Talk:Expense policy

Seems ok to me.

The one question not addressed is telephone and internet access expenses.

• Will WMUK provide mobile phones for staff?
• Laptops?
• Hot spot subscriptions?
• What about temporary staff?
• Unpaid interns?
• Volunteers?

--Filceolaire 22:24, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

It is mentioned under Meals & Incidental Expenses. Where office equipment is supplied as part of a package for staff, this is covered by the terms of employment rather than the expenses policy. Other situations (such as reimbursing volunteers for their mobile internet costs) would require advance agreement or be part of planned event costs. Situations such as unpaid interns we have no current experience of, so it seems premature to write the policy for those areas. --Fæ 23:07, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

procedure vs policy

The document is full of rococo detail. It lacks the viewpoint of a policy level document, something simple along the lines that we meet HMRC requirements and Charities Commission guidelines and in addition all expenses must be <a paragraph in line with our values> followed by links to any absolutely necessary special detailed procedure and a default position that when in doubt we probably follow a similar pragmatic approach to the WMF's expenses process. --Fæ 15:15, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

I disagree, I think this has the right level of detail. It is not just a statement of principles, but a working policy. It is good to have things like this down in writing because that way everyone knows where they stand and it's very clear if someone is misappropriating funds by abusing the expenses system (we don't want to end up with our own expenses scandal like the MPs, with people saying "but it wasn't against the rules"). --Tango 21:08, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

I believe that being clear may involve saying less rather than more, it does not mean we have to tip the ocean into the fish-bowl. For example, there seems little point quoting HMRC mileage rates for every variation of personal transport when we can point to HMRC's direct guidance. --Fæ 08:28, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree with Fæ here. I would even go as far that the more extensive the document is, the more people will try to act by its letter (and try to find loopholes) rather than by its spirit. You should not have to account for every single possible abuse in the document, because you are bound to miss many more. Effeietsanders 08:33, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Personally, I want to see all of the information in one place so that we don't end up wasting lots of time pointing to other places (I've wasted a fair amount of my time with university expense claims [normally other people's] as a result of this). Plus, there are some differences with the standard HMRC guidance here, due to our needs (e.g. not having 45p/mile for all car journeys until the 10k miles limit is reached, which would be ridiculous given our situation of lots of volunteers making short journeys rather than a salesman being on the road all the time) The introduction is the place for the higher-level summary, with the detail then given in the section below. Mike Peel 09:25, 19 October 2011 (UTC)