How to Enforce an Expense Policy

Mention employee expense policies, and you are often quick to receive a groan from staff. Employees, particularly ones who travel frequently, don’t enjoy being limited in where they can spend. However, creating and enforcing an expense policy is a requirement to curbing unnecessary or extravagant spending, and maintaining harmony among staff.

Related Article: Should I Expense This? Business Expenses vs. Personal Expenses

So how should business managers go about enforcing an expense policy? Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Make sure all employees have access to a written expense policy.
• Before employees make purchases on behalf of the company, discuss payment options and policies.
• Outline detailed business travel policies. Some things to consider: preferred hotels and airlines, room rate caps, and frequent flyer miles/point ownerships.
• What happens if employees abuse an expense policy? Make sure they know the repercussions.
• Enforce itemized receipts, when possible. Employees will be less likely to bend an expense rule when they know the exact item will be seen by their manager.
• Use an expense reporting system into which you can input your policies—and flag items of concern. One great automated system is Tallie.