Work expenses through the roof and unhelpful PA

dilemma10

Hi everybody, wonder if you could advise me on what to do.
Basically I work from home for an organisation with a small staff base. Although not stated in the contract, it was preferred for me to live in London while I did this job. Even when I did so, my expenses would sometimes be quite high. I now live in the midlands, and my employer agreed to continue to pay my travel expenses.
We do not have credit cards - only the CEO and PA do, so I pay out of my own pocket and it comes back to me.

Now the issue is, the expenses are astronomical. In September I was owed £600 for the month, October's have not been paid yet (another £500) and I am already into November with around £200 to £300 owed. On a £28k wage it can be tight as I am continually churning out money on parking/ink/petrol!

On top of this, the PA is extremely unhelpful with me. I asked her if she could order ink - a week ago, it did not arrive so I had to go out and buy it myself. Next week I am in Birmingham for a fancy event and need a hotel room, she said she could not book it on the work credit card because she will not be there herself to do (weirdest thing I ever heard) so can I pay for it myself and claim it back! The rest of the team are all booked into hotels?....:mad:

The next thing - my BlackBerry has not been working great so I asked for another one (it's a work phone) she went ballistic and said no, they are too expensive to replace and where is my insurance for the phone. I should mention she is not just a PA but a support manager so surely she should be insuring these things?

It is starting to madden me but as she is in with the CEO I fear I cannot mention it.

It is starting to cause me no end of stress...what should I do?

Jarndyce

dilemma10 wrote: »

It is starting to madden me but as she is in with the CEO I fear I cannot mention it.

It is starting to cause me no end of stress...what should I do?

Mention it.

JimmyTheWig

Obviously mentioning it would be the correct thing to do, but I appreciate why you might not want to do that.

Things that you can do yourself...
Get a credit card for these expenses. Al long as you pay off in full each month you'll pay no interest. This should give you up to 56 days to pay by which time you will hopefully have had the money for the expenses.
Cut down on what you need to claim for. For example, do you really need a hotel room in Birmingham if you live in the Midlands?
Start building up a pot of cash that you can use that will then be replaced when the expenses are paid. Do you drive your own car and claim mileage? If so, it's probably costing you less than you are allowed to claim. Why not use the difference to start this pot of money?

magenta22

Okay, when you moved to the Midlands even though they agreed to pay your travel expenses you already knew that it would then cost a bit more.

PA's fall into two categories, the helpful ones and the unhelpful ones, unfortunately you have the latter. I am quite surprised that the PA has a company card, they should open a business account with a travel company who will book hotels.

Expenses do sometimes take a while, I am still waiting for my train fare from two weeks ago to be approved.

I assume when you say that your employer agreed to pay your travel expenses from Midlands to London that it is the CEO you are referring to? If so, bypass the PA and go direct to them about it. It is your own money that you have used so you have every right to bring this up with them.

Perhaps this will be seen as not very helpful advice but how about looking for something which is more local?

k3lvc

How about asking for a float to cover your expenses or agreeing a process i.e. submit on day 1, approved with 48hrs, paid within another 48hrs.

cord123

I would bypass the PA and go straight to the CEO...... I would ask what date the cut off is as you are not getting paid your expenses on time... we have a rule here, if they are in by the 17th they will be in your pay if not they will go in next months...
i would explain that you are oqed x amount which equates to nearly a whole months wages....
as for the hotel booking! A load of rubbish, I regularly book rooms and ithas never been a problem, she could always ring and say that the card holder wont be present!

Good luck!

Any

Sorry, but:

1/ Expenses are paid once a month nearly everywhere, there will be cut off date, there will be a system and you need to work according to this system. You need to find out what this is. I have not yet worked in a company where expenses are paid for everyone separately when they want it to happen.
Expensive in time and bank charges.

2/ You order ink and you think everything gets ordered immediately on your whim, for every person separately on next day delivery? You need to be real here - you/the company (whoever has the printer) needs to have rolling supplies, ie 1 spare printer and when you are putting that one in then ordering a new one!! Not wait until the old one runs out and think everything happens instantly. It is very expensive to place separate order, in time and delivery costs.

3/ Just for the record - some hotels, the smaller ones will not take booking and/or payment over the phone. Is the rest booked in the same hotel?

4/ Blackberry - tell her what insurance is she talking about? You were never told you are supposed to insure work items, it is unheard off, where is work insurance and if the phones goes you will be without contact.
At my old job we would not just replace them with new ones, they would be under insurance from provider and they would get replaced with reconditioned ones by the network.

It seems that your PA might not be very helpful, but you are not helphing either. The ink moan is completely pointless and sound like you are being awkward to me.

koloko

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GRM

Luckily our expenses get submitted and reimbursed every two weeks - I rack up around £2500 a month.

Get yourself a credit card just for expenses; something that has cashback or rewards is a good idea.
As it's a small company ask if it would be possible for you to submit them bi-monthly to assist with cash flow.

Bear in mind that if the worst happened and the company went bust you could be left seriously out of pocket.

Sambucus_Nigra

What is the procedure for claiming expenses? Do you follow it religiously?

dilemma10

Any wrote: »

Sorry, but:

1/ Expenses are paid once a month nearly everywhere, there will be cut off date, there will be a system and you need to work according to this system. You need to find out what this is. I have not yet worked in a company where expenses are paid for everyone separately when they want it to happen.
Expensive in time and bank charges.

2/ You order ink and you think everything gets ordered immediately on your whim, for every person separately on next day delivery? You need to be real here - you/the company (whoever has the printer) needs to have rolling supplies, ie 1 spare printer and when you are putting that one in then ordering a new one!! Not wait until the old one runs out and think everything happens instantly. It is very expensive to place separate order, in time and delivery costs.

3/ Just for the record - some hotels, the smaller ones will not take booking and/or payment over the phone. Is the rest booked in the same hotel?

4/ Blackberry - tell her what insurance is she talking about? You were never told you are supposed to insure work items, it is unheard off, where is work insurance and if the phones goes you will be without contact.
At my old job we would not just replace them with new ones, they would be under insurance from provider and they would get replaced with reconditioned ones by the network.

It seems that your PA might not be very helpful, but you are not helphing either. The ink moan is completely pointless and sound like you are being awkward to me.

This is so unbelievably strong - where did I state I expect it immediately? It has still not arrived and I asked for it over a week ago, I do not think that is me being awkward..? I also ask for a batch of ink everytime and try to forward plan but I work with publications and have to print out a fair amount of PDFs every week.

I understand about the hotel now, but it just seems like everything I might ask for gets a no straight the way.

I do abide by the system but the system itself does not seem to work - i.e. they overpaid me months and months ago which went without notice and are not claiming it back, expenses would not get paid on time etc.

Thanks for your replies though.