Team lunch and expense predicament

Our team get-together was a lot of fun. We spent over three hours eating, drink, and chatting on a hot, humid day on a shaded patio. Eventually, the humidity dropped a bit and it was more comfortable.

The good news is that my corporate credit card worked to pay for our outing, which was nearly $400 

CAD. The downside is that my manager shouldn't have asked me to expense this meal. There's a corporate rule that if the manager is a part of a group activity that needs to be expensed, he needs to file it, and not someone on his team whom he manages.

It opens quite the can of worms to get my money. He doesn't like using e-transfer. I don't want to meet him somewhere to get the funds in cash, hit a bank machine, and deposit them. Ugh.

Anyway, we'll see how diligent the expense folks are in figuring out my expense report.

Team lunch and a budget

In a couple of days, I am having a team lunch. I haven't seen many of these folks in person in 1.5 years.

I look forward to seeing most of them. There are a few people that I could do without, but you can't win 'em all!

I had a one-on-one online meeting with my manager yesterday. He asked if I could pay for our entire meal. It was an odd way to make a request without my follow-up question. I asked whether I was to expense it, too. Yes.

Here's where I put my foot down. I don't think it should be my responsibility to put the charge on my personal credit card. Frankly, my manager doesn't have a backbone to charge and expense things himself because it goes to his manager for approval. He'd rather hide that fact and have me do it. I have a budget. This request was unplanned in said budget. I'm not dipping into my emergency fund. It's not an emergency.

I suggested charging it to my corporate credit card. He indicated that he went out with his management team and two people had their corporate credit cards declined.

My thought is that there is a limit for charging expenses on this card for restaurants. I called the credit card company to ask what limit was established. I had to answer eight questions, with some of them being ridiculous, to get an answer to check with my plan administrator.

Not helpful. I tore a strip off this guy. He said that he asks many customers for a verification ID and none of them know what that is. Neither did I. So, why not get rid of that question?

Asking for my work phone number is also ridiculous. I don't call myself. It's a virtual number. Why not ask for my cell phone number first?

Finally, asking for my employee number, when I feel that providing my name, date of birth with the year, my cell phone number, and mailing address are sufficient to verify that I am who I am for a single question about my account. I do not want an interrogation when I call. Posing eight questions is excessive.

Anyway, I had to open a ticket at work to ask what my limit was on restaurant transactions on this corporate credit card. We'll see if I get an answer later on today.

It's painful trying to get an answer to what I believe is a straightforward answer. Things shouldn't be so complicated.

Eating my way through Friday and getting soaked in a downpour

I ate my way through Friday. Needless to say, I am pretty full right now!

At work, we have a special lunch at the beginning of each month. Those who have birthdays during that month get lunch paid for by the company. I end up expensing these lunches, although I have trained another writer to help me out.

We went to an East Indian restaurant. The food was good. However, it was strange that we all had to dip into a small, communal salad. It was definitely a different experience.

What I didn't like was that the server showed me an itemized list of what we had ordered on her iPad mini, which was the list of items that I would ultimately expense. However, when she printed out this itemized list, a gratuity was added. I noticed this after I had paid for our meals and included a tip. I ended up double-tipping. Ugh! So much for disclosing this detail...

After work, I decided to take part in a local ribfest. I haven't been for several years. It has changed venues. I got a ribs and chicken combo, with cornbread and baked beans as sides.

Unfortunately, I got caught in a downpour of rain. It was to the point where I had to take shelter in a restaurant. My entire front-facing self was soaked in rain. The backside of me was completely dry!

So, I waited in the lobby of this restaurant (I don't know what the name is, but I must thank the place for housing me and others) for forty minutes. I was going to eat my dinner at home. However, all this waiting made me hungry. It was a first for me to eat food that was not offered in the restaurant in said restaurant's lobby.

The food was delicious. When I noticed that the rain was easing and the sun was starting to break out, I headed out to my car. I was parked a couple of huge blocks away. I had to walk through a flooded part of the parking lot. Oh, joy!

There is never a dull moment in my life, especially when it comes to eating yummy food.

Opposites attract to a certain degree - expenses and timesheets

My guy and I get along because we are similar. There are a few exceptions, though. One of them is doing expense reports.

I am diligent when it comes to completing expense reports. I just want to get them over with, get my money back, and move on.

Then, there's my guy. 

Yesterday, he told me that he has four trips to expense. He spent some of his evening completing two of them.

"I hate doing expenses. I have to find all my receipts and enter them all," he complained.
"I don't mind helping you, provided that your money gets deposited directly into my bank account," I stipulated.

He chuckled. We are complete opposites when it comes to expenses. 

Similarly, when it comes to logging our time in our corporate timesheet application, I do mine every Monday and I don't have to think about it for the rest of the workweek. My guy forgets about doing his timesheet all the time, often getting warnings that he needs to do it after a month has elapsed.

He's sweet. I love who he is.