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T&E: Control the Uncontrolled
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Do you reimburse employees for actual expenses incurred on a business trip or do you offer them a per diem? While each method has its benefits, there are also risks.
This issue features information to help you make sure that one of your organization's most controllable expenses - travel and entertainment - is under control. In addition, this issue features the newly released 2012 federal per diem rates.
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| Patrick Harbin – Editor
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New Per Diem Rates |
The General Services kept the 2012 federal per diem rates essentially unchanged from 2011, while making some additions and deletions to the list of non-standard areas.
See 2012 Federal Per Diem Rates on TAPC.
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Per Diem Challenges |
Recent benchmark data from The Accounts Payable Network reveals that just 4 percent of organizations use per diem rates as their sole expense reimbursement method. Challenges from using per diem rates include:
- Organizations may pay more in per diem than reimbursements because employees are not required to substantiate expenses.
- There is no guarantee that all the provided funds will be spent on business expenses.
- Unlike actual reimbursements, employees are not required to return unused per diem.
Regardless of whether you provide per diem or reimburse employees for actual expenses, failure to follow IRS rules could require you to report reimbursements as income to your employees. To keep your T&E program compliant, check out the T&E Policy Manual Tool Kit, which includes pre-written forms and procedures for establishing strong T&E controls.
To Order, click "Tools, Forms, and Templates" from the AP Store.
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Just for Fun! |
If an adult going back to elementary school sounds like the plot of an Adam Sandler movie, that's because it is. However, the premise may not be too far off. See Never Too Old: 78-Year Old Starts First Grade in Bulgaria.
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