Using client-provided spreadsheet to vet expenses

[zerosum]

American end-client. They now want me to use their spreadsheet to itemise out in $ expenses incurred on a recent trip I took in Europe to do some work for them.

I will still invoice with VAT and have this paid as per normal.

Conflicted on this. On the one hand I'd expect a plumber to run costs and additional expenses by me, but I wouldn't oblige him to do so with a spreadsheet I provided. Any thoughts?

[tractor]

....

American end-client. They now want me to use their spreadsheet to itemise out in $ expenses incurred on a recent trip I took in Europe to do some work for them.

I will still invoice with VAT and have this paid as per normal.

Conflicted on this. On the one hand I'd expect a plumber to run costs and additional expenses by me, but I wouldn't oblige him to do so with a spreadsheet I provided. Any thoughts?

You wouldn't have hundreds of plumbers working for you at the same time. If you did, you wouldn't want to itemise all their bills monthly and put them into your accounts txn by txn. Your client wants to be able to prove due diligence and have a way of automated upload more likely.

This is not unusual except that today, people are more likely to do this type of thing online.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Out of curiosity (you may have omitted something), why are you charging VAT to an American end client? Professional service work to US client would normally be outside the scope of UK VAT.

Using their spreadsheet wouldn't bother me if that's what they want to use to tally up with your invoice - its not really any different to using their timesheet for your time is it?

[zerosum]

Out of curiosity (you may have omitted something), why are you charging VAT to an American end client? Professional service work to US client would normally be outside the scope of UK VAT.

Using their spreadsheet wouldn't bother me if that's what they want to use to tally up with your invoice - its not really any different to using their timesheet for your time is it?

There's an agency in the mix. But it's the American end client that wanted the travel & work done.