My employer rejected my expense claim on account of not having the actual tickets for a train journey and boarding pass for a plane journey.
So.. what? I'm supposed to foot the bill myself because I don't have the exact documentation you require? So what if I've lost it? I'm entitled to be re-imbursed, I'm pretty sure. I wasn't going on **** holiday now was I?
GRRRR... Absolutely hopping mad and almost £500 out of pocket 🙁
bummer
Was it a self print ticket boarding pass email thing ?
If that's the policy, and you knew that... Then I don't see what the problem is.
if you have the transaction on your bank account then I don't see why they can't process it.
So.. what? I'm supposed to foot the bill myself because I don't have the exact documentation you require?
Apparently, yes.
Well I didn't receive any induction, training or information about expenses, but I reckon that's not important. I'm out of pocket on YOUR business, you bloody well cough up. None of the sums of money involved are unreasonable and I've got colleages backing up where I was and how I travelled.
I sent them the e-ticket confirmation email and the train ticket confirmation purchase, both with values on.
I made a claim once worth a few hundred quid and £2 for strepsils was rejected, even with the receipt.. I hurt my voice on the trip and need to be able to speak.
Have they just rejected that particular claim with that set of paperwork or categorically stated they won't refund you at all for that trip no matter what? Once is an inconvenience, the other is breach of contract...
They are asking for the actual ticket, which I don't have, and the actual boarding pass, which I don't have but I DID have it, and I'm positive I put it in the envelope.
I can't re-get either of those two things.
we are supposed to present train tickets - but some barriers take them off you at the destination.
luckily are accounts dept pay on receipts even though terms say tickets.
Everywhere I've worked has always coughed up on these things in the end, usually when a credit card / bank statement is produced showing the payments.
I'm going to have words with my manager tomorrow, he's a right anal git, so when he inevitably says 'tough sht' I'll ask him for someone else to talk to.
I have no idea why they want the boarding pass stub for flights - that doesn't have the fare on it.
union?
You've got a company grievance procedure - use it!
Complain that you have incurred expenses, they were authorised and provable, and that if they refuse to pay then in future you will refuse to travel on business without a company credit card - alternatively, you have made a claim, and unless they wish to discipline you for expenses fraud, they should pay it.
If you can prove the tickets were purchased (receipts) then that should be sufficient for tax evidence purposes. Most flights (here) i get on using my rfid tag so i don;t even get a boarding pass !
Zulu and capnJon are right - ask for clear reasoning, then escalate as needed.
Say you buy a 500quid train ticket, find a way to cancel subsequently and then drive to the destination. I'd imagine you'd be 400quid up if venue was in the UK. I guess that'd be why they want physical proof that you were on the train
(no idea if it's possible for all or any trains, planes, limos or whatever but a fixed approach avoids uncertainty)
I had two refused by accountant HMRC seem to think e tickets can be knocked up in ms paint bank statement to corroborate did the trick.If it's the company that employs you they might have a policy that outlines this so it's worth at least asking.
Trip to Washington DC inc flights, hotels everything on corporate card. I bought a bottle of water in Heathrow and some sweets. They rejected it.
maybe they've realised how much work time you spend on a cycling forum?
Try asking him for the reason behind the decision as he might simply be following a badly written rule. Ask how he thinks it should be resolved, because clearly you were there, clearly you had travelled and clearly you need reimbursement.
Look at it from his side, 500 quid gone from the accounts without a receipt to balance the accounts...
Have you got credit/debit card bills?
+1 to DS' comments.
Credit card bills can be used as proof of purchase, can't remember exactly where I read it but I do remember seeing news showing it as a legal precedent. You need to stay calm but firm tommorow, you are in the right. good luck
if you have the transaction on your bank account then I don't see why they can't process it.
Yes. Clearly you took the flight, they can't doubt that. But it's not unreasonable to expect presentation of evidence for the claimed amount or you could be making it up. A bank or credit card statement should do it. Otherwise escalate it.
It does pay to be familiar with the expenses claims policies before spending any of your own money on your firm's business.
Didn't they send you ?
But can understand that without the tickets they can't claim back neither
If you paid by credit card you can produce the statement has a bill for the
expenses, as the statement will show who credited from you.
Sounds well out of order when i consider how my expenses work.
WHo the hell would hold onto a boarding pass ???
Acas 08457 47 47 47. Always found them to be very helpful.
Mol they are being nobs!
Who's your employer?
Sounds like your work are being complete idiots. If they treat their staff with so much contempt and suspision then I'd seriously think about changing jobs. There are much better employers out there - employers that actually support, value and respect their employees (firms that have cottoned on to the notion that a happy workforce is a productive workforce).
Same here. I did a week of work in a particular part of the country and lost the actual receipts. I had other paperwork and the non vat parts of the receipts but it's no good.
No ticky no dollar.
