Timeline for Accidentally spent much more than the food allowance on a business trip
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31 at 18:10 | comment | added | Stephan Branczyk | @GregBacon, "fraud" is a strong word, but I agree with you. It really seems odd that the others went out of their way to minimize their expenses so much, while the OP did the complete opposite. | |
| May 31 at 16:44 | comment | added | Greg Bacon | @StephanBranczyk The part that I find least believable and which I haven’t seen mentioned is in the update: apparently multiple coworkers who “exclusively [ate] at 7-11 and from the McDonald’s dollar menu,” so not at all lavishly, were willing to participate in fraud to cover up a self-proclaimed “big foodie” taking maximum advantage of a situation — trashy behavior, to be frank. The type to be as careful as described about expenses will not be suddenly reckless in other areas but instead likely to respond immediately “No way” when invited to be in on this scheme. | |
| Oct 11, 2022 at 11:45 | comment | added | Swiss Frank | @GregoryCurrie if you cannot believe it you've lived a bizarrely sheltered existence somehow. If you can believe it then you're being offensive for saying it cannot be believed. All sorts of people have honest if odd misconceptions (Facebook has snow themes with 8-fold-symmetry snowflakes.) and you probably hold a few yourself. I'm sure I do. That shouldn't open anyone up to abuse or being flat-out called a liar in a public forum. | |
| Oct 11, 2022 at 6:23 | comment | added | Donald | @DavidHammen - $20-25 which might include a tip. My estimate is also likely low as it’s based on memory. It’s difficult to order breakfast, lunch and dinner if you go to a diner or a traditional restaurant | |
| Oct 11, 2022 at 6:09 | comment | added | David Hammen | @Donald How much do you spend at home on meals? Presumably, you do eat, and presumably you do go out to eat, at least once in a while. The intent of the M&I per diem is to cover the extra cost of having to go out to eat for every meal. If you add the $10 to $30 that you would normally spend per day (on average) to feed yourself, the federal per diem is not that bad. That said, $43 per day is a bit chintzy. On the other hand, $300 per day is way over the top. | |
| Oct 11, 2022 at 5:35 | comment | added | Donald | @DavidHammen - Yes; I realize that; the federal per denim is basically nothing. You can't actually eat at a restaurant and come under per diem. | |
| Oct 11, 2022 at 5:21 | comment | added | David Hammen | @Donald Your numbers add up to $70-80 per day, not $43. $43 per day is chintzy. $70-80 is not (in most US cities). And yes, that's the point of an M&I per diem. Whether you spend $5 or $300, you get $70 (or $80, or whatever), no questions asked, no receipts required. It makes the accounting much, much easier. | |
| Oct 10, 2022 at 17:50 | comment | added | Donald | @DavidHammen - You would be shocked at how incredibly low M&I actually is, not even the US federal government, pay much more than $40 a day. On average I have only received approximately $20 for breakfast, $20 for lunch, and $30-40 for dinner. Now the difference is if I spent $5 or $70 I would get $70 for that day. All my travel experience has be CONUS. | |
| Oct 10, 2022 at 17:19 | comment | added | DKNguyen | @DavidHammen $43 a day is reasonable if your breakfast is included in your hotel. That's like $10-$15 on lunch and the remainder for dinner. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 19:50 | comment | added | Stephan Branczyk | But the key is here is that they need to keep their job. And that means that if they put those expenses on the company American Express, they'll need to pay off the excess before the next billing cycle (and not make it the company's problem). | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 19:08 | comment | added | Stephan Branczyk | @GregoryCurrie, "In this scenario, the OP can simply ask their parents for the money so they can keep their job." Yes, possibly. Either that, or they can sell some of their possessions and lower their expenses. Either way, it doesn't sound like this person has a minimum wage job, so as long as they keep their current job, they'll probably be fine. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 17:13 | comment | added | njzk2 | @MSalters I'm not sure how the employee would be fired. Surely there are conditions in the attribution of the company card like "excess charges will be taken out of the employee's salary". Surely there are cases where someone uses the company card for personal spending for good reasons (like personal card being stolen or denied), and there has to be some room for allowing the employee to pay back. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 17:11 | comment | added | njzk2 | @StephanBranczyk in that case, then the "money is tight" part goes away. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 15:55 | comment | added | David Hammen | I agree that $300/day is incredibly unbelievable for meals & incidentals (M&I). That said, $43/day seems to be incredibly chintzy. If offered $43/day, I would have looked up the US government M&I rate for the target city. A lot of US-based companies pay whatever the US government pays for M&I as doing so eliminates the overhead burden of doing the research for how much it costs for travel, and it eliminates arguments. The highest US government M&I rate I could find was $155/day for Tahiti, a popular resort getaway for very rich people from Japan. $300/day is not credible. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 9:22 | comment | added | RonJohn | @NeilMeyer then shame on this person's parents. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 7:39 | comment | added | William | At a previous employee I was at, the daily allowance when on business was $240, so $300 isn't that far off. Scenario doesn't seem unbelievable to me. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 7:02 | comment | added | Neil Meyer | Believable if the person is a doe eyed youth inexperienced with how the world operates. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 1:51 | comment | added | MSalters | Agree with this - my first reaction was "that's also supposed to cover the hotel!". The excess amount is not massive; enough to fire a dishonest employee but I'd be stumped how to judge this situation where the OP comes forward with the mistake. You don't want to introduce a company culture where people get fired when they're honest over $1K mistakes. That's not good for the company. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 1:02 | comment | added | Gregory Currie | @StephanBranczyk In this scenario, the OP can simply ask their parents for the money so they can keep their job. Maybe we can contrive a believable story, but the employer isn't going to do that. | |
| Oct 9, 2022 at 0:34 | comment | added | Stephan Branczyk | Their story is very believable. I can envision a kid with rich parents doing this kind of thing right out of College and on their very first job. And the thing is, they seem to think their employer is just like their parents, and will simply eat the cost of the meals. | |
| Oct 8, 2022 at 10:53 | history | answered | Gregory Currie | CC BY-SA 4.0 |