TEG Expenses

Purpose

This policy outlines the policies and procedures that should be followed by all TEG employees regarding expense claims. As well as policies and procedures regarding the use of Corporate Credit Cards and is designed to ensure Corporate Credit cards are used appropriately and expenses are processed correctly.

Scope

All TEG Employees

Policy Statement

The policy applies to all TEG employees. TEG reimburses employees for expenses which are business related. The purpose of the policy is designed to ensure:

expenses are processed correctly;
that an employee is reimbursed for expenses in a timely manner;
expenses are submitted in a timely manner by the employee to ensure accurate and timely processing;
accurate tracking of expense items to budget.
Employees must make mandatory use of preferred suppliers for the relevant expenditure. List of preferred suppliers are included in the Procurement Policy Appendix A [insert hyperlink here once policy on intranet]. Approval for exceptions from preferred supplier must be received from department head and CFO prior to undertaking expenditure.
Employees are expected to follow the principle of cost conscious ownership and minimization, ie) treat costs as if it’s your own dollars being spent.

Policy Owner and Effective Date

Chief Financial Officer

Effective Date 1 Feb 2018

Policy Updated 1 Feb 2018

TEG Expense Policy

EXPENSE CLAIM AUTHORISATION PROCEDURE

All expense claims must be completed via the Concur portal: https://www.concursolutions.com
Completion of the employee expense claim declaration and approval of the claim are two distinct functions that must be exercised by independent employees.
All expense claims must be accurately entered in Concur by the employee and approved by the line manager to which the employee ultimately reports to.
It is the responsibility of the line manager to ensure that the expense reimbursement is within allocated department budget expenditure prior to authorising the expense claim.
It is the responsibility of employees to submit their completed expense claim form and receipts via Concur for payment.
Expense claims approved, that are missing receipts or have incomplete information, will be rejected by Accounts Payable and will then need to be re-submitted. Submissions that include entertainment expenses need to include the correct documentation as detailed in “Policy Rules By Expense Type” section of this policy.
Due to fringe benefits tax law, the Australian Taxation Office and New Zealand Inland Revenue Department require a travel diary to be kept when an employee is away for six (6) or more consecutive nights on domestic or overseas travel. It is mandatory to submit your Travel Diary as it will be reviewed to determine whether the expenditure was necessarily incurred in relation to company business. Completed diaries should be sent to the Accounts Payable: Expenses@t-e-g.com.au. See Travel Policy [insert hyperlink once policy on intranet] for detailed instructions on travel.
All expense claims undergo a review with the Accounts payable team for completeness and a review by the CFO for reasonableness and policy compliance before they are paid.
For TEG Live employees – submissions via Concur and mileage claims go to TEG Live Finance Manager (Alexis Mitchell) to ensure all tour/event related costs are coded and captured correctly, following which, they go to the Line Manager for approval.
Expenses must be submitted no later than 1 month after the expense has been incurred. Management reserves the right to not pay expenses submitted late.

CODING OF EXPENSE CLAIMS

All expenses on your claim form must be coded with the correct coding before being submitted for re-imbursement). Expense type can be selected via dropdown boxes in Concur. Please contact Accounts Payable if in doubt re: correct expense classification or applicable tax rates to be utilised. (Refer to chart of accounts here)
Attach ALL original receipts in Concur.

MISSING RECEIPTS

For missing receipts over A$20, a ‘missing receipt affidavit’ should be completed in Concur. This should include an itemised listing of expenses that are missing receipts.
Employee declarations will not be accepted where receipts are missing for airline travel, accommodation or entertainment expenses.
It is at management’s discretion if payments not containing receipts will be paid. These expenses will be not be paid if they are not on the corporate card.

PAYMENT OF EXPENSES

Payment is by direct deposit.
Employees should submit their bank account details to Accounts Payable so that the expense claims can be paid directly to your nominated bank account.
It is the responsibility of the employee to inform Accounts Payable of any changes to bank account details.

Please note: Accounts Payable should be notified of your bank details for expense claims as payroll account information is processed separately.

TRAVEL DIARY

The purpose of a Travel Diary is to keep a record of business activities whilst on Domestic or International business-related travel.
A Travel Diary is compulsory for all international business travel and necessary in complying with FBT rules for the ATO and must be completed when you spend 5 or more consecutive nights away on business.
A Travel Diary is only compulsory for domestic travel where the travel is not undertaken exclusively for business purposes.
A Travel Diary must accompany your expense claim form or your reimbursement payment will not be processed.
The Travel Diary to be completed can be located here.
For credit card holders, a Travel Diary must accompany your monthly expense claim and American Express statement.

