Highly accessible and applicable, Travel and Entertainment Best Practices provides you with a comprehensive view of T&E procedures with authoritative tips, techniques, and advice from Mary Schaeffer, America’s most accomplished accounts payable expert.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 Travel and Entertainment Expense Policy and Reimbursement Process: Not What It Was a Few Short Years Ago. Trends Affecting T&E Expense Reporting. Other Issues Affecting the T&E Expense Process. Other Bad Practices That Plague T&E. Outsider’s View. Worst-Case Scenario. Best-Case Scenario. Reality. Who Handles T&E? 2 How Corporate Travel Is Booked. Pre-Trip Authorizations. Role of the Travel Agent. Corporate Travel Offices. Corporate Intranet Portals. Online Corporate Booking Services. Third-Party Corporate Booking Portals. Making the Selection: Third-Party Travel Service Provider. Bare-Bones Approach: Employee Self-Booking. Demise of the Saturday-Night Stay and Other Costly Issues. Other Booking Issues. 3 T&E Expense Report Approval Process. Who’s Watching the Store? Approval Process in a Paper World. Traveler or Supervisor: Who Should Return the Approved Form? Approvals in an Electronic Process. Electronic Processing without Immediate Approval. Electronic Processing with Immediate Approval. Approvals: Paper versus Electronic. Something to Consider. What about the Receipts? Inquisitive Managers and Receipts. 4 The T&E Review and Reimbursement Process. Cash Advances. Other Cash Advance Problem. How Common Are Cash Advances? Expense Reimbursement. Last-Minute Reimbursements: The Demanding Employee. Reviewing and Checking T&E Expense Reports. Spot Checking. Checking: An Important Consideration. Recommended Best Practice: Checking Reports. If Management Won’t Agree to Spot Checking. When Spot Checking May Not Be Appropriate. Policy Compliance. Policy Compliance Exceptions. 5 Accountable or Not: The Tax Implications of Your T&E Plan. An Accountable Plan. Reasonable Amount of Time. Tax Implications of an Accountable Plan. A Nonaccountable Plan. Advantages of an Accountable Plan. Tax Carrot/Stick. Receipts under Accountable Plans. T&E in a Paperless World. Pertinent IRS Publications. Another Reason to Eliminate Cash Advances. 6 Paying for Corporate Travel: T&E Cards. Employee Use of Own Credit Card. Company Card with Employee Paying the Bill. Company Card, Employee Payment, Corporate Guarantee. Company Paying the T&E Card Bill. One Card Approach. Hybrid Approach. Which Approach Is Best? Issuance of Company T&E Cards. 7 Receipts, Documentation, and Other Issues. Per Diems. Receipts. What about Electronic Receipts? Disaster Recovery: Lessons Learned from Charlie and Katrina. Other Delicate Issues. 8 Communicating Requirements: The T&E Policy and Manual. What Kind of Policy Do You Want? Your T&E Policy, Internal Controls, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Access to the Policy. A Two-Minute Assessment of Your T&E Process. T&E Policy: Good News and Bad. Administering the Policy. T&E Policy Best Practices. Policy Synopsis. Creating Your Own T&E Policy. Keeping the Policy Current. Enforcing the Policy. 9 Sample T&E Policy Manual. Section 1: Policy Approval. Section 2: T&E Policy Statement. Section 3: Policy Purpose. Section 4: Exceptions to the Policy. Section 5: Employee Responsibilities Related to T&E. Section 6: Preferred Method of Payment. Section 7: Supervisor Responsibilities Related to T&E. Section 8: Accounts Payable Responsibilities Related to T&E. Section 9: Receipts. Section 10: Who Pays When More than One Employee Is Involved. Section 11: What’s Covered. Section 12: What’s Not Covered. Section 13: Cash Advances. Section 14: Airline Service. Section 15: Denied Boarding Compensation. Section 16: Unused/Voided Ticket. Section 17: Rental Cars 94 Section 18: Ground Transportation. Section 19: Use of Personal Automobile. Section 20: Preferred Hotels. Section 21: Lodging Receipts. Section 22: Meals and Incidentals: For Employee Only. Section 23: Expenses for Meals for Others. Section 24: Travel Expenses of Spouse/Personal Guest. Section 25: Entertainment. Section 26: Non-Travel Business Expense Reimbursement. Section 27: Whom to Call with Questions. Section 28: Other. 10 Solutions to Day-to-Day T&E Operational Problems. Uneven Policy Enforcement. Tough Tactics to Get T&E Reports Submitted On Time! Less Harsh Methods of Getting the Laggards to Turn in Reports On Time. The Rush Check Issue: Is It the Employee or the Supervisor? Approvals: Dealing with the Foot-Dragging Manager. Where Do I Sign?: Managers Who Approve Anything. One-Size Policy for All: Dealing with Noncompliance Issues. Fraud Or an Honest Mistake? Unused Tickets. The Reservation Game. Rogue Travelers. When an Employee Departs. When an Employee Is Fired. 11 T&E Fraud: How to Prevent It. Review of Occupational Fraud. Is Expense Reimbursement Really a Problem for the Average Company?. Scanning Fraud and Receipts. Where Employees Learn How to Steal. Dealing with Fraud: Two Extremes. T&E Fraud Prevention Best Practices. Detecting Expense Reimbursement Fraud. What to Do When Expense Reimbursement Fraud. Last-Ditch Collection Efforts. Gift Card Problem. Not-Pretty Gift Card Solution. Alternative to Gift Cards. 12 Automation: Third-Party and Home-Grown Systems. How T&E Expenses Are Reported. Excel-Based Models. Why Automate? How Automated Systems Work: Overview. Automated Systems: Design Requirements. Receipts in an Automated Environment. Reimbursement Payments in an Automated Environment. Companies Offering T&E Automated Services. Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Outsourced Operations. SAS 70. 13 Pertinent Issues for International Travelers. Bribes. Foreign Exchange. Foreign Exchange Tips. International Travel Advisories. Value-Added Tax. Paperless T&E World. Maximizing Your Returns. Sarbanes-Oxley. Outsourcers. Do-It-Yourself VAT Recovery. 14 Negotiating the Best Rate from Suppliers. The Basics. A Matter of Policy. Where Do Your Travel Dollars Go? All Travel on a Company Card. Focus on Your Biggest Savings. Don’t Overlook International Travel. The Contract Is Not Set in Stone. Don’t Promise All Your Business. Overlooked T&E Savings Opportunity. Other Savings Associated with Your T&E Card. 15 Best Practices for the Entire T&E Process. Appendix A GSA Per Diems. Appendix B VAT Rates for Selected Countries. Index.