Expense Policy Benchmarking for meals, alcohol, tipping, and personal car mileage

[Albert-Lee]

Hi everyone,

My company is looking to update their corporate expense policy and wanted to do some benchmarking on meals, alcohol, tipping, and personal car mileage. If you have a minute, can you please fill out the sections below with how your company reimburses for the following expenses? As an example, I filled out how my company currently approaches the following expenses:

Meals: The employee has up to $125 ($25 - breakfast, $25 - lunch, $75 - dinner) to spend on meals per day. This amount also includes drinks, meal tipping, and snacks for that day.

Alcohol: My policy states, "Expensive and excessive alcohol will not be reimbursed.". No concrete limit or dollar amount but we advise our Audit team that employees should not have more than two alcoholic drinks per day. 

Tipping: My policy states, "All tips must be modest when judged by the local standards." No concrete definition or limit on this.

Personal Car Mileage: Will reimburse up to 200 miles one way or 400 miles roundtrip. 

Company: If you feel comfortable disclosing the name of your company. 

Thank you all so much and hopefully this helps other people who are looking to benchmark!

- Albert

[bjoslin]

Hi Albert-Lee

I am also looking for benchmarking as well, but specifically for meals. 

Meals:  Currently our policy is $75 a day (all inclusive) but we are looking to increase to $100 and are interested in what others have as their limit.

Alcohol:  "Reasonable purchase of alcoholic beverages is permitted. At no time will driving under the influence be tolerated" and then we direct them to our drug and alcohol policy. 

Tipping: Ours is tipping should not exceed 20% for meals. We do not talk to any other type of tipping and the reason is because we don't want to increase the amount of tipping being done. We let the managers determine if it is reasonable. 

Personal Car Mileage: We do not have a limit on mileage reimbursement

Thank you for sharing your information. It is helpful. I hope sharing my information with you is helpful.

[melaniebak]

Meals:  Our policy used to be B-$15, L-$20 & D-$35 but since re-writing the policy it is now very general.  My policy states, "Associates are expected to exercise discretion regarding the type and cost of all meals and entertainment, as well as to comply with other policies and the Code of Business Conduct." This amount includes drinks, meal tipping, and snacks for that day.

Alcohol: My policy states, "Alcohol should be consumed in moderation.".

Tipping: My policy states, "Meal tips should be no more than 20% and transportation tips should be no more than 15%"

Personal Car Mileage: We do not have a limit on mileage reimbursement. 

[Matt_Merrell]

Meals:  Our policy is B-$25, L-$50 & D-$100.

Alcohol:  Alcohol should be consumed in moderation

Tipping:   Meal tips should be no more than 20% 

Personal Car Mileage:  No limit on mileage reimbursement.