# Why are receipts such a big deal for accountants? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690 "2019-02-16T21:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![l0k1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@l0k1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l0k1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/41 "2019-02-19T14:34:24Z")
Accountant here. I worked for a copy where an employee (out-of-state sales rep) was going through an acrimonious divorce. His soon to be ex believed that he was hiding income from her and the IRS in his expense reimbursements. Lucky for him, I refused to reimburse him for anything without a receipt. When her lawyers subpoenaed his expense reports, they contended that any reimbursement without a receipt was income, and should be added to his actual income when figuring alimony. I had a client that hired me after an IRS audit. She is a small business owner. Her auditor rejected her claimed business expenses that lacked documentation. Now all her business expenses are electronic, and heavily documented. When doing small business taxes, a good faith estimate of an expense is usually enough, but a receipt will withstand an audit. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/42 "2019-02-19T14:37:42Z")
> [@Pithily\_Effusive](#): > > After the Challenger incident, a group of dozens of astro-and other physicists was gathered in a huge conference room debating what in the world could have happened to the O-rings. Did they freeze and break or not? The consensus was moving toward “we’ll just have to run several expensive experiments over the course of months to determine this!” > > Feynman was there at the VIP table, which suits his position. He listened to the back and forth for a while. Then, he poured some of the ice water provided on the table to slake the thirsts of the attendees into a styrofoam cup, and dipped an O-ring (the thing being discussed) into it. Then he held it up and snapped it in two for everyone to see. The room fell silent. He left. (Apparently with better things do to.) The O-rings didn’t break. The problem was that when they were cold, they became more viscous: when the gap they were sealing opened up (due to the sudden increase in SRB internal pressure at launch or due to post-launch/in-flight turbulence), cold O-rings were unable to shift rapidly enough to maintain the integrity of their seal. Feynman demonstrated this by squeezing a piece of O-ring material with a clamp, dunking it in ice water for a few minutes, and then removing the clamp to show how the O-ring persisted in its flattened state instead of quickly springing back to round like a warm O-ring did. [Here’s the televised hearing where he performed his easy-to-understand demonstration (see at 0:36).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raMmRKGkGD4) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/43 "2019-02-19T15:35:38Z")
> [@Pithily\_Effusive](#): > > Arrogant is when one arrogates something unto oneself. Feynman is one of the United State’s, and the world’s actual geniuses. It would behoove one to mind what he says. Sure, if you have a physics question. Ben Carson is one of the world’s most eminent neurosurgeons, but I wouldn’t “mind what he says” about [history](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34741010). Nor would I have taken advice from Stephen Hawking about sex, or from John Lennon about architecture. Feynman’s genius is irrelevant to the validity of his views on accounting practices. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/44 "2019-02-19T15:58:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sure, if you have a physics question. Ben Carson is one of the world’s most eminent neurosurgeons, but I wouldn’t “mind what he says” about [history](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34741010). Nor would I have taken advice from Stephen Hawking about sex, or from John Lennon about architecture. Feynman’s genius is irrelevant to the validity of his views on accounting practices. Feynman wasn’t even expressing a view on accounting practices so much as expressing a view on who should and should’t be trusted to be honest when reporting business expenses. From **Heracles’** link: > [@Richard Feynman](#): > > “I told you how much it cost. If you don’t trust me, why do you let me tell you what I think is good and bad about the schoolbooks?” He appears to think that his status as a respected textbook consultant merits the conferral of a uniquely elevated degree of trust not extended to mere mortals. But really, anybody drawing a paycheck could make the same argument: “if you don’t trust me (a janitor), why do you let me clean the building?” “If you don’t trust me (a mailroom intern), then why do you let me distribute critically important letters and packages throughout the company?” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/45 "2019-02-19T16:04:26Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sure, if you have a physics question. Ben Carson is one of the world’s most eminent neurosurgeons, but I wouldn’t “mind what he says” about [history](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34741010). Nor would I have taken advice from Stephen Hawking about sex, or from John Lennon about architecture. Feynman’s genius is irrelevant to the validity of his views on accounting practices. I don’t know… Hawking as I recall got divorced because he was banging his nurse (or more accurately, I assume,\* she \*was banging him). He might have some good advice. 