Conference 7.286::digital

    I think everyone in our district is using the new cards. We received a
    memo stating we would have to pay and expense the phone bill.
    
    I agree, I don't see how we're saving money. Not only the extra time
    recording this on the expense voucher, DEC is also paying postage on
    each of those individual bills.  $X thousand time 29 cents. Some of us
    also have a charge for each ceck we write, is this being expensed also?
    
    - John

	... I can tell, the reason was so that your manager will be
FORCED to look at your telephone bill once per month, and thus the
"personal" use of THIS company expense is supposed to cease!  I would
guess that the argument about "processing cost" of vouchers may be moot
in this case, since almost everyone who had to use the credit card was
on travel in the first place!

	Personally, I got into something they call "DISA" here in the
Southern States Region, which is an "800" number to allow both commer-
cial long distance access and DTN access from remote sites.  I don't
know if it's nationwide or not, ask your site's telecomm person. DISA
usage is also supposed to be reported, but I don't know if it is on a
cost center report, or separate.

	One more thing concerning phones:

	Our site manager has told the switchboard to stop plugging em-
ployees calling from remote sites into the DTN lines here, as ATT (or
whoever!) is raising "tariff violation" flags to him.  So, either you
have a long distance credit card and have every pertinent DEC office
number at your beck and call, or you have a DISA account #, and use
your old list of DTNs!  :>)

	Frankly, I've found this DISA account very handy, and easy to
use. DTN calls were my main hassle on travel, until DISA!

    
    This new "feature" of billing the employee directly has not been
    implemented everywhere.  We went through the same process awhile back
    in terms of getting new cards, but the billing process is exactly the
    same.
    
    Mike

    I don't see where this encourages your manager to look for personal
    calls on your corporate AT&T card.  Perhaps I misunstand the previous
    method, but I assumed that cc mgr got a monthly report showing the
    detail lines per call (number called, time call was placed, etc, the
    same stuff you see on your personal phone bill), and then a total.  It
    would clearly not make sense to try to use your AT&T card to make a
    personal call using your card, since your cc mgr [presumably] would be
    able to see when the call was made (ie, weekends, holidays) and to
    where.
    
    Under the new method, your expense voucher need only include the total
    page from the AT&T showing the amount you are claiming on the voucher. 
    And that's all petty cash will look for either.  You can literally
    trash the detail pages.  Wouldn't this almost *encourage* people to use
    the card for an occasional personal call?  If your "normal" month of
    AT&T business calls is $50-$60, do you really think there are managers
    out there who will earnestly question an employee if his/her AT&T
    charges go to $55-$65 in a given month?
    
    Disclaimer: I'm clearly not *advocating* this practice, I'm merely
    trying to understand the cost savings, and also understand why this
    apparent temptation has come about.
    
    Jon

    re: things aren't the same all over
    
    Last I heard, our geography (used to be called Mid-Atlantic, now its
    something else, but I don't know the name because I'm part of GSG
    anyway) was using MCI calling cards.
    
    I didn't see the need to get one, as I have my own MCI, AT&T, and Bell
    Atlantic cards.  Submitting a line item on any of those bills seemed to
    me to be the same as submitting a line item on a special Digital card,
    so I never signed up.
    
    re: .6
    
    In _theory_, your Mgr should require line item (call by call)
    accountability for calls made before signing off on the expense.  As
    you noted, any neglect of this practice puts us back to square one as far 
    as costs go.  Obviously, you mileage may vary.
    
    -- Russ

The new system described in .0 is immoral, pure and simple.  Digital should 
pay its own bills upfront.  What most people don't realise is that whenever 
you accept a personal debt on company business Digital effectively becomes an 
unsecured debtor to you (they promise to pay you back, so that's nominally 
an asset).

The real reason for schemes like this has nothing to do with the cost of 
processing expense vouchers.

In the first place, if the real reason is that people are abusing the system, 
them this is a tacit admission that our managers can't manage.  You don't 
cancel worthwhile schemes (like Digital paying its own bills) because a 
minority abuse them - you manage the system better and clamp down on the 
abusers.  But that's not even the real reason.

