Wining is as important as dining in some professional relationships, but at what cost to your business? Imagine your salesperson submits a client entertainment expense for a dinner, totalling £400. There were clearly only two people in attendance and the receipt is from a bar. Would you approve it?

Of the organisations we asked, very few said they would approve this. Some suggested that pre-approval would be necessary or there would be a follow up with the employee to check the circumstances. Many companies stipulate that alcohol may only be expensed with a meal, and within certain limits. SAP Concur customers were more likely to have set limits per attendee and far less likely to have no limits for attendees.

Your T&E policy check: Do you have alcohol and food expense rules?

 

Can (And Should) Employees Expense Alcohol? 

Expensing alcohol can be complex due to matters of necessity. Find out what the law says, how alcohol should be documented, and how to effectively manage the expense claims. 

Read more

Black and white T&E policies

These grey areas highlight how important it is to put T&E policies in writing, with clear guidelines on inclusions, exclusions and exceptions. Limits should be set for all areas of travel, including hotels, airfares, cars, gratuities and client gifts and entertainment.

While there will always be scope for honest conversations and feedback from employees, finance automation can help do a lot of the leg work. An intelligent spend management platform such as SAP Concur can automate the approval process, enhance visibility and embed out-of-policy spend monitoring in the system.