😃 There’s an accounting term “materiality”. In an expense account of a thousand-plus dollars, lack of a $2.36 receipt is not worth the hassle. However as mentioned above about ticket codes, especially in those days, the difference between the full business travel rate (full cancellation, etc.) versus the cheapest book early, stay weekend rate. With planning and luck, there’s a he opportunity for skimming if one does not have to present the cancelled ticket. Any genius should understand this. In the good old days, there was a lot of slack in the systems. There were huge levels of middle management, and in big business money flowed freely. “skimming” seems to have been if not accepted, at least easily overlooked. It was only the frantic mergers and buyouts and arrival of a herd of cutthroat MBA’s in the late 1980’s that started cleaning out this mess. Ove the next 10 to 20 years, huge numbers of middle management were jettisoned and companies cut back beyond lean. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/46 "2019-02-19T16:27:23Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > The CC bill shows you bought one or more products at Widgets-R-Us that totalled $29.95. It _doesn’t_ show whether that was one widget, three widgets, or a widget for the company and four gizmos that are destined for your spouse’s side business. > > It’s not a lack of education; it’s a lack of verification. Remember the old line about trust but verify? Accountants don’t even trust; they jump straight to verify, and your CC bill does not verify that you spent $29.95 on a single widget for the company’s benefit. Padding the bills is a time-honored way for an employee to steal from the company, and the company wants proof that you are not doing that. But he says he bought A widget for $29.95 at store X, and there’s a charge for $29.95 for store X on that day. Why the heck isn’t that sufficient? It’s that squinty, nitpicking attitude that makes the rest of the civilized world hate accountants- they’re like every negative bureaucratic stereotype come to life about obsession for detail and pedantry, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/47 "2019-02-19T16:27:34Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The CC bill is your document; While I have different issues with our expense system, I’m just talking about company credit cards. > [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > If you are doing purchasing on behalf of a business, obtaining and retaining receipts is such a basic task that it’s understandable that accounts gets pissed off with people who can’t manage something so fundamental. Uh huh > [@slash2k](#): > > Accountants don’t even trust; they jump straight to verify, and your CC bill does not verify that you spent $29.95 on a single widget for the company’s benefit. This is about the only angle that I already understand. But still. There’s the widget. There’s the issue where we talk about getting a widget. There’s the online store where widgets cost $29.95. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This, exactly. And, if your company’s books ever get audited, a consistent lack of documentation and verification is an enormous red flag to the auditors. What’s involved in this “audit”? _Who_ would be doing the auditing, and why would _their_ day be ruined for lack of my $1.95 dealextreme cable receipt? I left management and accounting courses to other people and just assumed this would be a topic covered. > [@Chronos](#): > > Bring in other documentation, and you’re asking them to create an entirely new process just to deal with your expenses. > [@Icarus](#): > > If any of this is true, then you are being extremely childish to deny the accountant the same respect you would expect of yourself doing your job. > [@naita](#): > > Because you peed in the coffee maker. I.e. you failed to follow simple universal rules designed to keep business running smoothly, and this failure is creates extra work or makes it plain old impossible for them to reimburse you. Why _impossible_? That’s why I mention that my job is made more difficuly by trivial co-worker actions _every day_. I will sigh. Then I will use my _knowledge_ in the _field that I work_ to get things done. I will shoot them an email asking that _next time_, could they please make sure they make a release build before they leave, or put the variable name in the issue rather than making me troll through recent commits? I will _not_ kick my keyboard off my desk and refuse to do anything until they resolve this situation themselves. I will for _sure_ not threaten to ding their paycheque just because they were doing something for the company and there was a completely forseeable happenstance. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/48 "2019-02-19T17:01:22Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > I’ve taken a first year college accounting course, so obviously I’m no expert, but… > > Accountants are trained not to trust anybody. We were taught that check signing authority should require more than one person (to prevent fraud), and the person who buys stuff for the company shouldn’t be the same person who writes checks to buy that stuff (because if it’s just one person, it’s easy to defraud the company). The course gave examples of companies being defrauded. They gave an example of business owner who hired a family member as their bookkeeper… who told them they would do random spot checks of the books (to detect fraud). I may have a thick skull, but I detected a running theme there… > > I learned why businesses like checks so much, because of the paper trail. A check acts like part of a receipt. > > And if that business is ever audited by the tax department, the government can ask to see those