5 ms·

Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundabl

Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundable tickets up front then

raverbashing 7y ago
Exactly this. Either bill them in advance or have them purchase your ticket in advance. Any major travel expense shouldn't be on your dime unless you're very acquainted with the customer.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  Do you actually forward receipts to the client and have them pay to the cent? I always find it easier to just have a fixed line item for "travel to client events", and usually I end up coming out ahead by a substantial margin by not booking fancy hotels.
  - antaviana 7y ago
    Be careful. If you do that with a public administration client, you might end up charged for embezzlement.
  - o-__-o 7y ago
    Depends what the contract says. I've had a client tell me to use expensify and call it a day. I've had to manage travel as part of a fixed price bid. I've just had to bill for travel as a line item on a T&M. The bottom line is on your end, you should be capturing receipts, you should be logging costs per project, and you should be providing all this data to an accountant for a nice quarterly rollup.
    - ghaff 7y ago
      Yeah, it really depends. I've done it all different ways. - Bill the client for actual expenses - Paid out of pocket for travel that was baked into the day rate - Had major travel (air/hotel) paid for directly by a client's travel agent. (Which I actually preferred to avoid when reasonably possible because now you're dealing with your client's travel policies.) I'm not an accountant but I tend to agree you shouldn't be billing a broken-out travel line item that's not actual expenses or expenses plus explicit overhead [or a standard per diem].
  - csomar 7y ago
    Isn't that fraud? You are supposed to charge exactly how much the travel expenses did cost. If you think you should charge for the travel time proportionally to your work rate, then you should do that but have these separate. It's possible a client will ask you for the travel expenses receipts and it would not be nice to show him that there is difference between what you charged and what it did actually cost.
    - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
      Could you explain why you think it's fraud (and where you're from might help too). In the UK there's, for example, a standard "mileage charge" which people tend to claim for driving to a place for work. It's not "the cost of travel" it's an approximate. When a company charges for sending an operative to a site, they pay the operative £10 ph, and charge the company receiving them £100 -- presumably you think that's fraud too? How about when Guchi (made up company) charge you $500 for a plain white tshirt made by people who aren't paid a living wage, wouldn't that also be fraud under the same sort of consideration?
      - ghaff 7y ago
        I'm not sure it's fraud but it's probably not a good practice. Standard "mileage charges" in the US are actually set by the IRS. I assume it's similar in other places so that's a well-established practice for car-related expenses. I'm not sure how else you would do it as there's no way to directly capture expenses other than fuel. I assume that in most cases billing some standard travel day rate/per diem (perhaps based on location) would be fine as well with, possibly, air charged separately for the actual amount. The key is that you're being explicit that you're not charging the actual amount but rather some standard rate that, in principle, approximates average/typical expenses.
        rahimnathwani 7y ago
        The mileage charges set by the IRS are for 'computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving expense purposes', i.e. they're used to work out your tax bill. There are similar mileage rates in the UK, published by HMRC. They have the same purpose. The mileage rate you agree with your client needn't be related to those rates at all.

Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundable tickets up front then

raverbashing 7y ago

Exactly this. Either bill them in advance or have them purchase your ticket in advance. Any major travel expense shouldn't be on your dime unless you're very acquainted with the customer.

londons_explore 7y ago
Do you actually forward receipts to the client and have them pay to the cent? I always find it easier to just have a fixed line item for "travel to client events", and usually I end up coming out ahead by a substantial margin by not booking fancy hotels.
- antaviana 7y ago
  Be careful. If you do that with a public administration client, you might end up charged for embezzlement.
- o-__-o 7y ago
  Depends what the contract says. I've had a client tell me to use expensify and call it a day. I've had to manage travel as part of a fixed price bid. I've just had to bill for travel as a line item on a T&M. The bottom line is on your end, you should be capturing receipts, you should be logging costs per project, and you should be providing all this data to an accountant for a nice quarterly rollup.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Yeah, it really depends. I've done it all different ways. - Bill the client for actual expenses - Paid out of pocket for travel that was baked into the day rate - Had major travel (air/hotel) paid for directly by a client's travel agent. (Which I actually preferred to avoid when reasonably possible because now you're dealing with your client's travel policies.) I'm not an accountant but I tend to agree you shouldn't be billing a broken-out travel line item that's not actual expenses or expenses plus explicit overhead [or a standard per diem].
- csomar 7y ago
  Isn't that fraud? You are supposed to charge exactly how much the travel expenses did cost. If you think you should charge for the travel time proportionally to your work rate, then you should do that but have these separate. It's possible a client will ask you for the travel expenses receipts and it would not be nice to show him that there is difference between what you charged and what it did actually cost.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Could you explain why you think it's fraud (and where you're from might help too). In the UK there's, for example, a standard "mileage charge" which people tend to claim for driving to a place for work. It's not "the cost of travel" it's an approximate. When a company charges for sending an operative to a site, they pay the operative £10 ph, and charge the company receiving them £100 -- presumably you think that's fraud too? How about when Guchi (made up company) charge you $500 for a plain white tshirt made by people who aren't paid a living wage, wouldn't that also be fraud under the same sort of consideration?
    - ghaff 7y ago
      I'm not sure it's fraud but it's probably not a good practice. Standard "mileage charges" in the US are actually set by the IRS. I assume it's similar in other places so that's a well-established practice for car-related expenses. I'm not sure how else you would do it as there's no way to directly capture expenses other than fuel. I assume that in most cases billing some standard travel day rate/per diem (perhaps based on location) would be fine as well with, possibly, air charged separately for the actual amount. The key is that you're being explicit that you're not charging the actual amount but rather some standard rate that, in principle, approximates average/typical expenses.
      - rahimnathwani 7y ago
        The mileage charges set by the IRS are for 'computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving expense purposes', i.e. they're used to work out your tax bill. There are similar mileage rates in the UK, published by HMRC. They have the same purpose. The mileage rate you agree with your client needn't be related to those rates at all.