-travel & expenses guidelines- -...

-TRAVEL & EXPENSES GUIDELINES-

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Policy Title : Travel & Expenses Guidelines

Who This Applies To : SEA & Australasia

Author : Human Resources Department

Update Schedule :

Date of Update Updated by Details of update Page no.

May 2014 HR & Finance

- Change of claims procedure to Concur system

- Section I : Travel general points - Class of travel - Local Overnight allowance (per-diem) for

ASEAN countries

General 2 6 13

July 2014 HR - Australia mileage rate – introduced AUD0.65/km for employees provided with car allowance

10

Feb 2016 HR - Remove car mileage rates for Company car - Revised Meal rates for India - Revised Lunch rate for UK/Europe - Revised Overnight Allowance for Malaysia,

ASEAN & India

10 9 9 12


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Section I: General

1.1 The basic principle is that, subject to the points below, all reasonable receipted

expenses for business activities actually incurred and signed by the Manager will be

reimbursed. The definition of reasonable expenses is detailed under the Guidelines.

1.2 It is preferred that all AVEVA business related travel and expenses should be settled

with a Corporate Card - American Express Corporate Card (AMEX) or Corporate Card

(VISA/ MASTER) whenever possible. Nominal amounts of currency(ies) are available

upon request. Unused currency(ies) should be returned to the Finance Dept. promptly.

1.3 Entertaining customers should be agreed with your respective Budget Holder or if so

delegated / Head of Function / Vice President in advance. In all cases, receipts and

attendee details (for example, customer’s name, customer’s staff name and

designation, names of other AVEVA staff) must support the claims and approved by

your respective Manager(s) in Concur.

In all cases, if Head of Finance and Head of Human Resources deem the

entertaining expenses are excessive / inappropriate, Head of Finance and

Head of Human Resources reserve the right to refer the said expenditure to

the members of the Executive Team for review.

1.4 Travel related expenses must be reported and claimed monthly via Concur. There are

two (2) types of Travel & Subsistence Report – CARD (AMEX/ VISA/ MASTER) and

CASH. CARD Report is used when you settle travel expenses by Corporate Card;

whereas CASH Report is used when you settle travel expenses by cash advance taken

from Company or by your own cash.

Please ensure your access to Concur is available upon your joining prior to your travel

by contacting your local Accountant and / or HR representative. Your local Accountant

should be able to explain to you in further details about Concur if you have any queries.

1.5 Expenses must be claimed monthly. Original receipts and Corporate Card statement of

accounts (for CARD report) should be attached to support all expenses claimed and

should be numbered for easy reviewing. Unreceipted claims must be commented

in Concur and will only be approved with justifiable reason.

Company reserves the rights to reject any claims for expenses which are more

than 3 months old.

1.6 Corporate Card statement of accounts will be settled by the Company directly.

However, Company reserves the right to deduct from your cash reimbursement or

salary for any expenses which do not comply with the Guidelines. Corporate Card

Statement will be issued to individual employee for reconciling and reporting every

month. It is employees’ responsibility to ensure that Statements are reconciled with

expenses incurred and submitted in Concur.

1.7 Corporate Card shall be used for business expenses only. You are not encouraged to

charge personal expenses to Corporate Card. You are generally not permitted to enrol

in the Corporate Card membership reward programme with the exception at Company’s

request for the purpose as gift contribution in the Company event. If you were to enrol

in the Corporate Card membership reward programme at the Company’s request, you


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are not permitted to make any redemption from the membership reward programme

for personal benefits.

Note that all Corporate Card holders are required to sign an agreement governing use

of Corporate Card with the Company, and allow sharing of such Corporate Card

information as necessary by the Corporate Card Issuer to Concur in the form of credit

card feed (where available). By enabling such credit card transactions to appear in

Concur in the form of credit card feed, it will provide ease of your Card expense

submission.

1.8 If a Manager is satisfied that due to exceptional circumstances, there is no reasonable

mean of staying within the Guidelines, or that a spending although is a big sum, is

reasonable under the circumstances, he / she may authorise the expenses. Manager(s)

should indicate justifications of such exception upon his / her approval in Concur. Head

of Finance and Head of Human Resources reserve the right to enquire further details

from the approving Manager(s) to justify the deviation or refer the instance to members

of the Executive Team if expenditure is deemed excessive.

Note: It is the ultimate responsibility of Managers for cost control of their

offices.

1.9 Unless Company has agreed to pay your petrol, you should not purchase petrol, either

overseas or locally, with your Corporate Card.

1.10 Parking expenses for business travel shall be made at the most economical possible

way.

