T&E Plus

T&E Compliance and Consequences

From the C¹⁰ T&E procurement model*, Compliance and Consequences are two steps that drive savings.   Proactive policy compliance can eliminate expenses before they occur. When leaders drive messaging through employee education, policies are more often followed.  Online booking tools and travel management companies can assist companies by setting up automated business rules and agent-assisted systems. 

 

Data intelligence, through metrics, provides reactive policy monitoring such as highlighting the employees who failed to use the online booking tool, spent more than what is deemed "normal" in restaurant expenses, or ignored the lowest airfare.

 

Consequences for non-compliance may include warnings, non-payment of expenses, or termination.   Companies that centralize T&E commodities, use strategic sourcing and include CFO oversight will recognize sustainable cost reduction. 

 

Published June 1 by John Hyatt of CFO Magazine, please read an excellent article on T&E cost reduction opportunities:  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/13692344/c_13720245  

 

*For more information on the C¹⁰ T&E procurement model, please contact me.

 

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT

 

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation, T&E policy, plus more...

 

Follow me on Twitter ...http://www.twitter.com/debischolar  and on LinkedIN at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dscholar

 

 

 

New T&E Policy for today's economic environment

Some fun as we move into Memorial Day and the summer travel season ....  enjoy the long weekend.

New Travel, Entertainment and Meeting Policy

1. All travel must be approved by your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director, the operations leader, the shared services vice president, the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer.  Please submit all travel requests four months in advance.
2. All travel must be booked by finding the lowest fare such as using the online booking tool, the airline webfares, the travel agency, your sister’s travel agency, the newspapers ads, or the online travel aggregator sites.  We recognize that this may take you three or more hours, but if you can find a fare that is cheaper, you must take the time to search in order to save money.
3. Please stay with relatives or friends to reduce your expenses.  While you’re there, please raid their refrigerator to eliminate meal expenses.  If you are traveling to a location without relatives or friends, please make new friends online using Twitter.   If that fails, please retrieve the reusable tentage from the local office.
4. Laundry expenses are not reimbursable. Please use your relative’s or friend’s washer and dryer.
5. Ground transportation must be provided by your favorite shoe manufacturer and your feet.  If your journey is more than five miles, please be sure to carry maps of the local bus or subway route with you.  You will not be reimbursed for these expenses because you should be willing to walk as our Health Benefit costs are increasing and you need to lose weight.
6. Allowable client entertainment includes volunteering, going to the park or taking advantage of free events. 
7. The T&E corporate card must be used for all reimbursable expenses.  Our company has no reimbursable expenses.   Any accrued points must be turned over to your manager, the manager’s director, the managing director or the chief financial officer so that they may use to buy valuable products, such as soap and toilet paper for our company bathrooms because we have cut all janitorial supplies from our budget.
8. Internal meetings and events can only be conducted by virtual mediums. The approved virtual mediums include your personal cell phones, your personal computer and webcams.
9. External business development meetings and events can be held at the local park.  In the case of inclement weather, please use parks with gazebos, canopies or buildings.  If you require client entertainment, please bring a deck of cards.  No gambling is allowed. If you require bug spray, please purchase at your own expense.
10. All audiovisual and production requirements must be supplied by using flashlights, hand shadows and drawings on the back of the napkin.

Any violations or noncompliance to this policy will be reported by our data metrics, from the ERP, the OBT, the TMC, the EMS, and the SMMT, that we build, analyze, preview, revise, reproduce, report and validate a few times each day.

 

 

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Follow me on Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/debi001or at LinkedIN at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dscholar

Daily Allowances or Per Diems may increase expenses

Does your company use per diems or daily allowances rather than pay for actual expenses with maximum limits?  If you use per diems without access to corporate credit card data for actual T&E expenses, you could be losing money.  As an example...if you always pay your travelers $75 per day for meals but use preferred hotels that include breakfast, you may be losing money daily. Consider daily allowance maximums but only pay for actual expenses based on corporate card expenses. For more tips and T&E policy assistance, contact me.

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, events, incentives, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

 

Follow me on Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/debi001

Do you have T&E internal audits in place?

One of the missions of an internal audit team is to review the expense compliance compared to policies and procedures approved by an organization. A T&E audit is especially important due to the complexity of the spend, the number of suppliers and the meeting/event contracts that may be at risk.  Even appropriate spend could tarnish an image...as reported in this article published today:

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_8560/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=NKZa0d1Y

If you want help with your T&E spend, in any category, please contact me.

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT

Thank you for visiting the T&E Plus Blog on expense management, travel management, business meetings, strategic meetings management, entertainment, virtual meetings, tickets, hotels, airlines, ground transportation plus more...

Negotiating new payment terms

Everything is negotiable.  Some companies are trying to extend payment beyond 30 days.  Rather, why not work with your supplier to use your T&E Card, P-Card or Meeting Card, or an electronic funds transfer to pay within 15 days or less to take advantage of fast-pay discounts?  If you are unsure how to use the valuable payment methods, please contact me.  Business travel, meetings, and entertainment are confusing enough these days...paying for them, and other spend, shouldn't be.

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT

T&E Card - Levels of Data

Data is King, right? What you DO with the data is most important. Try to get the most data from your T&E card in order to gain the most visibility into spend. Travel management and business meetings cost companies millions of dollars so ensure that you have access by using the right card product and the right  bank.

Level 1 data is the basic transaction information such as cardholder's name, account number, charge amount, and merchant name.

Level 2 data contains tax and accounting information.

Level 3 data contains line item details, airline itinerary, hotel folio, and descriptions if the suppliers provide it to the card company.

Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT