Who pays for business travel upfront?

dayzee_2

Just curious to how things work in different companies and who pays for business travel up front. You or the company?

I work for a small start up company whose head office is in US west coast. There is less than 6 employees in the UK office and as such we are all technically contracted to this company. Due to my roll, I am required to fly to the head office around once a quarter. However, I am expected to front the flights, hotels and all other expenses and it will then be reimbursed, however, on average it takes 3 months to pay my expenses. Depending on the time of year etc. I can easily spend a months salary for just one week in the US.

A few years ago, I worked for a large multinational company where when involved in international travel, I would only need to pay for transfers, food etc when travelling. Hotel and flights were covered basically.

So tell me who pays in your company?

Jox

Do you have a travel agent? Our travel agent just sends us invoices for flights and hotels which I forward to our accounts department to pay.

For taxis and sustenance we have petty cash or people claim them on their expenses.

We also have company credit cards that are paid for automatically from our business bank account.

It's not fair to expect you to pay for these things upfront out of your salary and savings.

Jinx

I've worked in various sized companies.

IME lower level employees get all their travel booked by a Receptionist, PA, themselves via the preferred travel agent and this is then invoiced. In two of the global companies i worked for the Managers and above eg HR Manager etc upward were all required to pay travel, hotels etc and claim back which didnt go down too well when rolled out! The diffference between these companies? One issued corporate credit cards and the other didnt.

poet123

I book all my husbands business travel, he has a separate account from which he pays and then claims it all back. He does have a secretary who would do it, but he prefers her not to as her taste in hotels is not the same as his!!

marlot

I've always worked for large companies, and had to pay up front, then claim.

I use a cashback credit card, and try to make sure I put in a claim every month (more often if I've done a big trip).

But in my experience, most companies will pay up front themselves for flights.

Hmm71

My husband used to work in insurance and travelled around a lot. He always had to pay his own travel costs then claim it back from his company.

hcb42

I would never accept paying up front to this degree..! A bit of fuel and the occasional hotel stay, maybe, but not expenses that may well be beyond mostl people's annual holiday allowance

What if the company goes bust, you are high and dry effectively?

It is unreasonable for someone to expect you to fund international travel, there should be a travel management company in place, or at least a corporate card.

And I did have £000s on an expense account once, and I got paid my money, months after it was paid out, and weeks before company went into administration, was then at another company where some individuals/consultants were not so lucky.

Andy_L

Can you get an advance of expenses?

StephenM_2

I work for a very large multi-national company. I don't travel very often, but I do have a company credit card and flights, hotels, car hire, and as much as possible of everything else goes on that. I then have to account for all the expenditure and claim back anything that I couldn't use the credit card for.

pelirocco

hcb42 wrote: »

I would never accept paying up front to this degree..! A bit of fuel and the occasional hotel stay, maybe, but not expenses that may well be beyond mostl people's annual holiday allowance

What if the company goes bust, you are high and dry effectively?

It is unreasonable for someone to expect you to fund international travel, there should be a travel management company in place, or at least a corporate card.

And I did have £000s on an expense account once, and I got paid my money, months after it was paid out, and weeks before company went into administration, was then at another company where some individuals/consultants were not so lucky.

That happened to a friend of ours , he paid for A very expensive corporate day out for clients , on the trip home he was told company went into administration.As a business owner I wouldn't dream of not paying for all expenses up front

[Deleted User]

My place pays for train/flights/hotels in advance - we then make expense claims for anything else like taxis and meals.

My old firm made you pay for it all and then expense it all afterwards. I use to have arguments with my credit card firm to get them to give me more allowance (I was living out of the Conrad Hilton in Dublin at the time... bit of a pricey experience)

Plus point to expensing your own stuff - you can put it all through quidco and earn a fortune