1.11 Reimbursement

Expense cutoff date is 25th of each month. Reimbursement for expense claims will be

made after the final review and approval by Head of Finance, if necessary. The timing

for reimbursement varies depending on the timing the Finance Dept. receives your

“Complete Expense Report”. A “Complete Expense Report” is comprised of Concur

Detailed Report, Original Receipts / Bills / Invoices / Mileage Report (Appendix B-1)

and Corporate Card Statement (for CARD report only). Generally, reimbursement will

be made one month in arrear together with your following month salary provided that

your Manager has approved your CASH Report before 27th of the same month in

Concur and your Complete Expense Report are submitted to the Finance Dept. no later

than the second last day of the month.

1.12 For local / domestic travels, you will be required to follow local guidelines if applicable.

1.13 Travel

Planning

All travel plans should be discussed and approved by your manager before contacting

your travel coordinator.

Planning ahead is important to make sure appropriate and cost effective arrangements

can be booked. Short notice arrangements, changes or cancellations are time

consuming and costly. These should be avoided.


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All international travel arrangements (whatever transport is used) and all domestic

flights should be made through the travel coordinator who will advise you of any known

risks in travelling to your requested destination including potential delays or political

unrest. It may also be important to understand local rules, customs and traditions

regarding dress or behaviours.

Travelers should consult as necessary to ensure they have the following:

A valid passport to cover the outward and return journey;

The necessary visa or work permit required for the destination country;

The appropriate inoculations in good time;

Appropriate details of travel and medical insurance;

Check and obtain local currency (in addition to a Company Credit card if you have one).

Safety

If you are travelling alone make sure someone is aware of your arrangements and has

the details of where you are staying. This could be a colleague and/or family member.

Confirm your safe arrival and keep them informed.

Make sure connecting journeys are arranged and you have the details of someone to

contact in your destination country. Also that you have the details of the Company’s

insurers emergency contacts in the event of illness or injury.

Wellbeing

When travelling on Company business it is important that you look after your health

and wellbeing whilst travelling and during the visit.

This includes allowing sufficient rest periods between flights and allowing recovery time

from possible jet lag.

Time off in lieu

There is no automatic entitlement to days off in lieu for time away from home. If an

individual has had substantial time away from home (e.g. weekends away), then

he/she may be reimbursed as time off in lieu. This will be dealt with on an individual

basis initially with the line manager and HR. Extended day trips or individual overnight

trips would not normally constitute substantial time away.

Recovery Time

Managers have the discretion to allow a small amount (1 or 2 days maximum) of time

off for recovery where particularly arduous visits have been undertaken and the visit

has been more than 10 days. This should be taken within 5 days of the return to your

country of origination.


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Section II: Guidelines

1. Meals & Beverages

1.1 AVEVA Offices

Company will not normally reimburse you for your daily meal & beverages costs while

working at your base office.

You will be entitled to claim meal & beverages costs when you are on business trip

either in your base country or in overseas or for occasional business lunch meetings. All

claims must be on reimbursement and receipted basis; no cash allowance will be given

in lieu of receipted reimbursement.

Please refer to Appendix A for reasonable meal & beverages costs applicable to

frequently visited countries of AVEVA Asia Pacific. You are expected to spend within the

Guidelines.

1.2 Rest of the World

Changing rates of currency and cost of living mean that it is impossible to set

comprehensive guidelines to cover meal & beverages costs for the rest of the world.

Employees are expected to exercise responsibility in spending money on meals in places

not covered by Appendix A.

1.3 Overtime Dinner Allowance/Claim

As Company has already taken into consideration your responsibilities and workload,

including overtime allowance, when formulating your remuneration package, you are

not entitled to any overtime dinner allowance/claims.

2. Travel

In all cases, only genuine business travel will be paid for or reimbursed by the

Company.

When checking in on-line with low cost carriers, booking of speedy boarding is not

permitted, only in exceptional circumstances as agreed by the Travel Coordinator. This

may be purchased at your own expenses only.

Where a fee is payable for Fast Track Security at airports, this is not permitted except

in circumstances where, through no fault of the traveler, there is a possibility that you

will miss your flight without using it.

The Company will pay for new issuance or renewal of passports, visa or entry permit

fees for business travelers.

All internal meetings should be organised using the AVEVA conferencing facilities, e.g.

Video Conferencing (VC), WebEx, and Cisco Jabber wherever possible from a cost point

of view and a saving in the time and pressure on yourself in terms of time away from

home.


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2.1 Air Travel

2.1.1 Class of Travel

The Company will normally book air travel at the lowest appropriate and available fare

irrespective of airlines. Employee held loyalty cards or points savers will not be taken

into account when selected the most appropriate airline.

All flights will be booked on Economy rates except for single leg long haul flights of over

9 hours. In these cases the premium economy or if an airline offers a comparable or

better cost to premium economy; business class travel will be booked.

You are advised to book your travel earliest possible to secure the flight seat of your

preferred timing. Failing which the Company will book the flight at the lowest available

appropriate class of travel which may not suit your preference.

