I remember my accountant complaining about the travel and gasoline expenses of my sales people when I was still in the trading business. Being a newbie in business, and probably the nature of that business, I failed to lay down clear cut policies about the travel expenditures of my sales people, especially when they are using their personal cars. Besides, I didn’t bother also because I am more concerned about how much sales they are going to deliver. I was wrong. When the accountant presented me a three-month summary, I realized that we are spending unnecessarily. There were no controls. As long as receipts were presented, reimbursements were made.

I learned my lesson the hard way, and I intend not to repeat the same mistake in case my new business reach the stage in the near future.

Outsourcing is the new way of doing business, then I might as well get the services of a Vehicle reimbursement company for that matter. In this area, Corporate Reimbursement Services, Inc. (CRS) would be a good choice. It is a management consulting firm that administers highly flexible and customizable vehicle reimbursement programs for companies with mobile employees, like mine. They have been in the business for quite sometime and surely their expertise will help any business streamline their expenses in travel costs.

Their program calculates a fair, accurate and defensible reimbursement rate for each individual driver that reflects geographic cost variances, territory conditions and the actual number of business miles driven. This means, my accountant or yours will no longer complain about unmonitored travel reimbursement by your mobile employees. It’s fair and convenient. Not only that, it will also relieve you of the muddle some computations of mileages (MPG), maintenance and repairs, insurance, and the cost of gasoline.

It’s business common sense, right?