How do you handle reimbursements?

hoffse

So last week H and I accumulated $700 of reimbursable expenses.  We're also floating another $3K from my LLM tuition.  I know of another $700 or so coming up next week.

For people who have lots of reimbursable expenses, how do you manage it?  So far my general strategy has been using our credit card, paying off the bill (whatever it is) at the end of the month, and then squaring up as we go.  However, we have tons of sub-$25 expenses, that the process of matching our reimbursements to our expenses is driving me crazy.

My reimbursements aren't bad because my employer does them on the 12th and 27th of the month through direct deposit with an itemized email so you can match the money to your expenses (thank you).  It's incredibly predictable because I know exactly when that money will come in, and I can quickly check it.

H's employer, however, just hands him checks, seemingly at random.  They don't itemize it, and there's no rhyme or reason for how long something takes to process their reimbursement system.  We have had checks take 2 days or 6 weeks.  Seriously.  When he only has one or two expenses, this is not a big deal.  But last week he had 10 transactions, plus mileage.  He just got a check for $76, so now I have to go through the CC statement and find the meals that add up to $76.  

We have never been shorted a reimbursement, so I'm not worried that they aren't covering something - I'm just having a hard time managing it.  I guess the logical approach would be to use a separate card for all of our business expenses, but we are allowed to keep whatever points are earned (stated policy through both employers), so I prefer to use the cards that maximize points.  

AprilZ81

I don't get expenses paid out to the extent you guys do now, but at one time I had THOUSANDS of dollars on my personal credit card (yeah points!!!) at any given time.

Our reimbursements were paid out one check for one expense report, so I would keep copies of each expense report.  As each one was paid, I would mark it paid and file it away.  As long as the check matched the expense report I filed I didn't cross check anything.

Eventually I was forced to use a company credit card (fortunately also accrued some gift certificates for American Airlines) and that did help that work expenses were no longer intermingled with my personal expenses.

julieanne912

H does similar to what April does.  It helps when a company is organized about it, so yes, one check for one expense report.  However, he doesn't go back to try to itemize each and every expense item once he gets paid.  His expenses are for travel and all expenses occurred then, so it would be a total pain to go back and track every coffee, every lunch, etc.  He just takes the payment he receives from his employer, and pays the credit card, and then pays the rest of the bill with his own funds.  He also did it this way when he is on a project that pays a per diem vs total reimbursement.  That way he could either track his spending more carefully while traveling, or he could just pay whatever he spent over the per diem (usually caused by his own personal alcohol consumption LOL).

Your H's work not being organized about it would be completely annoying though.

Would it help to use an expense app to help keep track of stuff?  H uses Genius scan to keep PDFs of all of his receipts, so it would be easy enough to back and cross check the reimbursement for each item.  

jtmh2012

I reconciled to the expense report, but it also helps that I have had a lot of them overlapping at one time.

hoffse

Yeah, if there is an expense report generated then his secretary does it... and he never sees it.  That's part of the problem.  He just gives her his receipts and eventually a check ends up in his chair.

It's incredibly annoying.

I might check out that app and see if that helps.

I don't pay the credit cards as we go because we use different cards to maximize points - so that's why I just pay at the end of the month.  However, now that we have the Sapphire Reserve card, that's going to be where most of our dining and travel would go anyway.  Maybe I'll just tell H to put everything business-related on that card since it will capture MOST of the points we would earn regardless, and then it's easier to track.  I can just pay that same card every time a check comes in without having to match the expense.  The only issue with this is that his mileage gets lumped in, but I guess we can just use his mileage to pay down portion of that card.

julieanne912

Can he ask his secretary for a copy of the report?  Or better yet, ask her to just email you a copy? LOL

brij2006

I use a separate checking account with debit card for business expenses.  We pre-loaded it with $3k since most reimbursements in a 30 day period are under that.  It may seem like overkill, but my employer is like your H's.  I could get a reimbursement check a week after I turn in my expenses, or 6 weeks. 
Keeping it separate from our regular finances has been a lifesaver.  So much easier to follow up with what I have and haven't been reimbursed for.

hoffse

@Brij, yeah I am definitely thinking about having a "reimbursement" fund for cash flow purposes.  Both of our employers require travel to be completed for reimbursement, so that sometimes means floating hotels or plane tickets for awhile.  If it's a lot of money they will occasionally bend the rules for associates because they know it disrupts our cash flow.  But it would be a lot easier if I had a dedicated fund.

I will come clean and admit that the only times we have ever used our emergency fund is to manage cash flow for crazy large reimbursable expenses.  I dip into it for that because I know it will be refunded.

brij2006

You won't regret going this direction. I hate having money tied up in an account that isn't used for something personal, but it has relieved a lot of stress. 
No longer worrying whether or not they're going to reimburse before the CC bill is due, or robbing from savings to cover when they didn't.