Upgrades or changes to flights should not be made at the airport using corporate credit

cards – the Company reserves the right to refuse payment of such claimed expenses.

2.1.2 Booking for air tickets & accommodation

Air tickets and hotel accommodation will be paid by the Company directly or settled by

your corporate credit card. Air tickets and accommodation must be booked by the

following authorised personnel / travel coordinators:

Malaysia office – PohYoke Chong / Siti Maryam / Nurulain Zainal

Australia office – Kelly Fiala

Singapore office – Jeanie Ng

Request for air tickets and hotel accommodation sent to the travel coordinators must be

copied to your Manager. The travel coordinators are responsible for obtaining the best

possible rates for air travel & accommodation. If you have any queries on the list of

approved corporate hotels or the approved hotel rates in certain countries, please

consult the respective local travel coordinator.

Please be courteous in your dealings with the travel coordinator. They are not

authorised to give exceptional treatment. All employees will be treated fairly and

equally according to the Guidelines. Please consult Head of Human Resources / Head of

Finance if exception is required due to special circumstances.

2.2 Ground Travel

Employees are expected to use the most cost effective method of ground travel for all

business purpose trips (i.e. to and from airport, customer’s sites and hotel / location

where business related activities such as meetings, trainings and conferences take

place). Mileage rates and car park fees will be taken into consideration.

Transfers should be coordinated with fellow AVEVA colleagues wherever feasible and

public transport utilised where a good service exists.

Unless the circumstances do not allow for the use of public transport to the airport, you

should avoid using your private car or company car to go to the airport when going for

overseas business trip as parking fee at the airport could be very costly.


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Car rentals for business travel must be authorised by the respective Budget Holder or if

so delegated / Head of Function / Vice President. Car rentals will not normally be

authorised for employees with a company car or receiving car allowance.

If you are authorised to have a rental car, always check the petrol content and return it

with the same level, as the Company will not be responsible for any refuelling bills.

2.3 Car mileage rates (See Appendix B)

Every employee who declares business mileage must keep accurate Mileage Records

(Please refer to Appendix B-1). Mileage Records should never include rounded mileage

claims and adequate descriptive details should be provided to justify the business

nature of all journeys. These records must be produced and approved by your Manager

on a monthly basis as part of “Complete Expense Report” mentioned in clause 1.12 to

be submitted to the Finance department for record keeping.

2.4 Travel between home and office

Travel between home and office is not considered as business travel and hence, you will

not be allowed to claim for any transportation costs incurred (bus / train / taxi fares,

petrol or mileage) for daily trips to / from office unless it is the statutory rights of the

employee under local labour laws.

3. Hotel/Bills

Domestic / Overseas - Up to Four Star/Moderate rating.

Acceptable expenses on hotel bills:

Laundry for stays of 3 days or more

Meals

Bottled water or soft drink

Telephone and telex for business purpose

Tipping – Tipping should be avoided / minimised and is not required at all in Japan and

Korea.

4. Expenditure not Claimable

The employee should cover all other personal expenditure, for example, but not limited

to, the following:

Personal items

Laundry other than the allowed laundry as per Clause 3 above

Use of hotel pay-video facilities, health clubs etc.

Non-business travel

Newspapers/magazines

Personal or Weekend entertainment

Alcoholic drinks (in excess of one with your dinner)

Mini bars (except soft drink and bottled water)

Any fines incurred whilst on company business trip, e.g. travelling without a

valid ticket, illegal parking, speeding, drink-driving and other traffic offences are

payable by the employee.


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5. Company Mobile Phone/Blackberry

Due to job requirements, an employee may be provided with a company mobile phone /

Blackberry. Company mobile phone / Blackberry is provided for business purpose and

employee is expected to exercise responsibility when using company mobile phone

especially roaming in certain countries could be very costly. Personal calls should be

minimised. Company mobile phone / Blackberry must be switched on and carried with

the employee at all reasonable times.

For mobile phone / Blackberry user from Malaysia that travels extensively, the

employee is advised to sign up for Bridge DataRoam Unlimited package (you can use

the *100# short code to sign up the data roaming package when you travel outside of

Malaysia) either before or after you land in the destination. This allows unlimited data

usage based on the numbers of days you signed up for, for a fixed fee. The limitation

is that you will have to switch to the specific network provider while overseas roaming.

It is the ultimate responsibility of the employee to keep the overseas roaming charges

down – for both voice and data calls. Please enquire the local IT administrator for

details on procedure to minimise the overseas roaming cost.

Finance Dept. reserves the right to reject excessive non-business telephone call

charges.

6. Per-diem Allowance / Over-night Allowance

Per-diem Allowance or Over-night Allowance is payable towards personal expenses

while on business travelling away from home. It should be claimed with your Expense

Report.