receipts, so employees claiming expenses directly impacts the business’s bottom line. When I did an accounting course (not degree level) we were given details of what had been a fairly common fraud which can only happen if the person doing the ordering is the same person who signs the job off - this relates to services rather than goods. Bill Stickers runs the transport department of a medium-sized company; part of his job involves ordering transport services from third parties. He sets up a trading account with a company name of BS Transport Ltd and then places an order with them to transport a load. Naturally, he chooses a loading and destination point that had a lot of traffic. At the end of the month, he raises an invoice from BS Ltd and authorises it for payment. This is known as a “long firm fraud” and provided that Bill does not get greedy, he can keep it going for years. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/49 "2019-02-19T17:18:24Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > This is about the only angle that I already understand. But still. There’s the widget. There’s the issue where we talk about getting a widget. There’s the online store where widgets cost $29.95. And there is, in fact, a physical document which shows all of this in one place, which your accountants are accustomed to working with, and which is a paper trail that they can go back to if there is ever a question (or an audit) later – your receipt. Without it, you’re making more work for them – they have to find you, find the widget, dig back up the email where you said you were buying a widget, go to the online store site (where it may not, in fact, any longer be $29.95). And, if they need to go back and examine the purchase weeks, even months, later, your “look, here’s the widget, here’s the web site” method is even less valid. As others have said, the issue is that fraud in companies is pretty damned common, and documentation rules are in place to minimize that fraud. No, one $29.95 expenditure is not going to break a company (and, as has been said, some companies have policies in which they don’t worry about receipts for small purchases), but other companies (probably particularly those which _have_ had fraud issues) are draconian about it, because they’ve adopted a zero-tolerance / zero-exception policy. > [@Nanoda](#): > > What’s involved in this “audit”? _Who_ would be doing the auditing, and why would _their_ day be ruined for lack of my $1.95 dealextreme cable receipt? I left management and accounting courses to other people and just assumed this would be a topic covered. Depending on how and why your company is undergoing an audit, it might be a third-party accounting firm, or it might be the IRS. In an audit, the general idea is that they’re examining the company’s financial records closely, to make sure that there aren’t any irregularities. And, again, one small missing receipt is probably not the issue – it’s if there are a _lot_ of missing receipts, or if receipts for larger purchases are missing. If a company plays fast and loose with its documentation, they’re simply opening themselves up to possible issues down the road (and your accountants were trained to _not_ operate that way). ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/50 "2019-02-19T17:22:43Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But he says he bought A widget for $29.95 at store X, and there’s a charge for $29.95 for store X on that day. Why the heck isn’t that sufficient? Because as the post you responded to stated, $29.95 at store X doesn’t mean that you bought a widget for the company there. You may have bought 4 cheaper widgets and only one was for the company and the rest were for personal use. Or ( and I don’t think this was mentioned yet) some stores bill under a different name than that of the store. Sometimes it’s a just a corporate name ( Metro Mobil bills under L&S Corp, that sort of thing) and sometimes it’s so someone who has access to your bill ( spouse or SO ) doesn’t know that you actually spent that $29.95 at a strip club. I think you looking at this from the point of someone who would never cheat rather than the viewpoint of someone trying to discourage/discover those who do. You wouldn’t put $29.95 on your expense report for 4 widgets when you brought three home, or claim the $29.95 charge that shows as Widgets R Us that was really a strip club - but others will. ``` Companies don't usually distinguish between online stores and physical stores in documentation requirements - although most online stores I've dealt with keep a record of my order and I can print a detailed invoice (which is just another name for a receipt in this context) whenever I need to. Much easier than getting a duplicate from a physical store if I've misplaced it ``` ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/51 "2019-02-19T17:35:29Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > However, a lot of systems do make allowance for this by not requiring receipts for items under some amount, like $10.00. The federal system may just give you a standard per diem or personal expenses allowance, and if you spend less than that you just keep the difference. Many places I’ve worked, $75 is the cutoff for materiality. Not because they are being particularly generous. I assume it has more to do with it not being cost-effective to review every Uber, meal and cup of coffee I have on the road. As a “manager”, I’ve also been given a certain amount of leeway in terms of using my corporate card for “team building” or “business development” activities like taking people out to lunch or going to conferences. There’s no set cut off, but I’ve seen people abuse this privilege by doing things like taking a dozen extra people to lunch at Del Frisco’s for a team lunch when the actual spirit is more aligned with lunch for your ACTUAL TEAM of three people at Heartland Brewery. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/52 "2019-02-19T18:06:43Z")