The real reason is that by the time most people get around to actually 
claiming their expenses (be honest, how many of us do it *immediately*?) and 
they get through the system and are paid - Digital makes a small fortune on 
the interest earned on the aggregate while the money stayed in the bank.

Here in SPR we still have our corporate Telecom cards, but a few months ago we 
started paying for air fares and having to claim them, whereas before, because 
Digital ordered the tickets it knew the cost upfront and paid upfront.  If you 
were going overseas, for example, how would you like to assume several thousand 
dollars of debt before you leave that rightly should already have been paid?  

(Actually, to an extent the system has backfired.  Because we use Amex down 
here, and they demand payment in thirty days, we make sure we get a large 
enough advance to cover the first thirty days, including the air fare.  It's 
still wrong, though, and has caused enormous resentment in the field.  Not 
that management gives a rat's).

    Re .-1
    
    I think you've hit the nail on the head. The scheme is probably brought
    to us by the same bright spark that thought that it was a great idea to
    use the employee population as a source of interest free loans through
    the use of bi-weekly paychecks. At least that one got shot down.
    
    Strikes me that their are far too many people trying to minimize
    expense as against trying to maximize 'Revenue - Expense'.
    
    Is this company really trying to emulate Wang?
    
    Dave

    Like Russ, I work in the old MAA, now SSR.  We do have MCI cards.  A
    lot of people have real problems with dialing all the extra numbers,
    but the theory is that you get a 20% discount on all calls, but you
    have to submit the detail marking off the personal calls.
    
    I don't like this policy at all, but managers clearly ignore the calls
    on the company bill. In Ed. Services, they went over all the phone
    bills with a fine tooth comb.  A 1 performer was once given a verbal
    warning for $200 of personal calls in one month.  (Probably the worst
    management decision I've seen in 15 years at DEC, since she left the
    company, morale broke down, and most of the people left.)  Since then,
    nobody says anything.  
    
    Clearly, the company should pay for all business calls and other
    expenses, but apparently they have admitted that managers don't do
    their jobs.

    	This topic has finally brought me from being a reader to a writer
    in this conference.
    	Being in field support I now have to float my entire LAST MINUTE
    travel to far away places ON MY OWN CREDIT.  My signature and credit
    are now used EVERYWHERE DEC sends me, last minute or known travel.
    
    	Next I'll be asked to supply my own paper, pencils, and computer.
    
    	Oops, I feel the power fading.  I must have forgot to pay for my
    	cube's power this week.................
    
    

    Exactly right.  And, ever had one of those trips where you *did* put
    your expenses in and they didn't come through *quite* quickly
    enough...?  We all know who gets the dirty letters and the red cross on
    the credit rating, don't we... and then you go through the grief of
    trying to get the interest/penalty charge through the system...
    
    I'm still owed about $A400 from my last overseas trip (AMEX used a
    different exchange rate to Digital).  I long ago gave up trying to
    recoup it...

    
    Two years ago we were told to get our own personal credit cards,
    charge business calls, then expense the call at the end of the
    month.  Some people in the office are running $200 a month on 
    their personal cards so this concept is not a new one, especially
    for us.
    
    Ron..

    
    Re .14:
    
    Being a two-year-old concept doesn't make it any less immoral.
    
    I don't have the phone card problem (yet), but I did run into an
    interesting twist on the airline ticket scam.
    
    For last US DECUS, I was made aware of a super-cheap fare to Atlanta,
    but I had to get the tickets well ahead of time. No sweat, I thought,
    I was sufficiently committed to know I was going to use the tickets,
    and DEC would be paying the bill anyway. Imagine my surprise when I got
    an AMEX bill for the tickets, four weeks before I made the trip. Of
    course, the tickets never arrive at my office until a couple of days
    before the trip, so I had nothing to submit as an expense. This caused me
    to make a few phone calls until I convinced someone to send the tickets
    early, and to submit an extra voucher _before_ the trip so I could pay my
    bill on time. Can we see the savings pile up here?
    
    The twist is, at the same time, my travel authorization with a cash
    advance was being processed. Guess what? The advance was processed just
    before the voucher for the tickets, which was then put on hold because
    of the advance.
    