Per-Diem Allowance is calculated at the prescribed rates (See Appendix C) based on

the number of nights staying away from home (including overnight flight).

7. Entertaining

When entertaining customers or AVEVA staff, you must state the attendee details (for

example, customer staff name and designation, customer company names, names of

other AVEVA staff etc) in Concur. Entertaining clients must be agreed in advance with

your Manager. Please also refer to para. 1.3 of Section I: General.

AVEVA Subsidiaries - While having meals together with employees of other AVEVA

companies on a business trip, AVEVA staff shall as much as possible obtain separate

bills for his / her own meals and drinks and submit expense claim separately to local

Finance Dept. for accounting and tax purpose.


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Appendix A: Meal Rates

You are expected to spend on meals within the following limits:

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snack

Malaysia (MYR)

15.00 40.00 85.00 10.00

Singapore (SGD)

15.00 40.00 85.00 10.00

Japan (JPY)

2,100

3,000 6,000 800

Korea (KRW)

20,000 30,000 50,000 8,000

Hong Kong (HKD)

80.00 150.00 350.00 40.00

China /Taiwan (USD)

6.00 15.00 30.00 3.00

Other ASEAN countries

(USD)

6.00 15.00 30.00 3.00

India (INR)

500 1,500 2,200 150

UK / Europe (GBP)

10.00 30.00 50.00 4.00

Australasian (AUD)

21.00 38.00 80.00 10.00

* Please note that the cost of living may vary from city to city in certain countries. If you are

unable to stay within the Guidelines due to the changing cost of living, you are expected to

exercise responsibility in your spending.

All claims for meals must be receipted. Foods & beverages at hotels or airports could be more

expensive compared to other locations and the Guidelines may not be applicable. If you have

to dine in these places due to job commitment, please avoid patronising very expensive

restaurants.

The Company will reimburse for one pre and post dinner drink with ½ bottle of house wine

with the meal per person or the equivalent cost if alternative drinks are consume.


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Appendix B: Car Mileage Rates (Per Kilometre)

Type

Malaysia

(MYR)

Singapore

(SGD)

Australasia

(AUD)

Private car

0.8

0.9

0.85

Car Allowance/

Travelling Allowance

0.6

0.7

0.65

Rental car

Car rentals & petrol (receipted); no mileage is allowed

Explanatory Notes:

N1 – When you use your private car for business trip, you can claim mileage at the prescribed

rates, in addition to toll and parking fees (receipted). The prescribed rates cover petrol cost

and maintenance expenses; hence no additional claim for these expenses will be allowed.

N2 – When you use your private car for business trip and you are given car

allowance/travelling allowance every month, your mileage rates will be lower than N1. Other

rules apply as in N1.

Note: It is very important to record your mileage together with detailed description

of the trip in the “Mileage Record” (Please see Appendix B-1) to be submitted as part

of Concur Complete Expense Report.

Exception:

Different rules may be used in certain countries (for example, Australia) in order to comply

with the tax rules. This will be notified separately.


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Appendix B-1: Mileage Records Appendix B-1

AVEVA Asia Pacific Division

Mileage Records

Period covered :

Name :

Office :

Type of Car : Company Car / Private Car / Private with Car Allowance

Vehicle Registration No:

Capacity : C.C.

Date Clients Description of journey Mileage (KM) Mileage Rate/KM Total claim Project Code Activity Code

(A) (B) (A) x (B)

0 <-- Total claim will be reported

in the Expense Report.

Note:

As per Expense Guidelines, Managers of local offices must review and verify the mileage claim of staffs in their offices.

Ground travel of staffs must be authorised by Managers. Pls inform Business Administrators of your travel plans so that they can

update the travel Planner.

Explanations are written in blue. To delete in Your Report.

Please refer to above format in excel here


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Appendix C: Overnight Allowance (Per-Diem) Matrix

Malaysia Singapore Japan Korea China/

Taiwan India Australasia ASEAN Hong

Kong Europe

Local US$

20 20 25 22 20 20 20

Guest US$

24 24 30 26 24 24 24 24 26 26

General rules:

1. As Company will pay for your meals & lodging expenses for your business trips, the

Per-Diem allowance is meant to subsidise partially your personal expenses while away

from home. The rates set are based on the relative cost of living between your home

country and other countries you visited.

2. You are required to submit your Per-Diem claim in the Expense Claims Report every

month (please refer to para. 6 of Section II: Guidelines). Finance Department will verify

your claims based on your travel schedule or confirmation by your Manager. You will be

paid in your home currency.

3. If the Per-Diem allowance is taxable on you by your local tax authorities, you will be

wholly responsible for the tax liabilities.

Definitions:

1. Home country – country in which you are located.

2. Visiting country – country you are visiting for business purpose.

-travel & expenses guidelines- -...

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