Taking Care of Travel & Entertainment
Like credit
cards, treat your travel and entertainment costs seriously. You may not have big dollars in T&E, but
you could be throwing some dollars out the door.
- Set guidelines and stick to them. Make it clear to your people. Do not reimburse when they go astray or you in effect set a new guideline.
- Follow them yourself. Nothing hits home like a good example from the top.
- Get the help of an expert. A good travel agent might save you money. There are firms that specialize in going over your T&E costs and suggesting ways to cut expenses.
- See what you can simplify. You might move to per diem reimbursement for out of town meals and cut out a lot of paperwork.
- Consider the value of your people’s time. Balance that against saving some money on airfare.
- Keep up on ways technology could eliminate having to travel for a meeting. A conference call, webcast or video conference might do the job instead.
- Insist on documentation you need for IRS purposes. Get guidance from your accountant or tax advisor. Insist on documentation or hold back payment. Remember this includes local vehicle use as well.
- Make the reimbursement process simple and quick. In this electronic world, things can move a lot faster than the old paper days.
I especially like the first point about setting guidelines and sticking to them. Too often organizations have two sets of rules - one for the rank and file and a separate unwritten set for a few top level executives and perhaps a few sales people. This leads to discontent and poor morale - because, trust me, news of approved extravagant expenditures travels fast!
Mary Schaeffer
author Travel & Entertainment Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons 2007) and a dozen other business books.
editorial director Accounts Payable Now & Tomorrow (www.ap-now.com)
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