But then I knew I'd not get my money back.
Being self employed for years in the past I can understand. Pretty sure the taxman would have rejected the claims without receipts, it's no different for your company.
Had a claim for £18 (3 x off area daily food allowance, fully entitled too under T's & C's) bounced along with a £350 hotel bill. The reasoning was that until the £18 was explained they wouldn't pay anything else on the expenses claim. Two months later got it sorted but that was the last time I ever spent anything on the company's behalf.
I am surprised they are asking for a boarding pass as in most instances I would expect the expenses to need to be a receipt that shows VAT info. Certainly at our place we need to provide a receipt, not particularly as proof for work that we have incurred the expense but more for HMRC. And a whole expense claim should not be rejected just because one part of it is in breach / doubt.
Sounds bizarre. Agree with DS. I travel constantly and have never been asked to produce a boarding pass. The tax guys merely need proof of purchase.
Was the travel authorized in advance ? That's the key IMO, if they were OK with you incurring the expenses (and understood the cost) then you get paid, period. If however you circumvented any pre-travel authorization requirements then it becomes more difficult...
a boarding pass ?
i cant remember the last time i got a boarding pass issued - we usually fly KLM or BA for work and i just check in through their app on my phone and they scan my phone going through - works wonderously !
I guess its easily settled by in future if your required to fly then work books the tickets - removes any future issues as well as your extended line of credit to them !
I would stick with "I put them in the envelope, you have lost them, I suggest you have a good hunt around your desk, now please pay me my £500 by the end of the week".
And from now on use the Finance Dept to book all your travel, paid by them in advance. They will love that.
And from now on use the Finance Dept to book all your travel, paid by them in advance. They will love that.
This is what I do at work. I have a company card, but the process I need to go through to reconcile it is such a pain, i'd rather make it someone else's pain and get finance to pay in advance...
Well I didn't receive any induction, training or information about expenses, but I reckon that's not important.
in the spirit of STW...
If i were about to spend £500 on works behalf, i would have a look at the policy before i did.
More helpfully, proof of the expense, or some kind of receipt should be adequate. The sticking point for us tends to be if we have the VAT number of not.
If they treat their staff with so much contempt and suspision then I'd seriously think about changing jobs
Aside from all the other administrative issues, this ^^^ is what is really annoying me. Not sure about moving jobs as it's a good job for many reasons. But I wouldn't mind moving teams to a different manger. There are two kinds of manager it seems. One is on your side, working to help you do your job; the other is on their side working for the big bosses.
If i were about to spend £500 on works behalf, i would have a look at the policy before i did
Good advice, but I'm a consultant, and my first day on the job was spent travelling. You're supposed to use a company credit card for expenses but I didn't have one at the time - it took about six weeks to come through.
Are you still permanent now molgrips, not contracting? - It's your direct employer you're invoicing I take it
The only, rather far fetched, idea I can come up with is that they want proof that you took the flight/train/class that you're invoicing for- i.e. that you didn't book a full price refundable or business/first fare, then cancel that and book a cheap replacement, but still invoice them for the full amount using bank statements or similar.
Been told about this happening, but I've no idea whether it would ever work or not- hearsay only.
Yeah permie now Vinney. And yes you're right, I could be carrying out some elaborate scam. Guilty until proven innocent seems to be how it work 🙁
But based upon your posts' its not like you're not experienced in business 'travel' - so surely you'd have checked out the policies before spending anything?
IME some organisations/Managers demand everything, and others just enough to ensure that the tax man is happy. What did you do as a contractor?
I've worked places where you had to attach the boarding pass to the expense claim - its a kinda confirmation that you actually took the flight been claimed for, rather than claimed for BA, went RyanAir. The ticket confirmation doesn't do this, as you could still cancel it afterwards.
The train ticket is only to be expected, surely you asked for a receipt when purchasing it?
What is the context here? Has the firm had their wrists slapped by HM Revenue for poor record keeping? Have they been done over by excessive claims before? Previous fraud issues? What you see depends on where you are standing.
(I'm not saying they are right - but there may be reasons for their approach)
Well when I spent the money I planned on keeping all my receipts and assumed that this would be fine. Somewhere between travelling and making the claim I may have lost the actual ticket for the train trip, or the ticket barrier ate it, not sure. The boarding pass stub I am fairly sure I included in the envelope.
No idea about the company btw, they are huge and complex, and I only know about my team.
VAT's a bit of a red herring -- air travel isn't subject to VAT, so you won't be getting a VAT receipt from an airline.
