I HATE Expense Reports!
 

I can honestly say that without question that I hate expense reports. I am looking at over $9000 of my own right now.

I don't like doing them on a boat. I don't like doing them with a goat. I don't like doing in a box. I don't like doing them with a fox. I don't like doing them in a house, I don't like doing them with a mouse, I don't like doing them here or there. I don't like doing them anywhere. I don't like doing them oh Boss of mine! I don't like doing them anytime!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1211230223.jpg

Lube, I feel much better about your desk now. In my old job I used to subsidize my employer to the tune of thousands of dollars a year because they'd deny any expense report that was more than 30 days old. Now that I have my own firm I told my clients I was raising my rates to include all expenses and overhead and wouldn't bill them separately. It's like heaven.

Hey, some of those receipts have footprints on them...

Our company "rule" is two weeks. I'm out about 6 weeks right now. I think the tab is close to 5 large. Should be getting a call from that nice lady in accounting soon.

Let's see...root canal, expense reports....root canal, expense reports?

Double post

Feel the same. Absolutely hate to do them!

Is that gal across the hall in the picture hot?

I do one for every trip, but no more than one a week. No way I can float more than that.

An old boss game me some great advice... take some paper and tape in your laptop bag so you can organize receipts while on the plane or waiting in the airport, we still have to fax/scan receipts. When I get home I spend 10-15 minutes entering the data since all receipts are ready to go.

I got a PDA to track my expenses when I'm on the road. I plug stuff in as it is incurred. When I get home, I sync my PDA and submit.

I just did one this morning. It is not too bad where I work, we have an internal tool that is linked with the Corp card, I just select what the expense is for and send in a paper reciept to the admin if over $75. Still not the most fun thing to do and one i often put off...

I remember the old days with excel and feel your pain...

I am bad about expenses. I submitted a report in Sept for 2 years. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate doing expenses. A colossal abuse of a salesman's time is a regular expense report. Only call reports ranks lower on the scale. Or budget reports & forecasts.

Sales Managers Take Note - reports justify YOUR existence - not ours. Stuff it.

Ian

Am I the only one who hates getting reimbursed for the money I spend out of pocket?

I assume you are being facetious. I hate the process but not the cash . . .

Ian

+1 on hate

Wait until you pay to fill up the jet with your AmEx. Thats when waiting for the funds to come back is a bear...

But you have to love the check from Amex every February.

Ditto here with the corp card, way easier, but still a pain. I run as much as possible through the corp card. Especially when traveling overseas.

Boy you REALLY touched on a nerve with me right now... After four years of shopping for cheap air flights, best hotel deals, sleeping in airports because I checked out early to save money, going to the grocery store when I'm on the road instead of going to dinner...

My company hits me with this today. My most recent expense report is going to be held up because they AREN'T GOING TO PAY $10.86... The $10.86 in question is over the government rate for Spokane hotels (two nights - over $5.43 cents each night). So they aren't going to pay the whole expense report because they don't want to pay the $10.86. They are never going to pay the $10.86 and since it is on the report, the whole thing won't be paid. I have to redo the whole expense report, eat the $10.86, resubmit it and it moves to the back of the cue for payment - should get payment in 4 weeks instead of 3.

Bear in mind that on this trip I spent $13.08 for food for 3 days. Checked out of the hotel a day early, turned in the rental car and sat in the airport for 7 hours to save them money.

No more baby. No more. Go ahead and stiff an honest employee $10.86. The game is on. There are far more convenient and expensive ways for me to conduct my travel. :mad:

angela

I hate em too but use the mileage reimbursement $$ for repairs, maintanance and upgrades. At current gas prices the net is getting smaller:(

Wow, that totally blows. Silliness.

I hear you. The pharmaceutical biz has more reports than anyone, and the biweekly reports for a couple grand each that are completed outside of work hours are a pita.

