Missing Receipt Affidavit - Allowable Use

[Francesca]

Hello, 

Regarding the Missing Receipt Affidavit, what is the reasonable number of uses do you find acceptable per employee to submit? Do you have limits on the number of times an employee can use the MRA? If so, what is your cap and why? What triggers you to take a closer look at an expense or employee who used the MRA? 

Currently, my organization does not have a limit in place on the number of times the MRA can be used, but looking to see what other organizations do with their MRA, and how we can improve our process. 

Thank you,  

[Munari_alEXPert]

dear @Francesca ,

I am also reluctant to the "affidavit" possibility, however in the last 2 companies I worked for, the maximum amount was equivalent of 250 Euro/CHF/USD per affidavit. In some countries it is required an invoice for above those limits so it would be possible for the employee to call the merchant to have a "new" receipt for the one lost.

There is not possibility, as far as I am aware, to limit on the number of affidavits that could be included in an expense report. But the company can choose to have or not have that functionality in whole. 

Do you have a Corporate credit card set up within your organization?

If so, you could enforce that affidavit are only "accepted" while using the Corporate Card and not above a certain amount (e.g. 250 USD), where the employee could be required to ask the vendor for a copy of the document. With cash transactions you may allow it just up to 10 USD equivalent (as sometimes parking or tolls, are don't provide receipts however still they should accept credit card).

[Francesca]

How did they enforce the limit for the MRA? Manually or through an audit rule? 

[Munari_alEXPert]

dear @Francesca, you can limit the individual value amount of the Affidavit by creating an "expense audit", not the number of affidavit on an expense report. Above certain value limit, which your company can decide, the company can ask to accept ONLY invoice or copy of the receipt which is possible to get back from vendors. You can run a Cognos report including the field if the receipt has an Affidavit, and during your monthly/quarterly financial reports and key metrics, you can highlight who most use this feature and can bring it to the attention of their Head of Department and yours. Even if within your company was unlimited "allowed" I guarantee that employees don't like to be  on the spot or on any lists from the metrics you can decide to  create (high expenses, late submission, n. Missing receipts....). They will understand and adapt to be out of those list in future.

[KevinD]

@Francesca I think it would be difficult to limit the use, but when I train our customers, I tell them that if they want to ensure they always have a receipt (I know there are some extenuating circumstances the prevent getting a receipt), they should immediately take out their phone and take a picture of the receipt. That way they have a copy saved on their phone. Also, I tell them as far as the MRA is concerned that it should be used as an absolute last resort and that it is NOT a replacement for receipts. If I were making a policy, I would probably not allow more than two MRAs on a single report. I would also be sure to monitor employees to see if someone seems to always have an MRA on their reports. These are just my thoughts on the subject. 🙂

[Francesca]

Can an audit rule be created that would give the user a hard stop if they used like say 10 MRA in total for a given calendar year? 

[KevinD · Accepted solution]

@Francesca off the top of my head, I don't believe you can create an audit rule that does an MRA count and looks at a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly total.