    The day I got back from DECUS, there was a "Dear deadhead" letter from
    AMEX waiting for me.
    
    The lesson I learned: Ignore early bookings for cheap fares, follow the
    "just in time" philosophy resulting in double-to-triple-fares, so I can
    get my credit card paid on time.
    
    Any bean counters listening?
    

    re .15
    Many times I've called AMEX and explained that items on my bill have
    not yet been received - and they make a note and don't expect payment
    til the next billing cycle. In the case you describe, I would have
    tried that before going through the convolutions of having the tickets
    sent early, getting the cash advance early etc.
    
    FWIW
    

What do you folks do if you're max'd out on the plastic ?

Just asking - a non-traveler !

Lloyd

    Presented with the opportunity for significant travel with Digital,
    I insisted on receiving a corporate AMEX card and being placed on
    Travel Letter.  Now the credit I am extended for corporate travel
    reasons goes on my Corporate credit card.  Yes I know I am personally
    liable for it, but like .16 I make sure that charges don't hit before
    I get the service paid for.  That may mean not taking advantage of
    extra super discount tickets, but I have not had twelve weeks notice
    for a business trip yet (BTW, the IRS want to be sure you demonstrate
    your expenses in close proximity to when you take an advance and/or
    incur an expense,  they don't like companies floating people loans
    because they may spend the money.)
    
    Given that I only use my corporate AMEX for corporate business
    purposes, and that I receive the bill 30 days before its due and I
    have Travel Letter to assure that I am reimbursed immediately upon
    receipt of the bill and/or incurring the expense.  It is not I who
    is floating the money to Digital but rather AMEX and the vendors
    from whom I am purchasing services.
    
    As pointed out in a few comments, you can get caught on a long trip
    and or by purchashing something far in advance.  I personnally got
    nailed using my own credit card when I transfered because it took
    weeks to process a transfer advance because the voucher traveled
    via interoffice mail coast to coast three times.  Since then I got
    travel letter and until I get a bill higher than my weekly author-
    ization, it will be Digital floating Digital the loan.
    
    I have the ATT card, but I have not had to use it for awhile so
    I do not know if I will get a bill the next time it is used.  As
    pointed out earlier, I already file an expense voucher each week
    because I have a company car so this charge would only become an
    entry on that weeks' expense voucher.  I tried to argue for monthly
    expense vouchers as it seemed ludicrous to do an expense voucher
    each week to report car usage/travel letter usage.  But the powers
    to be insists on weekly vouchers from plan A car owners and travel
    letter personnel.
    
    I do not have a problem with Digital attempting to get vendors to
    float it an interest free loan.  I am only slightly annoyed that
    my credit and reporting habits have to be altered to accommodate
    this process.  I would be outraged if the corporation did not facili-
    tate my access to credit (via the AMEX card) and to re-imbursement
    (via Travel Letter).  I recognize that personnel review of expenses
    by the individual employee will more rapidly detect fraud by someone
    other than the employee than leaving this function to a corporate
    group.  I doubt that this scheme will lower employee fraud or misuse
    of corporate assets.  If the manager did not review the groups phone
    bills, he surely will not review the individual bills submitted by
    employees.  The removal of a corporate review (if one ever existed)
    might lead to opportunities to increase personal use rather than to
    reduce it, but it is offset by opportunity for each user to verify
    that someone other than the user has not gained access to the ATT
    card number and is using it illegally.
    
    If you can get reimbursed before you have to pay the bill, then you
    are only inconvenienced by the need to report your use of corporate
    funds.  If you can get paid before you have to pay the bill, but
    chose not to by being tardy in your reporting, you are to blame for
    the impact on your credit!  If the reimbursement process prevents
    you from being paid before you have to pay the bill, then you have
    a valid complaint against Digital and should work to change the
    reimbursement process.  If everyone in Digital demands to be on
    Travel Letter and Digital is forced to process hundreds of thousands
    of weekly expense vouchers, accounts payable might decide it is not
    a good idea to force everyone to pay Digital's bills and be reimbursed.
    
    Those advocating shifting Digital's expenses to its employees and
    vendors in order to gain savings from the float would soon be chal-
    lenged by those advocating minimization of expense reporting to save
    money on processing employee re-imbursements and travel letter autho-
    rization requests.
    