POLICY RULES BY EXPENSE TYPE

ENTERTAINMENT EXPENSE CLAIMS

Entertainment Expenses are those expenses incurred whilst:
Entertaining clients or employees at breakfast, lunch, dinner & coffee meetings
Entertaining clients at social functions
The receipt must be a valid “Tax Invoice”.
A credit card receipt by itself is not adequate to meet requirements under tax legislation.
Entertainment expenses should include the names of the clients/staff at the function and notation whether staff or client in Concur.
Where entertainment expenditure involves more than one employee, the most senior employee should be the responsible for payment of the entertainment and they will claim the reimbursement.
Each entertainment expense claim form must be authorised by the line manager to whom the employee reports to.
It is the responsibility of the department head to ensure that the expense reimbursement is within allocated department budget expenditure and is a legitimate work-related expense.

MILEAGE

TEG has one company car parked in the parking bay at 175 Liverpool Street, Sydney, one at Melbourne offices and one at Queensland offices. These are to be used by approved TEG employees for business related purposes only.
Where an employee is required to use their private vehicle for business purposes, they will be entitled to claim mileage arising from each business-related trip.
Before a private vehicle is used you should asses the mileage of the journey to ensure it’s not more cost effective to hire a vehicle – for example: if a journey is more than 150km in a day a rental car should be used or if there are no suitable rental vehicles available, approval to use a private vehicle is sought from the department head. This would be in instances where there is a significant distance required to get to the hire car place to pick up the hire car which is extra travel, or the employee feels safer driving their own car over greater distances. This must be requested in advance and have written authorisation to support any claim. The amount to be claimed is capped to the cost of the cheapest hire car available that is suitable for the journey, and mileage can not be claimed.
Mileage can be claimed for a return trip from the employees’ primary place of employment to the location of the client/event premises being visited for business purposes.
Alternatively, mileage can be claimed from the client/event site being visited to the next client/event site being visited should the visits be concurrent.
Where the employee conducts a client/event site visit then proceeds to drive directly home, mileage can be claimed to either the principal place of employment or to their home – whichever is less.
Reimbursement of mileage will be at the following rates: Vehicles = 78c/km

These rates have been determined with reference to the Australian Tax Office guidelines and will be reviewed annually.

The Australian Tax Office requires TEG to include on each employee’s Payment Summary (previously Group Certificate) any reimbursement for vehicle mileage expenses calculated and paid on a cents per kilometer basis.
Due to ATO requirements, all mileage claims must be processed through payroll.

The mileage reimbursement form is located here

TAXIS / RENTAL CARS / UBER

Taxis are to be used for business purposes only. Any business-related travel should be paid for by staff (either via cash or credit card) and then claimed via the expense reimbursement process. It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that original receipts detailing the date, origin, destination and fare are obtained for each trip.

For staff working later than 9pm and / or due to safety concerns a taxi is required to reach home, approval must be received in advance. Staff should have an email approval from their line manager. Email approval should be attached to the expense claim and sent to Accounts Payable.

TEG has a preferred car rental company: Avis.

Where possible, significant trips outside of the CBD should be completed using a Rental Car (not taxis). If hiring a Rental Car would be cheaper than travelling by taxi in CBD locations, then a Rental Car should be utilised.

Rental Cars are to be booked via the Travel Manager. Refer to Travel Policy for further details.

Uber is to be used for business purposes only. Uber is to be used only if surge pricing does not exceed the cost of a taxi. Any business-related travel should be paid for by staff (either via corporate or personal credit card) and then claimed via the expense reimbursement process.

PARKING

Employees are to use office car spaces in the first instance and where possible. There is 1 car spot in the bay at 175 Liverpool Street, Sydney which can be booked through outlook: public calendar “Sydney Office Carpark”. The pass to access to this carpark is with Finance.
Where business requirements result in the utilisation of commercial car parks, employees are to ensure use of early bird parking and /or the most cost efficient option.

HOME INTERNET EXPENSE CLAIMS

Home internet cannot be claimed for expenses.
Any employees that require consistent out of hours internet access and feel it cannot be accommodated in their home internet plan should request access to a WIFI dongle. The main departments this impacts is App Admin and System Support. Where a dongle is provided an expense claim is prohibited.
“On call” personnel in IT, Apps and Systems Support will be provided a 4G wireless USB to enable them to provide the necessary internet access to complete their work.

FOREIGN CURRENCY CLAIMS

For credit card holders, it is acceptable to use the rate charged by the bank, as noted in the credit card statement, ie) you may overwrite the rate that comes up in Concur if it is differs from the conversion rate used by the bank.
A rate of the day is available in Concur for cash items.

GIFTS AND GRATUITIES

All Australian corporate donations are to be approved by the CFO or CEO in advance.

All inbound and outbound gifts including gifts from TEG to its employees are covered under the Gifts and Gratuities policy [insert hyperlink here once policy on intranet].

CORPORATE DONATIONS AND SPONSORSHIPS

Employee obligations under corporate donations and sponsorships requested of TEG are included in the corporate donations and sponsorships policy [insert hyperlink here once policy on intranet].

