The economic activities of organizations include a lot of actions, operations, types of communications and other aspects of the daily routine. The organization’s management and its employees are daily faced with the need to address various issues and make management decisions. Some cases cannot be solved while at the workplace, comfortably sitting in an office chair at the computer. There is a need for trips and business trips, negotiations in other cities and even countries. This article discusses in detail the question of the need for a business trip, its goals and examples, design according to the current legislation, documentation requirements, and also features of trips to Russia and abroad. Also in this article will be considered the question of who can be sent on a trip and what should be considered as a business trip.
Business Travel Concept
This concept has a clear definition that is spelled out in labor law. According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a business trip is a direction of an employee on a trip with a specific task. At the same time, the destination is quite far from the main place of work, the trip has a clearly formulated goal, which is prescribed in the documents, and the timing of its implementation is limited. Registration of accompanying documents, reporting at the end of the trip, guarantees for the employee are regulated by labor and tax laws. Possible mission objectives are also spelled out, examples of which are presented below.
Why do you need business trips
When an employee goes on a business trip, management determines for him a clear task that he must complete in his process. The task may relate to various areas of the organization's business. Examples of travel goals include the following:
- conclusion of contractual relations on deliveries or sales with counterparties;
- negotiations on cooperation;
- settlement of disputes, conflicts and other issues relating to the legal side of the activity;
- purchase of equipment, raw materials and supplies;
- business conferences, participation in meetings and exhibitions related to the direction of the company;
- promotion of goods in new markets, expansion of the customer base;
- participation in research projects related to the activities of the company;
- staff development;
- research of sales markets, competing organizations and other marketing issues;
- setting up hardware, software and working with other technical issues in subsidiaries or divisions;
- conducting checks of the branch network and units.
What cannot be considered a business trip
Not every employee trip can be considered a business trip. Making a trip is illegal in the following situations:
- the lack of official registration of an employee in the organization, an employment contract not concluded, no entry in the workbook;
- the employee’s employment contract defines the traveling nature of the work;
- the employee is a freelance employee who does not have a fixed fixed place of work.
Types of travel and their timing
Corporate assignment trips can be classified according to different characteristics. So, on a territorial basis, trips are made across the territory of the Russian Federation and to foreign states.By the terms of the trip, short-term and long-term ones are distinguished. The composition of the travelers - group and single. There may also be scheduled and unscheduled business trips.
To date, the legislation does not have clear guidelines regarding the timing of the trip. There are no minimum or maximum restrictions. The organization’s leadership independently determines the complexity of the task and the time it takes to complete it. Limitations used to exist. It was believed that the maximum duration of the trip could not exceed forty days. In construction, the maximum trip threshold reached a year.
Legal requirements and regulation
For trips issued as business, certain requirements are imposed by the legislation. The trips of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and the Tax Code are regulated. The Labor Code defines the regulations for these work processes in Articles 166, 167, 168. They disclose a number of issues that may arise during the execution of this procedure: what can be considered a business trip, guarantees for an employee, as well as questions about reimbursement of expenses for a trip.
The Tax Code describes information on how to reflect travel expenses in accounting, what can be debited from what amounts are paid to social insurance funds of citizens. There are also separate resolutions containing the most complete information about amendments to legislative acts, innovations in accounting and ensuring the requirements of regulatory bodies. You can find all this information in the following documents: Decrees No. 749, 729, 812, 64.
What is guaranteed to the employee
Guarantees to the employee do not depend on the purpose of the trip; there may be plenty of examples. But with any of them, the employer has some obligations to the employee. The employee who is sent on a business trip is provided with the following guarantees:
- retention of position, workplace, average daily wage;
- payment of days off spent on a business trip with double tariffing;
- reimbursement of expenses that may arise on a business trip to Russia and abroad, including the issuance of a foreign passport, obtaining a visa, customs duties and other fees.
All these guarantees are spelled out in the labor legislation and are subject to mandatory fulfillment by the employer.
Whom to send on a business trip
The choice of the employee sent on a trip depends on the objectives of the trip, examples of the job, its duration and severity of the expected conditions. Various reasons for travel require specific knowledge and skills from an employee.
So, the execution of the supply contract must be entrusted to a person who is savvy in business negotiations and diplomacy. This can be a specialist whose job responsibilities include making purchases, planning and calculating a budget for business relations with suppliers, or a person who can correctly explain his position and achieve optimal conditions in a supply contract.
If the purpose of the trip is to set up equipment or software, for the sent employee is not enough knowledge of office work and the usual human charisma. An official with a technical background is sent on such a trip. The same situation when conducting field audits and audits. An accountant or economist should be sent on such a trip.
