How Do I Set Fair Food and Travel Allowances for My Small IT Team?

Expense Policy for Food and Travel Allowance

I am an HR manager in an IT company with 25 employees. I am looking for guidance on setting an expense policy regarding food allowances and traveling expenses.

I want to establish a maximum allowance for one-time dinners. For example, if any employee stays after 9 PM, they will receive a dinner allowance of approximately 200/-. I would like to apply the same expense policy for traveling and for refreshments on-site at the client's location.

If your employees are traveling only for one day within the city, you can give them a budget that covers their travel and food expenses. The amount can be decided by you, as you will know how cheap or expensive your city is.

In case they are traveling out of the city and will stay overnight, you can provide them with hotel room bookings, travel tickets from one city to another, along with per diem and mobile expenses. This can be divided into tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 cities, depending on your company's budget. The amount will be higher if they travel in a tier 1 city, and it will be reduced if they travel in tier 2 or 3 cities.

Hope this helps...

I feel you need to have "Onsite Allowance" rather than "Travel Policy" and "Refreshment Allowance." "Onsite Allowance" is usually given to staff who may have to visit clients apart from their regular office work. I feel here you must cover:

1. **Transportation** - "To-Fro" on actual with supporting bills.
2. **Onsite Allowance** per day basis = approx. Rs. 500/-. This includes all personal expenses like food, tea, coffee, and snacks. This would be paid without any supporting documents.
3. For out-of-city visits like Tier 1, 2, and 3, you will have to draft accordingly.
4. For client "entertainment," it must always be on actual. (Hope you will agree that our employee cannot ask the client to not drink that extra fresh juice because it's over budget. It would be embarrassing.)

I suggest you do your homework on knowing the cost at actuals and add a variable of about 10-15% markup to arrive at a fixed allowance, which you can review over a period of 3 years.

Good Luck,

Regards,
Ukmitra

I agree with you, I want an onsite allowance only. Please, can anyone share with me a draft policy you have made for your company, or if you have any colleagues? I am finding it difficult to document it.

Policy Requirements

Basically, I want a policy:

1. Traveling policy and food allowance policy (from one branch to another branch).
2. On-site allowance (including any incentives, leaves, or daily food).
3. Compensatory off policy.

Please share some draft policies. How should I proceed, and what words are important?