Employee paid expenses

[peter12]

Dear CP Brain Trust,

I was recently an employee of a large EPC. I left on July 6. Previous to that, I was a field supervisor, working long hours away from home, and paying expenses with a company credit card. In the month before I left, the company online expense system went down a few times, and I was forced to use my personal credit card to pay for hotels, per diems for a day or two. Given the scope of work, this amounted to over $1600. Before I left, I got the expenses approved by a superviser, filed my expenses, and scanned my receipts.

It is typical company policy to place a hold on employee expenses. I was told that period was a standard 7 business days. At this point, I have not received my payment, and it is well passed the 7 day period. This is a large company, with mainly global interests, and this isn't a cash flow problem.

I place a daily call to the expenses department, and I keep being told that the payment would come through today - the mid month cheque run- but obviously, it hasn't.

Do I have any recourse? Resources?

[GP_Matt]

I think the 7 day delay is pretty normal. In our office you get paid on Friday for the previous weeks expenses if they were submitted on time. If you are late they go on the following week.

None of this changes if it is an employees last day unless they have company equipment that they haven't returned yet.

Daily calling should resolve your issue. If not, I am sure a lawyer will draft a demand letter for a reasonable price.

[TSXCman]

I was with the other large EPC until January, they didn't send me my final pay until a couple months ago. If I didn't call him monthly to tell them to gimme my money, they probably would have lost it.

[Weitz]

Keep reminding them and escalate by either going up the food chain or threatening to get a lawyer involved.

A lot of places will drag their feet in hopes you just drop it and they don't have to pay you.

[Nage Waza]

Where I have worked, there was not so much a 'policy' to hold an expense for a period of time, but rather processing times and cheque run dates. If you submit after the cutoff, you wait.

The company won't be dropping everything to process your expense, in particular if they have many employees.

I don't recommend escalating, just be patient for a few more days.

[CaptainCrunch]

The fact that you left on July 6th and its now August 14th means that they've probably gone through at least 2 check runs.

I don't know what employee standards are, but you should have gotten your complete payout in 10 days from the time that you walked out the door.

While engaging a lawyer over less then $2000.00 isn't a great thing, you could at least threaten to escalate things on your own side, just don't mention shooting the place up.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The fact that you left on July 6th and its now August 14th means that they've probably gone through at least 2 check runs.

OP was not clear how many days it had been since expenses were submitted, I assumed 8 days.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

OP was not clear how many days it had been since expenses were submitted, I assumed 8 days.

Yes, I was. I said that I left on July 6th, and that my expenses had been submitted beforehand.

Anyway, I called them again, and they said the payment had been released but that would take 2-3 business days to show up in my account.

To be continued... Thanks everyone!

[Finger Cookin]

Glad you got reimbursed finally.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by peter12

Yes, I was. I said that I left on July 6th, and that my expenses had been submitted beforehand.

Please show me...you typed "I left" multiple times without indicating what you left (if you were leaving the company, leaving work for the day, leaving work permanently, or left for your business trip).

In fact, you typed "I left" again in your rebuttal.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

Please show me...you typed "I left" multiple times without indicating what you left (if you were leaving the company, leaving work for the day, leaving work permanently, or left for your business trip).

In fact, you typed "I left" again in your rebuttal.

I thought this was pretty clear:

I was recently an employee of a large EPC. I left on July 6.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by rd_aaron

I thought this was pretty clear:

Considering the subject was expenses on business trips, it was not that clear.

Clear would have been:

"I submitted expenses July 6 and still have not received a cheque, even with several phones calls."

If it was clear, there would not have been confusion.

[Yellefan]

Originally Posted by peter12

Dear CP Brain Trust,

I was recently an employee of a large EPC. I left on July 6. Previous to that, I was a field supervisor, working long hours away from home, and paying expenses with a company credit card. In the month before I left, the company online expense system went down a few times, and I was forced to use my personal credit card to pay for hotels, per diems for a day or two. Given the scope of work, this amounted to over $1600. Before I left, I got the expenses approved by a superviser, filed my expenses, and scanned my receipts.

It is typical company policy to place a hold on employee expenses. I was told that period was a standard 7 business days. At this point, I have not received my payment, and it is well passed the 7 day period. This is a large company, with mainly global interests, and this isn't a cash flow problem.

I place a daily call to the expenses department, and I keep being told that the payment would come through today - the mid month cheque run- but obviously, it hasn't.

Do I have any recourse? Resources?

I work for this same company and once waited 4 months for them to reimburse me. Good luck to you, just keep harrassing them is all I can say, you will eventually get your money, but it's still unacceptable that it has to be that hard.

[peter12]

Just a quick update. I was told last Thursday that my payment had been released to my bank, and that after 2-3 business days, it would show up in my account. Well, today was D-day, and lo-and-behold, no money in my account.

I called the customer service line for the expense service, and was fed the SAME LINE of BS that I was fed last week. Word for word. Expense will be released on Friday, and I will see my payment next Wednesday. I then asked to be sent a screenshot showing that these payments had been released. They huffily agreed, took my email down, and now I am sitting, starting at an empty inbox.

Unreal. Nigerian scam artists have more integrity than this particular major North American corporate giant, which likes to call itself an ethical industry leader.

[Finger Cookin]

Ugh, that sucks. I'd wager almost anything at this point that the payment release is completely out of the control of the expense department/AP department at this point. Maybe your supervisor approved some expenses they shouldn't have, maybe some finance executive is sitting on it for some reason.

Regardless of any of that, you sure don't deserve to be left hanging for this long. If you haven't already escalated past the front line folks to a manager or finance executive, I would start doing that.

Good luck.

[AMG_G]

Originally Posted by peter12

Just a quick update. I was told last Thursday that my payment had been released to my bank, and that after 2-3 business days, it would show up in my account. Well, today was D-day, and lo-and-behold, no money in my account.

I called the customer service line for the expense service, and was fed the SAME LINE of BS that I was fed last week. Word for word. Expense will be released on Friday, and I will see my payment next Wednesday. I then asked to be sent a screenshot showing that these payments had been released. They huffily agreed, took my email down, and now I am sitting, starting at an empty inbox.

Unreal. Nigerian scam artists have more integrity than this particular major North American corporate giant, which likes to call itself an ethical industry leader.

Have you tried http://work.alberta.ca/employment-st...complaint.html