What’s the etiquette on who pays for a meal between a company and a contractor? Is it based on who makes the invitation, or something else? My thought would be the contractor would pay for their client’s meal, but I could see the invitation trumping that.
Typically, whoever issued the invitation…however, if the contractor pays, it will typically get billed back to the company with and administrative mark-up (depending upon how the contract is written). I normally pick up the tab if I am out to dinner with contractors.
Many times “who pays” is dictated by corporate rules. Some companies, such as the #1 retailer in the world, have very strict rules about accepting payments of any kind, including meals. So in those cases everyone pays for him/herself, regardless of who invited whom.
In this case we are dealing with two small companies which would not have corporate rule limitations. It sounds like the invitation is the defining feature (unless contracted otherwise).
I was going to note that…WalMart employees (at least, those in the corporate staff) aren’t permitted to accept even a bottle of water from a supplier.
Wow really? I know the rule with Federal employees is something less than $15 right? Or is that just mailmen
Really. We were, briefly, WM’s ad agency (it’s a very long story, but it does have to do, in part, with WM’s draconian rules about employee gifts).
Let’s say that you’re a supplier to Wal-Mart, and a Wal-Mart employee comes to visit you in your office. You have a fridge in your office, with some bottles of water in it. You offer one to the WM employee. By WM rules, he has to reimburse you the retail value of that bottle (and then declare it on his expense report).
I would say that is correct, for that circumstance. Really, the same rule applies for non-business meals, as well: the person who does the inviting has the responsibility of supplying the food.
Now, if there’s a vendor-client relationship, and the client invites the vendor out, it’s possible that the vendor may *choose *to buy the meal anyway in order to strengthen that relationship. But it would still be expected that the client would pay, absent any attempt by the vendor to take the bill.