Reply to: Hotel costs

[vwdan]

Isn’t this obvious when suppose I am based in London and Client wants me to travel to Frankfurt for 2 days / week?

Maybe he'll feel differently now he's had a few years to mull it over.

[TechRiskPartners]

Firstly I'd be delighted that the client are paying expenses on top of the day rate, which is always a bonus.

Isn’t this obvious when suppose I am based in London and Client wants me to travel to Frankfurt for 2 days / week?


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[radish2008]

Ask your accountant but in my case its expenses + VAT as most of my expenses are overseas taxi fares...

Yeah you're right - it was plus VAT on both

[Himitsu]

Just a quicky, make sure it's within clients own policy for amount per night etc

good point, thanks.

thank you all for you input

[eek]

So if you do this and submit an expenses claim from them do you put the expense amount plus vat on their expenses system or just on your invoice ?

Ask your accountant but in my case its expenses + VAT as most of my expenses are overseas taxi fares...

[tarbera]

I've since received an additional document from the client which makes it much clearer.

Expenses to be authorised by the appropriate project manager, once authorised the claim is to be submitted to the agent which is to be paid as soon as practical.

Just a quicky, make sure it's within clients own policy for amount per night etc

[radish2008]

I'm following that exact same policy at the moment and use a personal credit card for any expenses. My company than pays me the expenses to pay the credit card bill off and invoices the customer...

If your company nor yourself hasn't got any money to pay the credit card bill just swallow the cost of a month or 2 of interest until your expenses are paid...

So if you do this and submit an expenses claim from them do you put the expense amount plus vat on their expenses system or just on your invoice ?

[Himitsu]

I've since received an additional document from the client which makes it much clearer.

Expenses to be authorised by the appropriate project manager, once authorised the claim is to be submitted to the agent which is to be paid as soon as practical.

[eek]

But in real world client will expect you to use their employee travel claims process - not via the agent

Or might just be my last 7 contracts and I've been unlucky

Surely that depends on your client I have a very different and far more convoluted process than employees

Yes I do use the same travel booking system as employees but that’s for tracking purposes - not so important in Europe rather useful if elsewhere everything else is a different far more annoying process (in triplicate) while permies have a new one point entry tool

[tarbera]

I thought i'd submitted a reply. i'll try again but sorry If its a duplicate.

thank you for the replies, I do appreciate it.

wrt visas etc. I am UK born and bred, the contract may require from time to time travel within the EU, USA and Japan.

I'll be setting up a cashplus account with a pre load credit card so I could use this or I could use a personal credit card. which would be the preferred method?

also interesting point bought up by northernladuk, I should submit the expense claim to my agent and not the end client correct? I'll be using free agent so I could raise an invoice upon my return and submit to them.

But in real world client will expect you to use their employee travel claims process - not via the agent

Or might just be my last 7 contracts and I've been unlucky

[CatOnMat]

I thought i'd submitted a reply. i'll try again but sorry If its a duplicate.

thank you for the replies, I do appreciate it.

wrt visas etc. I am UK born and bred, the contract may require from time to time travel within the EU, USA and Japan.

I'll be setting up a cashplus account with a pre load credit card so I could use this or I could use a personal credit card. which would be the preferred method?

also interesting point bought up by northernladuk, I should submit the expense claim to my agent and not the end client correct? I'll be using free agent so I could raise an invoice upon my return and submit to them.

When I've done this before I've just itemised the travel as a separate line on the invoice - FreeAgent allows you to tag expenses as "to be re-billed", either at cost or including markup.

[Himitsu]

I thought i'd submitted a reply. i'll try again but sorry If its a duplicate.

thank you for the replies, I do appreciate it.

wrt visas etc. I am UK born and bred, the contract may require from time to time travel within the EU, USA and Japan.

I'll be setting up a cashplus account with a pre load credit card so I could use this or I could use a personal credit card. which would be the preferred method?

also interesting point bought up by northernladuk, I should submit the expense claim to my agent and not the end client correct? I'll be using free agent so I could raise an invoice upon my return and submit to them.

[Himitsu]

duplicate post - see below

[TheFaQQer]

say for example I am required to work overseas for 2 weeks or more a hotel could reasonably cost £100 per night it could be a substantial bill by the end of my stay. how would you normally manage this. as a new ltd. company I wont have any capital for a few months to cover such costs.

Firstly I'd be delighted that the client are paying expenses on top of the day rate, which is always a bonus.

Then (as others have said), I'd get a decent credit card and put the expenses on there.

Finally I'd be looking for short payment terms, especially at the start so that you can build those savings up as quickly as possible.

really my question is is this a normal arrangement? and how would people normally manage this level of expense? would it be reasonable for me to agree to it but also agree that I wouldnt be required to travel for x months to allow me to build some capital?

I don't think it's reasonable to say that you can't travel for a while because of your financial limitations - it's not their concern. Deliver what you're meant to deliver and that'll help build the reserves when you get extended.

[SeanT]

Don't forget hotels.com for accumulating free nights to spend yourself, but make sure you get a tax receipt from the hotel as they won't give you one.