Travel & Expense Policy

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: 2024-02-29 by Elsa Mendes
4 min read

General principles

  • We are a start-up with limited resources. If possible, avoid traveling! Use Google Hangouts or Zoom instead. This saves time, resources, and CO2.

  • If you need to travel: Compare options, book early and travel as economically as possible.

  • Read this policy carefully. If it is necessary to deviate from these guidelines check with your manager or the People & Operations team before booking any travel arrangements.

Our overall guiding principle: spend company money as it would be your own.

 

  • Whenever possible use a Spendesk virtual card to book travels

  • Whenever possible add the company details to the invoice. We need this in order to be able to include these expenses into our company accounting and in some cases to get tax credits. This will always be possible for hotel invoices.

  • The correct company address and VAT must be noted on each invoice.

    • For EMEA:

      • Name: MOSTLY AI Solutions MP GmbH

      • Address: Am Belvedere 10, 1100 Vienna, Austria

      • VAT: ATU72118727

    • For the USA:

      • MOSTLY AI Inc., 919 North Market Street, Suite 950, City of Wilmington, DE 19801, USA

      • Tax Number: 84-3594059  

Travel expenses

Any MOSTLY AI employee going on a business trip is entitled to reimbursement of all ordinary, necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in connection with the pre-approved business trip. This includes in particular:

Transportation cost 

  • Railway train tickets (2nd class)

In Europe: Always book 2nd class tickets

In Austria: Always book 2nd class tickets, unless “Sparschiene” 1st class is cheaper or 2nd class is too crowded to work. Seat reservations can be booked. If you expect to travel frequently by train, purchase an “ÖBB Vorteilscard 66” (confirm with your manager first).

In the US: It’s ok to book Business Class.

  • Flights in economy class

When choosing a flight, an employee should select a balance between the cost and convenience in the interest of the company and the employee (e.g., choosing a direct flight over a connection flight, or a more convenient connection if not causing a significantly higher cost). MOSTLY AI’s employees are permitted to collect bonus miles while traveling and retain them for personal use.

  • Transportation to and from the airport in your home city and in the destination you can use a taxi (Uber, Lyft, etc.) to get to and from the airport. If there are good public transport options (e.g. like in Vienna) to and from the airport you are encouraged to use them.

  • Car rental (if the destination is not conveniently reachable by public transport):

Rental vehicles should be of the economy or compact class whenever possible. Full coverage liability insurance shall be included where applicable and possible. In general do not use your personal car for business travel – no expenses for a personal car will be reimbursed (parking tickets, tolls, gas, etc.).

  • Additional transportation with public or private transport (e.g., Uber/taxi) as required (e.g. going to a meeting from a hotel)

Accommodation cost 

Accommodation should be booked in hotels and/or Airbnb’s which are conveniently located near or around the purpose of the business trip, with the goal of reducing overall travel time. For hotels, 3 star or 4-star classification are preferred. You can book a hotel with breakfast included.

No extra hotel charges like laundry, premium TV, minibar, etc. will be reimbursed.

Cost of meals 

Meals & beverages (soft drinks, beer or wine) consumed during transportation (e.g., at airports) and at the trip destination will be refunded by MOSTLY AI. With regards to restaurants, employees should choose to spend reasonable amounts of money, keeping in mind what they would spend privately as if on a private trip. If you are entertaining a business partner(s) or client(s), you can pay for drinks/meals whilst you are entertaining or pre/post meeting with them if this is in the interest of MOSTLY AI. For such customer entertainment, the general limit is an equivalent of 100 USD per person. Amounts higher than that need to be approved by your manager.

Other reasonable expenses related to traveling

This would include e.g., cost of visas, cost of travel insurance, cost of exchanging money (if payment by cards is not possible), and other related expenses. All reasonable costs will be covered by MOSTLY AI.

Travel Expense Reports

For all incurred expenses, the receipts or bills shall be collected. In case an employee fails to provide a respective proof of expense, MOSTLY AI may refuse to compensate for such an expense.

An employee, returning from a business trip shall report the expenses within 1 week of his/her/their return. For reporting business trip expenses, Spendesk or an alternative app defined by MOSTLY AI shall be used. It’s recommended to install the respective app before going on a business trip and process all the receipts/bills directly after incurring the expenses. It’s simple and quick: just take photos with the app, enter basic information and you are good to go.

The expense reports are submitted by employees to their respective managers, who control and approve the expense reports and should discuss with an employee if the expenses are unreasonable.

MOSTLY AI will cover and reimburse all reasonable costs during a business trip, therefore the employee is not entitled to claim additional per diem payments.

Other business expenses

Internet connectivity at home

Expenses for internet connectivity at home are not reimbursable. This should be covered by our yearly home office subsidy.

Telephone expenses

The regular monthly flat fee and other related expenses (e.g., insurance for the phone) are not reimbursable. Expenses occurring outside this fee in connection with the business use of a private phone and which are charged on top (e.g., fees for BUSINESS related international calls) are subject to reimbursement. The employee needs to send proof of such calls (e.g., abstract of phone bill statement) for approval to the respective managers via Spendesk or an alternative application defined by MOSTLY AI. 

Web Services/Licenses/Subscriptions

In general, the employee should avoid purchasing/signing-up for such services with their personal cards or bank accounts. The employee should make use of Spendesk, the virtual credit card tool offered by the company to pay such expenses.

If not avoidable, expenses for Web Services and other Subscriptions that are needed to perform work are subject to reimbursement. The employee shall align with the direct manager before making any such purchase.

We will randomly check compliance with the policy and take necessary steps in the event of policy violations.