In most companies, employees sometimes spend personal money for
company purposes.  After this happens, the employee requests a
reimbursement from the company for those expenses.  For example, an
employee takes a prospective customer to lunch, the employee pays for
lunch, and the employee later requests that the company reimburse the
employee the cost of that lunch.

Employees request reimbursement for a wide range of expnses types -
meals, travel, t-shirts for the softball team, retirement gifts, etc.

My question is, what are the most common types of expenses for which
employees typically request reimbursement?

I expect that HR consulting firms or companies selling expense
reimbursement tracking software may have the answer.

I am not looking for anybody's guess, but for survey or study results.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 10 Feb 2004 19:20 PST

I've found a list of ten expenses that are commonly reimbursed, with
the percent of employers who reimburse for each of the items on the
list. The group surveyed was graphic arts sales representatives. Would
this meet your needs?

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 11 Feb 2004 11:41 PST

I've also located a questionnaire which contains a list similar (but
not identical) to the one I mentioned earlier, asking companies
whether or not they reimburse their sales staff for many different
types of expenses.

Since sales personnel are the type of employees who typically receive
the widest spectrum of reimbursements from employers, it is not
surprising that the data I've found focuses on sales representatives.
Obviously, a survey which asked ditchdiggers or farmhands about
reimbursement of expenses would be quite different, possibly
containing no reimbursable expenses whatsoever.

Please let me know whether the sales-related survey (which was derived
from 900 sales rep) and the questionnaire described above would be
adequate to your purposes.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 17 Feb 2004 18:12 PST

I have also found a 24-page document that provides a detailed analysis
of a survey regarding companies' policies on reimbursement of travel
and meal expenses.

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Clarification of Question by brandbuilder-ga on 18 Feb 2004 09:03 PST

Pinkfreund:

Thank you for your work on this.  I think the survey information you
found may be the best we are going to be able to do on this.  Please
provide that.  (The reimbursement policies are not what I am looking
for, but if you include it I'll take a look).

Regards.

Thank you for accepting as your answer the information I've found. 

Here is an excerpt from the 1999-2000 PPIA (Printing Industries of
America) Survey of Sales Compensation, a survey of 500 firms and 900
sales reps:

"Expenses Paid by Company

Almost nine out of 10 firms reported that they pay for some expenses
of their sales representatives. Expenses reimbursed by a majority of
firms include meals with customers (83.2 percent), car phones (63.0
percent), pagers (59.6 percent), and lodging (59.1 percent).

Transportation expenses are covered most commonly by mileage
reimbursement (52.2 percent). A car allowance (39.1 percent) and
company vehicle (24.1 percent) are other options reimbursed by graphic
arts firms in our survey.

Sales Reps' Paid Expenses 
Meals with customers 83.2% 
Car phones 63.0% 
Pagers 59.6% 
Lodging 59.1% 
Gifts for customers 56.4% 
Mileage reimbursement 52.2% 
Social events with customers 47.8% 
Car allowances 39.1% 
Company credit cards 25.7% 
Company vehicles 24.1% 

Graphic Arts Information Network:
http://www.gain.net/PIA_GATF/articles/salescomp.html?print=1&

Here's a questionnaire that lists some typical compensable expenses:

"16. Does your company pay any expenses for sales representatives? 
 If 'yes', check off all types of expenses your company pays: (Mark
and complete all that apply)

Pager  
Meals with customers  
Gifts to customers
Laptop 
Cell Phone
PDA?s (Digital Assistants)
Use of company credit card(s)  
Lodging expenses while on company business
Fax/modem  
Use of company vehicle  
Sporting/social events with customers
Car allowance for use of representative?s own vehicle
 If so, how much allowance per month?
Mileage reimbursement for use of representative's own vehicle
 If so, how much reimbursement per mile? 
Car phone/expense reimbursement/allowance
 If so, what is the average per month? 
If there is a maximum allowance, how much per month? 
Do you reimburse or provide equipment for a home office?"

Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Inc.
http://www.picanet.org/pdfs/PICA%20Survey%20Form.pdf

Here you'll find a lengthy 2002 report on "Expense Reimbursement and
Business Travel Policies" from the Bureau of National Affairs:

Bureau of National Affairs
http://ecommercecenter.bna.com/press/protected/bustravel52002.pdf

These are the most useful items of free online information that I've
seen. Other industry-specific compensation and benefits surveys may be
sought by using the Google search string below. In many cases, such
surveys are offered for a rather hefty fee:

Google Web Search: "compensation and benefits survey"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22compensation+and+benefits+survey

I hope this information will be useful. If anything is unclear, or if
a link does not function, please request clarification; I'll be glad
to offer further assistance before you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

My researcher did a good job of letting me know how the search was
going through the use of the "clarifying questions" option. I suspect
my researcher found what was out there.  I had hoped there would be
more, but such is life :)