Expenses can include lodging, personal car mileage reimbursement, flights, ground transportation, tips to bellhops, meals, tips to waiters, room service, and other incidental expenses an employee might experience while on the road.
Travel Expenditures for Employees on Long-Term Assignments
When using long-term housing facilities for traveling employees, many employers also supply opportunities for the employee’s family to visit when the employee is traveling extensively on business. When an employee is assigned to another company location on a temporary basis, employers will sometimes pay for the family of the employee to visit at prescribed time intervals. This keeps the burden of remote work from affecting family relationships adversely. Employers seek to provide options of value for employees who are away from home and family for extended periods of time. You need to take advantage of any travel privileges that your employer offers to build employee morale and dedication. Client entertainment at conferences, on sales calls, and on-site visits is another reimbursable expense, but know your company’s policies so you don’t exceed the limits that are placed on entertainment costs. For example, companies frequently place a cap on what you can spend on taking a client to dinner.
How Do Employers Pay for Employee Travel Expenses?
Typically, organizations pay employee travel expenses in these three ways.
Company credit cards
Credit cards are issued to employees who must travel frequently for business. Employees may charge most of the expenses they incur on a business trip to the company credit card. For reimbursement of incidentals such as tips and fast food, employees will need to fill out an expense report when they return from their trip. Charge cards are convenient for employees as they do not have to come up with the cash to pay for business expenses prior to reimbursement. Become knowledgeable about your company’s policies, though; you may still need to turn in receipts and other supporting documentation even when you charge these expenses to a credit card.
Cash:
Organizations without employee company credit cards require employees to fill out an expense reimbursement report for each expenditure while the employee is on the road. They generally require receipts and some level of justification for each expense.
Per diem
A per diem is a daily allowance of a certain amount of money that an employee is given to cover all expenses. The employee is responsible for making sound travel expense choices within the parameters of the amount of money that he or she is allotted daily. Some companies pay directly for transportation and housing but give traveling employees a per diem for all other expenses including meals and ground transportation. Employees have been known to underspend on expenses to keep the extra cash from the per diem. Companies generally allow this.
Know Your Employer’s Travel Expense Policies
Employees who travel for business are advised to stay up-to-date on company travel policies and costs covered for reimbursement. Expenses that fall outside of the policies are generally not reimbursed or covered. Receipts are required by most companies except for those that pay a per diem. Your company also likely has a form that they expect employees to use for turning in travel expenses. If you have questions about what constitutes appropriate travel expenses in your organization, check with your manager and the Human Resources department. You don’t want to spend the money and receive a surprise later.
Employers Are Using Travel As an Employee Incentive
Some employers have started to use travel as an employee incentive. When employees are rewarded with travel by their company for meeting a goal, the incentive travel will increase both employee loyalty and workplace engagement.