Who is forbidden to send on business trips
In addition to the human factor, questions about the qualifications and personal abilities of candidates, there is another aspect in choosing an employee for a business trip. There are legal requirements for categories of citizens who cannot be seconded under any circumstances. These include the following groups of individuals:
- minor employees, interns, trainees;
- pregnant women;
- employees of the company working under a student agreement (except for business trips for the purpose of training);
- members of election campaigns, candidates for political office;
- people whose capabilities are limited by the disease.
There are also groups of people who can be sent on a business trip only upon receipt of their written consent:
- women with young children (up to three years of age);
- single parent raising a child up to five years old;
- guardians of children under the age of majority;
- An employee in whose family there is a dependent who needs constant care.
Travel clearance
In order for a business trip to be taken into account in tax, accounting and management accounting, it is necessary to properly arrange it. First of all, a mission assignment is drawn up, dates and dates are set. The candidate for the trip must familiarize themselves with the document drawn up and give their consent or refusal in writing.
If the answer is yes, the manager issues an order to send the specialist on a business trip. The employee is issued and issued a business trip certificate and job assignment. At the end of the trip, the seconded employee must provide a report on the work done and an advance report with confirming checks, receipts and tickets.
Since 2016, the legislation has been amended according to which the issuance of a certificate and official assignment ceased to be mandatory. Instead, they use a memo. But many organizations for internal accounting purposes continue to draw up these documents.
When using personal or corporate automobile transport, a service note and a waybill are required, as well as a power of attorney and other documents confirming the legitimacy of using a particular car.
Information in the documents
A service note is drawn up in free form, but there are a number of details that are mandatory for indicating: a dated business trip period, information about the transport used, goals set for the employee and the results of their implementation.
All expenses incurred by the employee during the trip must be indicated in the expense report. This requirement applies to absolutely all types of expenses, including housing, transportation, fuel, food and other expenses. In order to confirm the cost of paying for housing, you must provide the accounting department at the end of the trip with a check, receipt or receipt containing information about the landlord, the cost and rental period of the premises.
A management order must be issued accordingly. In office work, there is a unified form No. T-9, but the organization is not obliged to use it exclusively. In the accounting policies of a particular organization, its own form of document may be fixed. You can also take the opportunity to draw up an order in free form. The main condition is the content of the following data:
- names and details of the organization that sent the employee on the trip;
- employee information;
- dates of drawing up the order;
- start and end dates of the business trip period;
- assignments to the employee, the purpose of the trip.
Business trip job example
The more responsible the task, the more levels it contains. The more a company invests in a business, the more results it intends to get. Not all minor details that the manager wants to know will be indicated in the order. Some of them can be discussed verbally at meetings and during briefing of the traveled. But, most likely, the employee on the basis of the trip will have to report for all points, even for those that were not officially registered, but were verbally announced. For clarity, we give an example of a job assignment below.
For example, take the goal - "Concluding a supply contract, advertising products." For convenience of reflection, we use the type of document generated by the 1C program.You can find it in personnel records, Form No. T-10a. This form contains 11 columns to fill out: structural unit, specialist position, country, city and organization to which the employee was sent, date of start and end of a business trip, the number of calendar days in total and excluding travel time, payer organization, basis, content tasks and a brief report on its implementation. The document is signed by the head of the structural unit, the head of the organization and the employee himself.
The order fills in the trip information as follows:
- Last name, first name, patronymic of the employee and his personnel number: Sorokin Dmitry Evgenievich, 1 (personnel number in a separate window, according to personnel records).
- Subdivision: Marketing and Advertising Department.
- Position (specialty, profession): Leading marketer.
- Place of business trip (country, city, organization): Russia, city of Moscow, LLC "Company".
- For a period of 14 calendar days from January 14, 2018 to January 27, 2018.
- With a view to: advertising campaign, conclusion of a supply contract.
- Business trip at the expense of funds: LLC "Realizer".
- Basis (document, number and date): Job assignment No. 3 of 01/13/2018
At the end of the order are the signatures of the head and employee. The signature of the employee is placed opposite the inscription that he is familiar with the order.
Subtleties of design
If an employee for some reason has not provided supporting documents on expenses (checks, receipts), the organization will not reimburse him for these costs. Therefore, in the process of business trip it is so important not to forget about reporting. Even a trip in a taxi or bus must be confirmed by a ticket or driver's receipt.
An important point is also an indication of the structural unit of the organization and the purpose of the trip. Depending on the specified data, further write-offs of expenses in accounting and tax accounting will occur. So, if the purpose of the trip was to repair the machines, when conducting accounting calculations, the amount of expenses will be written off to depreciate the repaired equipment. If the goal was to conclude a contract, the write-off will take place as general business expenses.
And the last moment - a business trip with an unfulfilled goal. In most cases, the costs of such a trip are not recognized by the tax service and do not reduce the tax base. At the hearing, you can try to defend your innocence, but in most cases the law remains on the side of the Federal Tax Service.