(I know the OP didn't mention VAT but a few people have 🙂 )
Does sound odd, company I work for is anally-retentive about procedures inc. expenses/travel but even they'd pay up in this case. If you can prove the purchase (credit card etc.) then that should be fine, where VAT is incurred it's a PITA for the finance department but even ours manage to cope with it. Given they hadn't sorted out your company credit card and you weren't taken through the expense/travel procedure I can't understand why they won't make allowances. Worst case just take £500 worth of post-it notes/pens/pads etc. (assuming you have access to a stationary cupboard) :p
A lot of companies have travel restriction in place currently, mine certainly does. Any travel has to be approved in advance and if an employee doesn't gain approval then they run the risk of being left out of pocket.
The OP hasn't clarified if his travel plans/costs were OK'd in advance.
I always make a photocopy of all forms & reciepts when I put in my expenses as they have been known to go missing in the past while they go through the system. Saves so much time & grief.
That sucks. I use Expensify on my Jesus Phone to photograph and compile expenses reports. It's bloody good, free and there is a web interface to let you manage it more easily.
www.expensify.com
*other expenses programmes and phone types are available.
Has the firm had their wrists slapped by HM Revenue for poor record keeping?
Handing in your boarding pass has nothing to do with HMRC. It's a load of old cobblers! The company has the receipt for the ticket so seems like they are just being difficult pure and simple.
Our employees regularly have to travel with work. We require receipts for their expenses yes, but equally we have to understand that occasionally things get lost, or often it's just not possible to get a receipt from some things - particularly in the less developed countries.
Generally we issue a reasonable amount of petty cash to anyone who's traveling and they mostly have company credit cards. Occasionally though if staff are in the situation where they have to spend their own money then we refund them as soon as they submit their claim. I don't see any reason why our company should be using our own employees as an extra line of credit.
It's all about trusting your employees at the end of the day. Sure if someone was taking the p**s then we'd have words but we find that generally if you treat staff fairly then the goodwill you get back more than makes up for it.
No receipts needed for items under £25 here. No manager sign off either. We are expected to be grown up. Travel is always booked on a corporate CC though. My last reimbursement was for a bus fare to LHR for £4.25. Cheaper than the £70 taxi quote. As mentioned, it's about trust.
I could photoshop an old easy jet boarding pass for you?
My work has now got rid of corporate cards, meaning you need to fund all your expenses yourself. I don't understand why an employer thinks it acceptable for their employees to give them an interest free loan every time they need to do work on the company's behalf!
"My work has now got rid of corporate cards, meaning you need to fund all your expenses yourself. I don't understand why an employer thinks it acceptable for their employees to give them an interest free loan"
i got a reasonably workable solution .... i just made the minimum payments on the card to ensure my credit rating wasnt damaged but so i wasnt using my own cash to fund them and then billed all interest on the account till it was paid in full by the company back to the company.
They got the idea and my approvals are made very very swiftly these days and hotels/flights are paid for at booking by the travel department.
I often utilise my credit card bill as evidence but all companies have different rules of course.
My previous company just said "don't take the pi$$" and paid for everything on a credit card.
My colleagues based in Germany have to go through a horrible process with expenses and receipts must be absolutely correct. For hotel bills your [u]exact[/u] corporate adress must be mentioned.
If you can provide evidence that you paid for the items (receipts or bank statements) I imagine that would stand up in court and as said above, the boarding card does not show the price.
I would ask them to be reasonable about it and say you'll meet their exact requirements next time. If this doesn't work, threaten them with leagal action and rufuse any further business travel until they pay up.
My company credit card statements haven't been checked for a couple of years. I haven't even seen them myself. I've got a huge pile of receipts but I don't think my boss can face the prospect of going through them all.
Make the invaluable personnel in HR spend some unpaid time away from home/family and then see how restrictive they are with travel spend and claiming expenses.
The OP hasn't clarified if his travel plans/costs were OK'd in advance.
They said 'go to Edinbiurgh'. I imagine that included an implicit approval of travel plans, but I could be wrong 🙂
ticket barrier ate it,
A very, very good point - a lot of auto barriers do this now!
as is the one regarding mobile phone boarding passes.
I'd say thats your get out clause, their 'protocol' does not work in the real world.
I'm going to play the 'process wasn't explained' card. The only reason I kept the boarding pass stub in the first place was that a colleague happened to mention it.
molgrips - Member
My employer rejected my expense claim on account of not having the actual tickets for a train journey and boarding pass for a plane journey
The start of a failing company, or poor management, had this a few years ago when invoicing for work done,they started sending memos back, to say they wanted more detail every time,despite everything being in order and signed off, eventually they went bust, big time.
A very, very good point - a lot of auto barriers do this now!as is the one regarding mobile phone boarding passes.
I'd say thats your get out clause, their 'protocol' does not work in the real world.
Not very grown up responses though.
You show the ticket to the person on the barrier and they let you through without having to surrender the ticket.
e-boarding passes are optional.
Does sound like the company (or more likely some little empire builder in finance / hr) is being a dick though.
Id argue boarding cards are optionalFor me to get a boarding card means waiting in queues for ages to get to a person or even worse dealing with the machines !