It is critical to define what are the reimbursable expenses that your employees can reimburse. You should set rules and guidelines so as to be fair and transparent and to avoid any forthcoming dilemmas. When your employees pay certain expenses on behalf of your company, they need to spend money coming from their pocket. It is just right to reimburse your employees punctually covered expenses in full. However, this doesn’t mean that employees get to claim reimbursement for every payment they make right away upon verbally reporting. There are particular rules. They need to:
- Present receipts
- Present invoices
- Present other supporting documents that will support the declared payments
- It should be business matters, only
Reimbursable payments are the following:
- Business travel expense – this is covered both local and abroad travel, such as attending conferences, seminars, and meetings. It can be 2 days or overnight stay in the hotel. Though basically, these are booked prior to your employees’ designated arrival. Circumstances may change and this may be applicable for reimbursement. For travel abroad, you need to consider the travel documentation like a visa, and in some instances, employees need to get vaccinated for the reason that in other countries this is needed. Traveling for business may entail a wide range of activities with corresponding expenses, that is why keeping receipts is crucial to make your employees’ claims legitimate.
- Meals and entertainment – employees’ drinks and food on the plane are included in the travel expense same with breakfast in their hotel accommodation. Lunch and dinner of your employees should be covered. If your employee wants to contact the client for a dinner treat as it may bring a positive impact on the business relationship, then it should be a valid expense. As long as it is in the interest of your company, covering the costs is worthwhile. For entertainment, it is justifiable only when the client attended the event.
- Transportation costs – as long as it is for work travel purposes, it should be covered. For instance, your employees may pay their travel expenses when commuting by public transport and doing business errands or driving to the office to buy office supplies.
- Office materials or supplies expenses – this occasionally occurs when your employees mess with productivity levels at work. For example, there is no ink printer available or the keyboard is broken. Giving them the best office equipment is significant for them to produce high-quality work.
The expenses or purchases that are made by the employees should be related to the services to his employer. It is something that an employee needs to do because it is his job and has no personal agenda. Any reimbursable payments should always be reported responsibly to the respective department within a reasonable amount of time.
To make it more convenient on your end, you should make changes to monitor your financial activities. Use a receipt generator that can help you and your finance teams to improve and make the claims faster. You can authorize one of your employees that are on a travel assignment to enter data on the system for easy access and reporting. ExpressExpense lets you create a receipt on your phone anytime. You can provide the company smartphone to your employee and download the app on Apple Store and Google Play Store and set it up. It’s a real-time tracking expense and automates on your end. You manage your receipts digitally. As a result, you only need to match the receipts with the employee-declared expenses in the system.
