Expenses Policy

Guidelines: What should and should not be expensed?

In general, we want a culture of trust, care, and common sense. Treat Good-Loop money with the same care as you treat your own -- being neither stingy nor spendthrift.

Away-from-home expenses

As a rule of thumb, when travelling, expense any costs that you wouldn't incur if the trip wasn't happening. So you'd probably be buying a sandwich at lunch wherever you were but you probably wouldn't normally buy a 6am Leon at the airport.

When you are travelling, again we want a culture of spending sensibly.

• If there's a decent train route from the airport to the hotel and you have light bags then don't get a massive Uber.
• But it's OK to spend a bit extra to travel at a convenient time or have a shorter journey.
• When booking hotels look for the decent-but-no-frills options that get the job done without bringing home bed bugs.

...You get the idea.

Drinks & entertaining

When buying drinks, the company can put in for the first round for clients or for the team but after that, it's less likely to be a 'business meeting' and so should move to personal costs.

Where possible, take the clients for breakfast or light lunch. It's cheaper than a massive round at the bar and everyone will actually remember your conversation the next day!

Work travel

According to HMRC, costs for your normal trip to work, or similar, are not eligible as expenses. At Stuart lives outside of London we cover his extra TFL costs but generally speaking, TFL travel is not eligible. If you incur extra travel costs above and beyond business-as-usual, it's fine to expense this.

£50 monthly clearance

• Everyone is cleared to spend upto £50 per month on things that will benefit the company. However please don't feel you should spend money, and please talk/email about your shopping to avoid double-purchasing, where we discuss something and two of us then buy it.

• For other expenses, always request authorisation first. Email [mailto:finance@good-loop.com Finance] with the subject "#finance Your Name Expenses" with your request and obtain a budget. '''Unapproved expenses might not be repaid.'''

Processing Expenses

1. If you have a company Revolut card please use this & upload VAT receipts for every transaction within the app. It takes just a few moments (more info here).

2. If you don't, then you'll have to use your own card & claim it back via the Xero app. Again, always include a photo of the receipt with a VAT number please.

In both instances, you'll be asked to classify the expense for the accountant. This is important because it decides where on the P&L the cost sits and it also has tax implications.

• Keep the receipt; you will not be re-paid without a receipt, plus we need it for accountancy and to claim the VAT back. ** Is the receipt an email? Great - email [mailto:finance@sodash.com Finance]. ** Is it a paper receipt? Enter it using the Xero app (note: not Xero Expenses) with a photo of the receipt.

• If you submit your expenses by the end of the day on the 16th of the month they will usually be re-paid to you in that month's pay. Any claim submitted after the 16th will usually be paid the following month. Just ask if this is a problem.

• Staff members submit (but do not approve) their own expenses to Xero.

• Expenses will be approved once a month (before payroll) by Amy and Dan Winterstein.

  • Amy will approve expenses for the London team, and for Dan W.
  • Dan W will approve expenses for the Edinburgh team, and for Amy.
  • However, if time is pressing, then either Amy or Dan can approve any expense entry.

• One Accounting can (and please do) authorise for payment all approved expenses as part of payroll.

• Expenses are then repaid as part of payroll.

Classifying Expenses

• Office costs:

  • Computer Equipment
  • Office supplies
  • Printing & stationary

• Travel - please categorise your expenses by:

  • Air travel
  • Train travel
  • Taxi travel
  • Accommodation
  • Subsistence - (eg. dinner whilst travelling)
  • Other travel costs (eg petrol)

• International travel
  Any non-UK expenses will have different tax requirements. So: In Xero - when you are entering expenses, there is a dropdown option to add an 'international' tag. In Revolut - add 'INT' plus the country name into the cost description.

• Entertainment

  • Client entertainment (if one or more client was present)
  • Working lunches (food during meetings, no clients)
  • Staff entertainment (eg. a coffee during one-to-ones)
  • Staff conferences (eg one-off internal events eg the Christmas party)

Please don't classify anything as General Expenses - it just gathers dust on the P&L and we have no idea what's in it. If you're unsure how to classify something just ask finance@good-loop.com.