Money Moral Dilemma: Should I tell HR that I'm now able to approve my own work expenses?

hdknight88

MSE_Kelvin said:

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

My boss is off work with a long-term illness, and responsibility for approving leave and expenses for his team has fallen to me. I submitted overtime hours for work I did over Easter using our HR system, and they came straight back to me to approve. My instinct is to point this out to payroll and avoid any conflict of interest. But moving these approvals to someone else could take months - my employer is quite slow with stuff like that - and in the meantime, I won't get paid for my overtime or expenses. What should I do?  

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Yep, You're responsible to arrange delegation up so that someone else approves your expenses.  Also, it could amount to breach of contract if you don't. 

honestcove

The HR system has allowed you to self-certify. That is either right or wrong depending on company rules. If it’s right do it, if it’s not don’t.

Own_Worst_Enermy

I’m sure you’ll get away Scott free with it.

No payroll or incompetent manager manager aged 28 have ever faced any blame in administering payroll to someone known on payroll under a year, especially when a new depot of under a year’s concern is involved…

Yeah blame Customer Service in most companies - aren’t they the easiest to blame?! Yeah I would have loved to sat up how ever many weeks in hospital and said you know what I’ll just make sure payroll is assigned to me this week having no idea of payroll. And well with better things to think of being in hospital.

but here I am making up for many others mistakes when they’ll never know the trouble they caused alone 🤬

Bonnypitlad

Who’s your bosses boss?

telsco

If they have to ask a forum, then maybe they aren't quite ready to take on more responsibility.

lakesider52

HR are, to put it politely, generally one of the least competent departments in an organisation so unless they "own" the expenses policy and procedures, it's pointless referring it to them. I am a retired tax manager for a multinational organisation and my advice is that you must have your expenses approved by another manager in your business and I assume this is made clear in your company's policy. HMRC check these policies during their PAYE reviews and if they come across your situation they will automatically assume that your situation also applies to others and the employer will be left to prove them wrong.

markyb33

Never approve your own expenses. You risk a disciplinary hearing and can be guilty of gross misconduct for breaching internal financial controls.  If they cannot sort a person to approve your expenses rapidly refuse to do any work that needs you to pay for and claim back. 

Benny2321

tacpot12 said:

I would recommend that you don't approve these expenses. You will be breaking an internal financial control policy if you do. You need to raise it with HR as an URGENT issue and I would dig your heels in and say that you will not do any work that would require you to raise expenses - so no travel anywhere.

You need to make it their problem to get the system changed quickly. It's the work of a moment to do it, the issue will be finding a manager that will take responsibility. Logically this HAS to be your manager's manager, but if they are being an ar*se you might need to take it to the next level. You could ask them now if they support this approach. If they do, you can tell HR that X has agreed they will approve your expenses if you approve the rest of the teams. 

You will be stuffed if they have an inflexible system that only allows the whole team's approvals to be moved to the next manager up - they won't want the extra responsibility, but if they are to let you do it, get it in writing that you are allowed to do it, and approve your own expenses AFTER you have reviewed them with your manager's manager and go them to sign and date a photocopy of the receipts to show that they saw them before you approved them.    

Unless this person is an expert in your internal processes I’m not sure they can state this as fact.

In my eyes it’s simple;
1. Are you defrauding your company?
2. does your company trust their people?

Unless you’re committing fraud there shouldn’t be any issues with you approving your own expenses. I’d expect your company to monitor all spends anyway, and if you’re worried just submit yourself for an audit.

My company trusts us to approve our own expenses (any single line items up to the value of £250)

I’ll be submitting a claim of over £500 this week and guess what? I can approve that because I’m trustworthy and I have all my receipts to prove the spend. My company trusts me and if they were worried about my worthiness they shouldn’t be employing me.

DAN56

I suggest you point out the situation to HR first and ask them to transfer authority to someone else as a matter of urgency (maybe the senior HR manager?).
If they don't sort it out before the next payroll input deadline then I suggest you speak to your bosses boss and ask him to sign a paper copy of your claim before you authorise it electronically. That way there is an audit trail.

Also, ask your bosses boss to chase up HR to ensure the problem is resolved before the next monthly deadline.

Ed264

Normally I have a clear opinion but in this case I don't know what to say! Seems to me this is one for HR to deal with. Good luck!