Tracking Reimbursements

Ok, please bear with me while I try to explain this.

I use Excel/Mystery Shopping Bible to track all of my shops, payments, reimbursements, mileage, etc. I performed a hotel shop on April 24, 2014. I charged the room charge to my credit card (per shop guidelines) which was promptly reversed on May 2, 2014. The shop fee of $30.00 and my cash food and bar expenses ($38.80) are later paid by check.

I have already documented the reversed hotel cc charge in Excel on May 2 leaving a balance owed to me of $68.80. I received the check over the weekend but now I am trying to update it in Excel and for some reason the figures are not zeroing out in Excel. It is only accepting $8.80 for some reason.

I put the shop fee of $30.00 in the shop fee column and I combined the room charge ($154.29 reversed on my cc) and the cash outlay ($38.80 in cash) and put that in the reimbursement column. I am not an Excel expert or a math wizard so for the life of me, I can not figure out what the problem is. I have already wasted a lot of time on this. Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

You PM me if you do not want to respond here.

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More About Reimbursements

I don't use that program but rather just a plain old Excel spreadsheet I have put together. When I was doing hotels and such where there was a reimbursement for cash and a credit card backout I usually put the credit card portion in a notes section highlighted to watch and make sure it got backed out. So the amount expected from the company (who was MY client) was only the fee, any bonus and any reimbursement. Of course if the credit card had not been backed out I would be going back to MY client to get them to take care of it.

Philosophically, here is the issue. A company can screw up and claim all fees, reimbursements (including mileage where applicable) and bonuses on a 1099 as income to you. It is the ability to decipher the 1099 if they screw up that is why I even track reimbursements at all. What happens on your credit card and gets backed out is a non-event taxwise. It will not be 1099ed to you by either the client or the company.

I think it is because it is counting your shop fee as a credit toward the 38.80 you are owed. Try removing the shop fee.

You need to show the shop fee as owed to you, just like the food expense. So maybe enter it as a negative instead of a positive, even though you didn't spend it. Does that make sense? I'll see if I can find the Bible spreadsheet.

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Thanks to all the forum members!

Thanks, Flash. That does help. I like to keep track of everything just in case someone or the IRS questions a reimbursement. I think the hotel charge being credited back to the cc being recorded in the notes section instead of the reimbursement column might work for me. I will try to correct my Excel when I have some time.

Thanks again.

@ Bayberry ~ You lost me. If I am owed a shop fee of $30.00 PLUS $38.80 for cash food and bar reimbursements, why would I put my shop fee of $30.00 as a negative? The two combined amounts were included in the check that I received this weekend.

I don't think that the MSC has shorted me. I think it is strictly my calculations or putting the amounts in the wrong column thus screwing up Excel's "brain."

Because of Excel's brain. It sounds like Excel has cancelled out $30 of the $38.80 you are owed. Since the fee is $30, I thought that might be it. (Too much of a coincidence.) If you have only entered that you are owed the $154 and the $38, and you have entered the $30 fee as received, it is netting it against what you are owed. Just try entering in a different number for the fee and see what happens when you try to enter your $38.80. PM me if you want to talk about it.

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Thanks to all the forum members!

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Tracking Reimbursements

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