Reimbursements
Sorry - I know there are a lot of discussions on reimbursements, but I can´t find the answer to my question..
I travel a lot for work, like a LOT. I foot several of the bills for food/hotel/taxi etc on my credit card and have it reimbursed, but I can also ask for an up-front payment equal-ish to my costs so I don´t have to put it all on credit - and then sort it all out after the travel when I have all my receipts. (plane tickets are paid for directly from my employer, thankfully)
I get a per diem for food + some extra for each . In the long run, I should end up with a surplus in the reimbursements since I rarely spend the full per diem. Soooo.
How would I go ahead budgeting this in order to see what the surplus is, so that I could spend it on Fun Stuff?!
So far I figured out the following:
WORK TRAVEL (main category)
* reimbursement
* hotel
* food
*taxi/bus
*etc...
Whenever I get reimbursed - if it´s BEFORE the travel, I put it as a negative figure in the "reimbursement" category. As the costs come along, I reduce the reimbursement with the cost and reallocate it to hotel/food/whatever.
If the reimbursement is AFTER the travel - since I put all costs on travel on the credit card anyway, I first put the reimbursement in the "reimbursement" category (in negative, as income) and then reallocate it to the other categories as per what is necessary to pay off the credit card.
In a sense I´m creating a separate TBB under my WORK TRAVEL category, separate from the "real" TBB, as this category has it´s own transactions in and out, never to be touched by my normal day to day budget. And anything left over when I´m done reallocating should add up nicely to a little savings post that at some point I can use on something utterly irresponsible. Is my plan
Will this work? Does my explanation make sense? Am I overthinking it? Is there another more ... intuitive way to do this? Will I get mixed up in the reimbursements not reallocated yet vs what I think is left over in the category (aka to spend on Fun Stuff)?
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The "pre-imbursement" is income. I would record it as income and budget it into one or more WORK TRAVEL categories. Whatever is left in the per diem category after the trip is yours to transfer to another category, and the rest has to be repaid, right? I'm not sure why you're ever entering a negative number.
If it's a true reimbursement (after the trip), here's how to handle it:
https://docs.youneedabudget.com/article/183-reimbursements
Finally, do you need to break your work travel spending down into that many categories? Unless your employer wants to see the breakdown (rather than just the receipts) or you find it genuinely useful for reducing spending on future trips to see how much you paid on food vs fuel, I'd just make it two categories: Per diem and Non-per diem.
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mamster Thanks for the link to the Reimbursement page.
I still have a question: in August I had an unexpected medical bill of 1000 EUR. I paid it with my credit card and filled the category Medical with bits and pieces from other saving goals. The money is ready for the credit card to be paid mid September.
I will be reimbursed 80% of the cost by my medical insurance cy and that 800 EUR should come in some time in September (probably after the credit card has been paid). I will use that money to fill up the savings categories I plundered for the unexpected cost, so my savings goals are back up to date.
Question: at the end of year I want to know how much I really spent on medical. The 1000 EUR will appear as a real cost, I think. So, how can I enter the reimbursement so that my annual report will show the real cost of 200 EUR?
Thanks very much for any feedback.
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Greet Puttaert Easy! Just make sure the reimbursement is categorized as Medical, not Inflow: To Be Budget or any other category. Then move money from the Medical category to the other categories you need to replenish.
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mamster I´m entering it as a negative number because it´s income to the system - but not in the TBB. That´s the only way I´ve found to keep it an income rather than spending money. But you´re right maybe I could put it into the TBB and then budget it straight into the reimbursement category from there... but that´s where I´m a bit stymied by having partially covered some cost, but not yet all cost - I will get partial pre-imbursement, and then the full reimbursement is after the trip...
Thank for the link, I´ll look into that!
As for the many categories I do like to categorise it like this because taxi+hotel for example is a fixed cost where I will get 100% reimbursed. Whereas any food cost, I get approx 75 $ a day and whatever I don´t eat is MINE. Or if I spend more I have to make sure to find the money elsewhere in my budget. I also get approx 50$ a day just as an extra cost, and I want to see how I spend that. I don´t want to mix it in with my every day budget. I guess your per diem/non per diem is the answer to this!
Also, sometimes I ´ll have only a taxi bill, or only food cost - and I want to make sure I keep track of it... -
Ah, I figured out what I did wrong with the minus. Then your comment about TBB makes a lot more sense. Thanx!
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