company expenses

[thomas65]

Please can someone advise me of the following:

If a senior manager has signed my expenses as legitimate who is then responsible if someone else thinks they are not legitimate 6 to 12 months after they have been signed?
Is the signatory manager, by signing, saying he believes they are legitimate and then accepts responsibility if they are found to be 'border-line' at a later stage?

Thank you

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I believe that if they are signed as legitimate, this does not exempt them from review or investigation.

Although I do not imply this in your case, imagine if there were some fraudulant claims that came to light several months down the line, that the line manager believed were correct/acceptable, such as entertaining? A business must have recourse, if warranted.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

It depends on what "legitimate" means. For example, they could be legitimately incurred business expenses, but not allowed for tax purposes. Just because the company can't claim them against tax doesn't mean that you've not legitimately incurred them on the company's behalf.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I dont think that is the angle the thomas is coming from!

 

[dunners8021]

I would say the responsibility falls to your line manager, if they have been authorised by him.......

 

[obscure]

This is just my opinion but I would say it depends on if the details provided to the line manager were correct.

If you take a client to dinner and your line manager signs it off then it would be unreasonable for the company to try and change that decision.

However, if you took a "client" out and your line manager signed off the expense and it later turned out that it wasn't a client at all but your wife then the line manager certainly wouldn't be liable.

 

[Birmingham]

if signed by the manager, the manager takes some liability. but not all

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Is there an expenses policy in the company? This should set up the review and authorisation process.