[According to bizjournals.com, Sep 5, 2018](https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2018/09/wells-fargo-fires-employees-expenses-wfc.html?page=all): > [@](#): > > Members of the Wells Fargo Securities team reportedly got dinner delivered via services such as Grubhub and Caviar prior to hours when the bank’s policy allowed it, doctoring receipts’ time stamps to make their orders eligible to be expensed. Following an internal investigation, at least nine of the bank’s associates and analysts either were fired or left voluntarily, WSJ found in a review of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records. I don’t know if they still do it, but the Wall Street Journal used to carry advertisements for booklets containing blank receipts. The receipts in the booklet were guaranteed to all be of a different style and design. I’m sure that these booklets were just intended for businesses that wanted to issue receipts to their customers without using the same boring forms for each one. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/53 "2019-02-19T18:24:41Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > Why _impossible_? Because companies set up their expense reporting to follow rules, and accountants aren’t allowed to ignore those rules. The rules are there to avoid fraud, and the accountants aren’t allowed to diverge from the rules because if they were, they could also do so in ways that assisted in fraud. Doing other jobs badly are generally not crimes, unlike not having expenses you are going to put on your company books properly documented. Are any of difficulties caused by your incompetent co-workers indistinguishable from the acts of someone attempting to defraud the company? ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/54 "2019-02-19T18:47:30Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > This is about the only angle that I already understand. But still. There’s the widget. There’s the issue where we talk about getting a widget. There’s the online store where widgets cost $29.95. Did you buy the widget with a “buy one, get one free” coupon and now have the second one stashed for your own side business? Did you buy a 59-cent widget at Cheap-Chinese-Knockoffs, plus four unapproved gadgets at Widgets-R-Us? Can you even prove that widgets cost $29.95 on the date you allegedly bought this one, as opposed to costing that much today after the new tariffs kicked in or the exchange rate dropped or the widget factory burned down? For $29.95, depending on company policies it may not be worthwhile to fight you on it. A different company may not care until the bill hits $299.50, or $2995.00, or $29,950.00; however, at some point, they’re going to care. Prudence demands that the company verify that they are not being systematically cheated. Your company for whatever reason has decided that $29.95 is enough to worry. > [@Nanoda](#): > > _Who_ would be doing the auditing, and why would _their_ day be ruined for lack of my $1.95 dealextreme cable receipt? Their day won’t be ruined, but the actions they take may end up adversely affecting your company. For example, a third-party auditor probably won’t care about one missing receipt, but a pattern will make them sit up and take notice, possibly leading to an audit report that they are unable to issue an unqualified (“clean”) opinion, or they “are unable to confirm the company complies with generally-accepted accounting principles” or similar verbiage. For a publicly-traded company, e.g., that’s the kiss of death on the stock market; most investors will conclude your company is some sort of fraud. Meanwhile, the tax authority (Internal Revenue Service, Canada Revenue Agency, whatever) will simply disallow the deduction for a business expense, causing your company to pay higher taxes. On $29.95 it’s not likely to matter, but if you start aggregating your undocumented spending with that of all of your coworkers, the company could conceivably be looking at the difference between profit and loss. Your company’s accounting department has set up internal controls to prevent the auditors from taking such actions, and you want to circumvent those controls. That’s not a trivial co-worker action; allowing too many people to get away with too much in money handling threatens the company’s very survival as a going concern. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/55 "2019-02-19T19:00:28Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But he says he bought A widget for $29.95 at store X, and there’s a charge for $29.95 for store X on that day. Why the heck isn’t that sufficient? > > It’s that squinty, nitpicking attitude that makes the rest of the civilized world hate accountants- they’re like every negative bureaucratic stereotype come to life about obsession for detail and pedantry, etc… Also remember that most places (many places?) have sales tax, so nothing usually shows on a bill with a number matching a price tag; and if you are on a business trip, then the sales tax may be different at your destination… The accountant does not want to have to learn every state and city’s tax rates and quirks. Not to mention, maybe you bought a different widget for home and brought in the old one that seems like it’s going to fail, and unless the accountant goes over to your office and looks at it he would never know, especially after it fails and you throw it out. (Plenty of witnesses, yes, Joe had a defective widget and we saw him throw it out). Why should the accountant trouble himself to dig into all this when a simple receipt is much simpler. (And it has to be the original receipt, not a photocopy - as the Dilbert strip pointed out… “but if you’re in a hurry for your refund, you can fax us the original.”) ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/56 "2019-02-19T19:07:53Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > Did you buy the widget with a “buy one, get one free” coupon and now have the second one stashed for your own side business? Wouldn’t this be okay? If your business needs the widget, and is prepared to spend 29.95, and you bring your own coupon to the table, isn’t that acceptable? Seems to me similar to business travel–they pay for the ticket, but miles accrue to your personal frequent flyer account. ---
**Author:** ![l0k1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@l0k1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l0k1)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/57 "2019-02-19T21:36:56Z")
Accountant here. As far as the widget question goes, you can provide further documentation to auditors if they flag an expense. I will tell you that it is better to have the documentation already available when an expense is flagged. The longer auditors are in your house, the more stuff they find. No auditor wants to report back to their boss that they spent an extra day of field work for a justified expense. I used to work in liquor distribution. One of my first tasks on my first day of employment was going over reimbursement reports from sales reps. I flagged three. One was a credit card receipt from a bar for $1.00 with $499.00 tip. One was a coaster from a bar, with the date and “$500” written on it in ball point pen, and one was a blank white cocktail napkin with “$500” written on it, no date, no name of the bar. All these expenses were to be charged back to suppliers. My vice president approved them all, over my objections, and explained that sales reps would go to bar where they had recently sold a new product, buy the entire order, tip the bar tended, and tell the bar tender to push the Bubblegum flavored Bacardi or whatever. The next day the bar owner would then reorder the Bubblegum rum, because he totally sold out. The VP also told me that the company supported sales reps when the IRS audited them, if they objected to a cocktail napkin as a receipt. It is a super crooked industry that I no longer work for. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/58 "2019-02-19T23:33:28Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Wouldn’t this be okay? If your business needs the widget, and is prepared to spend 29.95, and you bring your own coupon to the table, isn’t that acceptable? Seems to me similar to business travel–they pay for the ticket, but miles accrue to your personal frequent flyer account. It’s [not entirely clear](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/a-02-18.pdf) whether those miles should be accruing to your account, according to the Tax Code (and right now they’re taxable if you redeem them for money). But in any case, they’re not the same. When you pay for employer expenses using a rewards card, the price is the same as if you used a company card. When you pay for employer expenses using money and a coupon, the price isn’t the same. The company is only obligated to reimburse you for money you actually paid; if you got a discount, that was just because you did your job as an employee. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/59 "2019-02-19T23:41:34Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Bill Stickers runs the transport department of a medium-sized company; part of his job involves ordering transport services from third parties. He sets up a trading account with a company name of BS Transport Ltd and then places an order with them to transport a load. **Naturally, he chooses a loading and destination point that had a lot of traffic.** At the end of the month, he raises an invoice from BS Ltd and authorises it for payment. Maybe I don’t think like a criminal, but why would it be natural to pick a route that had a lot of traffic? Did Bill need to actually create a real load to be transported or was it all phony? ---
**Author:** ![Pithily\_Effusive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pithily_effusive/32/252_2.png) [@Pithily\_Effusive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithily_Effusive)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690/60 "2019-02-19T23:42:35Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > He discussed the incident in detail in his second autobiographical book “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” > > I no longer have my copy, but this does not sound like how he described it. It sounds more like a dramatization of the incident. > > Just going by memory, he was visited privately by one of the other members, IIRC over the weekend. That person was the one who suggested the relationship between temperature and the O-ring. > > The book then goes on to describe how he had decided on the experiment, but they didn’t have any water glasses ye, and he needed to get the water before the perfect timing. > > He was a genius, but the reality of that incident was different. Sorry. I got my version of the story by watching it happen on the television. C-SPAN carried it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-receipts-such-a-big-deal-for-accountants/829690.md?page=4)