You Expensed What?

Years ago, when I first was taught how to fill out an expense account, I was probably more hesitant to write something off than I should have been and thus, probably spent more of my own money than necessary.

In fact, the only thing I can remember being kicked back by the accounts payable department was a $7.95 box of cold tablets I desperately needed once in New Orleans - fighting galactic congestion while navigating a conference in a city that at the time was hovering at 97 degrees with 90 percent humidity.

Upon my return I discovered one of the women in the classified section of the company had been fired for attempting – I kid you not – to write off a fur coat as an expense. Another employee, a group publisher, submitted a receipt for a $1,000 dinner – allegedly with business contacts. Only he was far from discreet and a colleague had spotted him at the restaurant in question with a woman other than his wife.

I harken back to those halcyon days of seeing what you could and could not get away with when I saw the results of a recent survey that concluded business travel fraud is costing U.S. businesses nearly $2 billion a year.

Meanwhile, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners expense reimbursement fraud makes up 17 percent of all business fraud.

The poll of some 1,000 businesses by expense and invoice software publisher Chrome River Technologies it found that found that travel expense fraud is typically perpetrated by younger employees, with 82.9 percent committed by workers under the age of 44.

Managers and white-collar, non-managerial staff are more likely to commit expense fraud. Among the survey respondents, 58.1 percent of those who said they cheated were mid-level employees, while vice presidents and senior vice presidents had the lowest fraud rate at a combined 6.2 percent.

Just over 30 percent of those who admitted to expense fraud reported “padding” each expense report anywhere from $100 to $500, with men misreporting totals at the rate of nearly four times that of women.

To my surprise, nearly three quarters of the survey respondents said a warning was the most serious consequence they suffered.

And to think I got a sarcastic note from the accounts payable folks for my kicked back medical expense while in the Big Easy.

Thank God the last thing I needed down there at the time was a fur coat.