    Hows that for a DELTA suggestion!!!
    
    So where is the next place you expect the expense floaters to try for
    a return on assets?
    
    

For those folks like us who travel weekly, we're given Travel Letters 
(as Paul stated in .-1)... the Travel Letter is like a blank check 
with a max amount you can write it for (anywhere from $100 to several 
thousand) as authorized by you CC mgr. When I travel, I make out my 
expense report at the end of the week, write myself a travel letter, 
and I have the money waiting for the bill to arrive.

As for the phone cards, we switched to some new AT&T cards this year 
(called "Software Defined Network" cards) but the bill still goes 
straight to Digital... sounds like a few Regions are experimenting 
with alternate methods.

Arlan

>    pointed out earlier, I already file an expense voucher each week
>    because I have a company car so this charge would only become an
>    entry on that weeks' expense voucher.  I tried to argue for monthly
>    expense vouchers as it seemed ludicrous to do an expense voucher
>    each week to report car usage/travel letter usage.  But the powers
>    to be insists on weekly vouchers from plan A car owners and travel
>    letter personnel.


You might want to go check that one again.  About six months ago, we were 
told that if all we had on a weekly expense was some minor Plan A amount 
(plus or minus), to accumulate three or for weeks of Fleet Forms and then 
consolodate them on one expense voucher, cashing one Traveletter or submitting
one personal check.  I did this for a while with no complaint from Traveletter 
or anyone else.....lately I've been on the road just about every week so it 
hasn't been an issue.

Frank

    re: .20
    
>You might want to go check that one again.  About six months ago, we were 
>told that if all we had on a weekly expense was some minor Plan A amount 
>(plus or minus), to accumulate three or for weeks of Fleet Forms and then 
>consolodate them on one expense voucher, cashing one Traveletter or submitting
>one personal check.  I did this for a while with no complaint from Traveletter 
>or anyone else.....lately I've been on the road just about every week so it 
>hasn't been an issue.
    
    Well, the situation which has been HAMMERED at us in our district is:
    
    Expenses are to be done WEEKLY.  Expense forms should be filed no later
    than the following Friday.  Falling more than two weeks behind in
    expenses is not in the best interest of Digital or you (read: repeated
    tardiness in expenses _WILL_ show up in your performance appraisal;  
    I know...).
    
    Falling a month behind will cause your name to appear on "THE LIST". 
    Falling two months behind may cause your Travelletter to be recalled
    and you will incur the wrath of those high enough to do you ill.
    
    In short: don't try it without permission.  In some areas, at least,
    it can have adverse effects upon your career.
    
    -- Russ

    
    Several items:
    
    1. I'd never be in a job that requires Travel without Travel Letter. It
       was designed to solve the problems everyone is complaining about.
       Talk to you CC mgr about it.
    
    2. I was part of the organization in the MAA (in a different group but
       I was still close enough to know something about it) that made the
       decision to move to phone credit cards that billed to the home. It
       wasn't a high-level bean counter decision - it was a local down-home
       not enough resources to handle it type decison. They were receiving
       many feet high stacks of bills (just for one area!) from AT&T that took
       over a month to process and charge back to the correct CCs. They
       just couldn't keep up and with the headcount cuts they were forced
       to do something. I know what you're all gonna say - one extra
       WC2 body (or temp) is cheaper than 10 minutes of 2,000 peoples
       time. I don't disagree - I just know people don't think that way
       when it comes to overhead bodies.
    
       I believe the SDN cards will be using a EDI type of data exchange
       which will make it much less manpower intensive. 
    
       Another reason for the decision was to make the user aware of what
       his charges were, not the manager. I know I'm inclined to spend more
       when I never see the bill, no matter whose paying. I had to use a
       non-800 service number for dial-in use for several months and was
       amazed to see my usage in the $100s ($200+) instead of the below $100 
       I thought it would be. 
    
    3. Why *shouldn't* someone be warned about using $200 worth of the
       company's money for personal use? I'm refer to the 1 performer that
       got a verbal warning about a large personal phone charge. Seems like
       the right decision to me! 
    