I do a lot of emergent travel for my company in support of AOG ("aircraft on ground") repairs. The company makes allowances as far as the level of detail expected on expense reports related to this sort of travel. It was kind of their way of making up for the midnight, two hour notice, get to the airport and we'll tell you where you are going and how long you'll be gone treatment. The problem now is, however, that the company has off loaded all expense report processing to some Indian firm. This firm just lumps AOG travel in with pre-planned business travel, and challenges us for the details we were previously allowed to ommit. Fewer and fewer of us even answer the phone in the middle of the night anymore...

There have now been trips where I have spent more time once home battling the Indian bean counters than I spent on the trip. What really irks me about that is that I'm not allowed to charge that time against the trip; I wind up charging it against my department's overhead budget. I'm trying to convince my manager that we need a seperate budget to charge to for dealing with our expense reports, so that we can gain some visibility on just how much it is costing us.

It's frustrating to me when I consider that our company trusts us to fly halfway around the world to repair up to $170M machines, but does not trust us to give accurate expense reports when we get back. The battles tend to be over a relatively few dollars, or over percentage points on exchange rates. This, on expense reports that can easily go well into the five figure range if we are gone long enough. Oh well; like I said, there are getting to be fewer of us that will even pick up that phone when it rings in the middle of the night. They reap what they sow...

todays schedule;

drive in to the office 8:30 - 10:00
expenses 10:15 - 11:00
Meeting 11:00-1:00 (the reason I drove into the office) CANCELLED with no notice
Ship stuff out to customers 11:00 - 11:45
Call reports from last week 1:00 - 2:00
territory overview 2:00 - 2:15
event reports from last week 2:15 - 2:45
Drive home 3:30 - 5:00

Time spent talking to or meeting with clients 0H 0M, or 25% of my week because yesterday was a holiday.

Makes me glad I work in education... I don't travel much, but when I do...

Airfare and hotel are pre-arranged and pre-paid. Only extras I pay for is room service, calls, etc. which I don't do. I do have to pay parking, cab fare, etc. but that is reimbursed within 2 or 3 days of coming back and giving up the receipts. For meals, I'm given a certain amount for each one, anything more I spend comes from my pocket, anything less goes into my pocket (I don't do business meals, etc. or entertain others - thats the guys that wear ties jobs). I get a flat rate for miles, and we have "official" mile lists (that are padded by about 10%) to just about anywhere we'd drive to in the state. Meals, miles, and any extra costs (documented by receipt only) is paid just a few days after I get back to the office.

My wife has to submit her mileage reports on a weekly basis. They are paid out in bi-weekly checks that are for the same dates as the pay period. She usually gets the checks three weeks after submitting the reports. Expenses are a different ballgame. She submits the report and receipts (which is now only hotel charges because she just gets food at Safeway for the week and doesn't eat out, company hassels her if she submits that receipt) the Friday she returns home. She only works Mon-Thurs. The check for those expenses take a minimum of SIX weeks to get to her, sometimes up to TEN weeks. There is ONE accts. payable person for ALL of Blockbuster and so things take a looooong time to be processed. Add even more time to that if my wife's boss is on PTO or in the Portland office.

Add to that, she is hourly and doesn't get to charge the time spent doing the reports since all hours are charged per store code, not to a central LP cost center like it used to be. It's ridiculous.

She is pretty hot. She has a great personality, loves to joke around and is always going out with sprting events, plays, musicals and has a steady stream of guys paying her a visit throughout the day. But here is the thing, she is Mormon.

Not that being Mormon is a bad thing. Actually, I am envious of the guy she marrys. She has said to me on several occasions that her future husband is gonna be a very very happy man. The most she will do with a boy is kiss him. She is a strict virgin. She even went so far as to tell me that when she gets the erge she won't even 'self gratify' herself, instead she prays!

Ya, some Mormon boy is gonna be getting it good someday...

Angela, here is an old expense account parable, involving what you are referring to- An old real estate agent had his Stetson blow off and the client's dog ran off with it. The next month he added the hat to his expense report, $20. lost Stetson. The accounting bureau rejected the charge, stating "we don't pay for hats". The next month the old agent put in his expense report, adding, "the hat is in here, find it!" Make 'em find the $10.86! Glenn