MOBILE PHONE CLAIMS

Eligibility and obligations for mobile phone usage (company and private) are disclosed in the Mobile Phone Usage Policy:

http://intranet.ticketek.com.au/it/Policies/POL-GEN-01_Mobile_Phone_Usage_Policy.doc

Note: TEG has set a reasonable usage level of $80 per month per employee. TEG reserves the right to only pay to this limit. Any employee, whose company mobile phone usage or private phone claim for work purposes consistently exceeds this limit, will have their usage reviewed by the CFO. In cases of misuse, disciplinary action may be taken and/or repayment of funds requested.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

Where an employee is required to be a member of a professional association as a mandatory specification imposed by TEG in a position description or documented as payable in employment contracts TEG will pay the membership fees.

Approval from the department head in advance is required, with a clear explanation on how the above business requirement is supported, for example: Australian recognized CPA or CA for finance staff. This does not apply to casual staff.

All other approvals are at the discretion of the CFO noting that to be considered for subscription re-imbursement when not part of contractual arrangements the employee must have been graded ‘meets or above’ in their previous performance review and been an employed for at least 18 months.

Subscriptions to magazines, journals and other materials need to be approved by the department head with clear business use/requirement proven and within department budgets. These should be accessible by other employees.

TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL COSTS

Training requirements are to be aligned with employee’s personal development plan and approved by the department head. It is the responsibility of the department head to ensure that the expense reimbursement is within allocated department budget expenditure prior to authorising the expense claim. All training requirements must be approved by HR.

For all structured education program costs, refer to the Education Assistance Program Policy on the intranet.

RELOCATION COSTS

Relocation costs agreed as part of the employment contract and signed off by the CEO and/or CFO will be considered. Any exceptions to above will need to be discussed by the department head with TEG CFO for approval.

CORPORATE CREDIT CARDS

ELIGIBILITY

Department Heads may recommend to the TEG CFO that a Corporate Credit Card be issued to employees who:

Travel frequently in the course of duty (regular business travel)
Frequently conduct business entertainment in the course of duty
Regularly purchase low value goods and services for business purposes

Acceptance of the recommendation is at the discretion of the CFO.

Application for a Corporate Credit Card:

Credit card application form [insert hyperlink here when on intranet] must be filled out, outlining business reason and approval of department head. All relevant documentation with the application form must be given to the CFO for approval.

Following the receipt of your credit card, you need to register online with the bank to retrieve the monthly credit card statements. On the 20th of each month, your Corporate Credit Card Statement will be available and ready to download.

For first time users, you will be given training in Concur so you may submit your expense claims to Finance for processing by the due date.

Claim forms not submitted by the due date will be flagged with Finance. If you have a legitimate reason for late submission of your claim, such as personal or annual leave, please notify finance ASAP.

Expense claims outstanding greater than 6 weeks will be escalated to the Senior Leadership Team.

Your Corporate Credit Card privilege will be reviewed if you have in excess of 3x late submissions which may result in cancellation of your Corporate Credit Card.

The employee must upload all relevant tax receipts to verify expenses onto Concur.

Employees are not permitted to use personal credit cards or alternative payment methods when they have been issued with a corporate card.

Under no circumstances should corporate credit cards be used for personal expenses.

All Corporate Credit Card expense claims must be submitted by the end of the month.

Incomplete expense claims that have been approved, will be rejected by Accounts Payable via Concur. The employee would need to review and address the rejected claim and follow the approval process for payment to take place.

Any expenses incurred on your Corporate Credit Card on behalf of a colleague may be coded to their cost centre provided that written acceptance of the expense to their cost centre is given. This approval must be attached to the expense item in Concur otherwise the expense will be re-coded to your cost centre accordingly.

Cardholders must not use their corporate credit cards for:

personal expenditure;
asset acquisitions over A$1000;
contractor payments;
repetitive procurement which could be set up as a purchase order;
the purchase of goods subject to purchase requisition release control;
the payment of fines;
cash advances, over-the-counter cash withdrawals, ATM transactions or the purchase of bank cheques, travelers’ cheques or foreign currency;
Airline club memberships

Cash Advances:

Cash advances are generally not provided, however depending on the nature, destination and/or duration of the travel, approval may be given.

Approvals are to be issued by the Group Financial Controller who will advise Accounts Payable. Request must be made at least 48 hours prior to the funds being required so that funds can be organised.

At the conclusion of the travel, the employee must provide A COMPLETE RECONCILIATION ALONG WITH TAX RECEIPTS to Accounts Payable for processing.

Withdrawals / cash advances via corporate credit cards is not allowed.

Cancellation of Corporate Credit Cards:

Once an employee leaves the company the corporate credit card will be cancelled immediately.
Any receipts for business expenses should be given to your manager or a nominated person for these to be processed on the following month’s credit card statement.

Lost/Stolen Cards:

A Corporate Credit Card that is lost or stolen should be notified to both:

American Express on 1300 362 639
For TEG staff: Finance department at TEG Pty Ltd via email:Expenses@t-e-g.com.au