    -Ray

Just a follow-up to the weekly vs monthly expense reports... it's 
purely a local issue... our DM will NOT sign expenses more than 2 
weeks overdue... period. Other CC mgrs may have other policies.

Your DM may not like signing expenses over two weeks old - but Digital is 
legally obliged to repay legitimate expenses regardless.  His attitude is 
potentially quite dangerous for Digital.

    
RE .12 
    
    > Next I'll be asked to supply my own paper, pencils, and computer.

    You haven't yet been told that because of current conditions Digital
    can not afford to pay for office supplies, business cards and such
    luxeries as jantiorial service?  LUCKY!
    
RE Travel letters in general:
    
    I quit using mine because the limit was about 20-30% of what my
    weekly expenses were.  I know that it has increased since then,
    but I thought there were usually limits based in local policy.
    
RE Enforcing a policy of each employee being personally billed for 
   business phone calls because a few employees exceed reasonable
   limits:   How about the managers of those few employees telling
   them that their phone charges are excessive and letting the rest
   of the company use the most efficient, cost effective procedure
   for billing telephone calls?  No, if that worked, we would 
   probably do something drastic like having the managers of employees
   that consistently stay at overly expensive hotels tell them 
   individually to cut back.  Much better to enforce a blanket 
   policy which has everyone wasting his or her time trying to 
   make hotel reservations through a travel agency that is supposed
   to help enforce our confusing and ever changing travel policies
   yet doesn't know anything about them.  ( sorry for the run on 
   sentence )  We can alway blame it on employees wasting Digital's
   money because of "frequent flier" programs.
   
RE My $5 - $10 telephone bill that I usually incur for one weeks travel.
    
   Bringing this bill to the office, sorting out business versus an
   occasional personal phone call, ( I used to have a personal card,
   but since my Digital MCI card is billed to me I no longer do. ) 
   figuring out the relative cost of the business calls after the 
   discount is applied, filling out an expense voucher just for this
   since the bill arrives weeks after my travel week is just NOT
   worth it.  I just pay the bill myself.  So maybe Digital does
   benefit, but I suspect employee satisfaction suffers a little 
   here.

    Re: .22
    
>    3. Why *shouldn't* someone be warned about using $200 worth of the
>       company's money for personal use? I'm refer to the 1 performer that
>       got a verbal warning about a large personal phone charge. Seems like
>       the right decision to me! 
 
    Perhaps it wasn't clear that a verbal warning is a basically grounds
    for an automatic 4 or 5 rating. It is serious business.  I didn't
    mention that this was definitely a one-time thing, not routine.
    
    Perhaps it wasn't clear that in order to get a 1 it was necessary for
    the woman to work about 20-30 hours of OT per week (perhaps more),
    which was all billable to the cost center at around $50.  Since she
    stopped doing that, the net effect of this was a huge loss to the
    department.  Everyone in the department had to justify all calls
    whether they were on the credit card or on the DTN.  (How many people
    reading this conference have ever seen a bill for their office phone??) 
    So a "word" about excessive calls was considered normal.  If some VP
    stepped out of the Corporate Conference Room around the corner and used
    your phone to call some sales rep with a problem, you got the blame
    because you didn't put the lock on the phone. (Yes, we all had locks
    for our rotary dials.)  And we had to travel (as everyone in Ed.
    Services does), without benefit of credit card or travelletter.  It was
    possible to get a cash advance or expense voucher turned around in
    about 15 minutes, but that didn't help when you had to rent a car in an
    emergency.
    
    At any rate the whole thing turned out bad for everyone.
    
    Ben

    Hey .23 ..... your DM cannot refuse to sign a legitimate expense
    voucher.  He can rant, rave, threaten, sweat, bellow, and generally
    act like a DEC Manager.....but he can place himself in serious
    legal jeopardy by acting like a nine-year-old.   Just leave it with
    his secretary, and don't travel again until he signs it.
    
    So what's the big deal....I've been buying my own office supplies for
    the past six months.  I thought everyone was.

    	Whenever I travel I do all I can to get as many expenses as
    	possible pumped through my DISCOVER card.  Then I cash in on
    	the 1% rebate on all that stuff.
    
    	Joe Oppelt