Reply to: Leaving Drinks - Whats the form?

[andyg]

Leaving Drinks - Whats the form?

Something I picked up from a contract at Accenture was to purchase a box of somosa's from the local delhi and let everyone in the team know that they are available. Went down well at RBS when I finished a contract there.

[ASB]

ARen't there different rules for an overseas client - but that probably won't apply here

Yep. I took 3 portugues cliients to the Euro 2004 final. claimed the llost and it went thourgh an aspect enquiry no problem.

If your company is German you used to be able to put bribes down as a taxable expense. Now you have to call it something different.

[expat]

Leaving Drinks - Whats the form?

I never leave drinks.

[hattra]

Client entertainment is specifically NOT a buisness expense and hasn't been so for at least 25 years. It is not deductable for CT purposes nor is the VAT reclaimable.

So yes, if you want to do it you do do it out of your own pocket.

tim

ARen't there different rules for an overseas client - but that probably won't apply here

[Denny]

LOL thanks Denny. You're not scottish are you?

Och noo!

I'm as English as they come and I'm not a tightwad either. I am a realist though, when it comes to business.

ps. pass some business my way that's lucrative enough to give me early retirement, I might......just might.....be persuaded to send you a balloon for your birthday (one I got left over from a Christmas Cracker) plus a recycled birthday card I bought in 1985 that I never got round to posting. I take it you won't be offended when you open it and see the inked out name for the original intended recipient at the top.

pps. once you've given me the gig, please send me a stamp addressed jiffy bag.

[Ruprect]

Blimey. That seems v generous! Which bank are you working for?

[BankingContractor]

Leaving presents

Don't know about you guys, but at my client, when someone leaves, be it a permie or a contractor, everyone has a whipround to buy a pressie for the leaver. They usually get something like an iPOD so its quite a sizeable present.

thought I'd mention it as if you're paying for drinks, you'll probably get most of it back in a pressie, so it all evens itself out anyway.

[Ruprect]

LOL thanks Denny. You're not scottish are you?

[Denny]

All a waste of time, in my view. By all means send a Christmas card and keep in touch but huge amounts of money on drinks on your final day? Forget it. As a thank you fine, but as an investment to generate more business....?

Business these days is built on mutual economic benefit. If you're not the best for the lowest rate it's unlikely to make any difference to whether you are used again. If they genuinely want to use you because they trust and know your work and would rather stick to what they know you'll be phoned up anyway. They're certainly not going to sit at their desks weigh up the pros and cons of two similar contractors with similar skills and say to themselves 'hey I must take on Bob at £500 a day instead of Pete at £350 a day - he bought me a couple of pints on the last day.

Get real.

This type of hospitality approach to generating business is strictly for those at the top of the pile where huge money generating deals are made in the City or the Old Boy Network etc.

My private clients would be lucky to get a cappuccino bought them. More often than not they buy me one.

[BOBJ]

It all depends for me...my last place had an expectation that I would foot a drinks bill for the entire dept, most of whom I never met...so I got them cakes...by the time the sugar rush was over I'd gone. Other places I've bought drinks...I did one contract for 2.5 years, so when I left there I had a series of leaving lunches, drinks, coffees etc. At the end of the day, if you don't like them then stuff them, if you think you might be back or you've actually enjoyed the contract then do something on a sliding scale from starbucks to cakes, lunch, drinks etc.

[meridian]

on a side note ... every friday me and a couple other contractors treat the team to a bacon sandwich comes to about £7 each and definitely helps the "yeah you contractors are all about the $$$ " kind of permie attitude

What about the Muslim/Jewish permies??

[Troll]

on a side note ... every friday me and a couple other contractors treat the team to a bacon sandwich comes to about £7 each and definitely helps the "yeah you contractors are all about the $$$ " kind of permie attitude

I hope you spit in them before delivery

[kramer]

on a side note ... every friday me and a couple other contractors treat the team to a bacon sandwich comes to about £7 each and definitely helps the "yeah you contractors are all about the $$$ " kind of permie attitude

[kramer]

Depending on the size of the team i tend to take them for a pub lunch and a drink.. i have been advised by my accountant that taking your current team out is not expensable..but then i pay far too much for conflicting advise..

[Lockhouse]

Not me

I just leave quietly. I might go out for lunch with a fellow contractor or two in the week before I leave, but I've got nothing to say to the permies on a social level, so why pretend? Onwards and upwards.