I have fucked up

[Royallyscrewed]

NC for this post- not an aibu more a wwyd.

I have a corporate card for work travel expenses and a few weeks back I linked it to my phone to use tap in and out tickets On a trip to London. I’ve just gone to pay my bill (we pay the balance of the card each month and then claim expenses back via our work online finance system) and literally everything I’ve paid by Apple Pay or online through my phone has gone onto my corporate card. It’s gross misconduct to use it inappropriately and immediate suspension. This was a genuine mistake and I cleared the card straight away but I don’t know how to confess to my manager. For context she’s always on at me about my expenses because I quite often miss the cut off date and am pretty disorganised with them. I’m absolutely shitting myself. Any advice on how to come clean?

Really? Fair enough, I suppose things work differently in different places. With my work it would be more than reasonable to do that, in fact encouraged - with any significant fuck up my immediate manager works part time and office hours only, while the managers above them (due to their higher grade and pay) are expected to be 'on call' any time - so if I realised I'd made a mistake like the OPs I could let them know straightaway, whereas if it was a Friday I'd have to wait until Monday (or later as they are often in meetings or working off-site) to let my immediate manager know.

Similarly any issue with expenses I would be expected to go first to the finance team anyway, I might have to tell my manager as well but they would always be the second port of call.

If I told my immediate manager 'Oh, I've made a mistake but I let (big boss) or (Finance team) know and it's all sorted' that would definitely go down much better than 'Oh I realised I've made a mistake but I've just left it and done nothing for a few days until I've had a chance to speak to you.' They would probably be relieved they had one few thing to do!

My work couldn't care less about who you tell if there's an issue just as long as you tell someone (obviously someone vaguely relevant) and don't try to hide it. Perhaps if you work somewhere stricter about hierarchy then it's different.

I honestly don't see the issue with linking up to pay for travel if there is no other way - more and more places are tap in/out now - and if there is no capacity to do that on the corporate credit card because it isn't contactless enabled, but OP's work seem to specify you have to pay for things with the corporate card, then what is a reasonable alternative? I assume it's something that's allowed by the corporate card policy or OP wouldn't have done it. If OP's done something that's expressly forbidden or even discouraged then that's obviously completely different but I assume they would have said if that was the case.

Done that on more than one occasion. I have to pay back to company bank account, not to credit card

Best thing to do is immediately report to manager with a plan of how you will avoid doing this again. You need to be more organised though if you're saying you've had feedback before re not doing expenses etc on time. Set a calendar entry or similar to avoid repeats

@Royallyscrewed how did it go? Fingers crossed for you.

This is really good advice how to bring it up - and you must tell her as soon as possible or it will look much worse.

This sounds perfectly feasible! Lots of ways to pay and linking cards etc.

Definitely declare to your finance department or line manager. In fact, send a mail now and explain you’ve cleared the balance and lay out how you will stop that accidental spend in the future.

Do they not have to approve the spends with receipts anyway? Someone will have seen the statement and depending on the way you claim back - they’re going to know anyway!!

I’m sure it’ll be fine as you’ve cleared the balance.

Literally tell her as soon as possibly you can, in the way you describe in your OP. Do not wait to be asked about it. Make sure you declare it first thing Monday (or before if possible) to your boss and the finance dept, then it’ll be fine.

I emailed her yesterday and got back a “speak Monday”. I’m definitely in the shit.

I often hit the wrong card when I use Apple Pay through my phone. The transaction happens so quick that before I've noticed it's too late. You were honest and paid it off. You weren't trying to claim anything fraudulently so hopefully it won't be an issue.

If I got an email about Th is late in a friday I'd want to delay conversation until Monday too. Don't stress. You got out in front of it which is the main thing. Unless you have form for this they WBVU to treat this as anything other than a silly but honest mistake.

My dh started a new job and got a company phone. He listened to the radio at night to fall asleep to () on WiFi on his work phone and for 3 nights over the weekend had no idea the WiFi cut off at night and he was using data at vast expense (in the days where it was expensive.). Anyway long story short, ran up a £400 phone bill in his first week. He had to come clean. Hugely embarrassing but they ended up paying it still so he was really lucky. Yours is simply a technology fart. You didn’t do anything malicious and you’ve come clean and paid so it’s not fraud. It’s just a pain accountancy wise and it’s such a ‘stupid’ way to commit fraud that it’s obviously a mistake. Unless it’s in their staff handbook to not link corporate cards on personal phones they can’t really do much.

I would just tell them and only use it for work purposes

I would see your Manager but also put it in writing clearly explaining what has happened and what you have done about it. My reason for that is that if you explain it to your Manager then they explain it to someone else then they go to someone else it is likely to get lost in translation and you could end up being accused of misleading them. If it's clear from the start and you've not claimed anything back from them that you shouldn't and aren't routinely using company credit for your bills/purchases then I can't see that there's anything against you. Are you in a Union in case you do need a bit of extra support?

easier than finding a reason to sack you, wouldnt suprise me if the corporation does it as a way to fire people without reason, just adjust there corporate card and buy buy bye ! ..... no come backs. Sack who you like, when you like. I know i seem off the wall , i,d say it myself, to myself a few years ago, but when you hear about the devious practices that go on in all corporations, i wouldnt put it past them.

....you did it then, oh well. Everyone does soemthing like that. Just say, if you paid me more money i,d not have to skimp and use your card would i? Go out with a bang !!!! Sod em.

Hi OP, I know it depends on the company but I used to help process expenses at my old job and this happened all the time. Another common one was people using their corporate card to buy a work thing on amazon (like stationery, management books etc) and then would forget it was linked and when they next bought personal items it would get billed to the company one by mistake. As long as they were upfront and admitted their error as soon as possible it was always fine. It happens. We’d remind them of the policy about linking corporate cards to accounts and that would be it. The only people who got called up on dodgy behaviour were those who let it go on and didn’t say anything until confronted.

I work for a bank so financial integrity is important but I have to say I’m not sure we’d be getting excited about this. We would consider how serious it was, what would have been the gain to you and if there was any intent behind it. If you’ve not followed a procedure properly then may misconduct but it doesn’t feel like GM to me.

Hope all went well at work today x

As soon as I can I log my expenses in a spreadsheet on my laptop and keep the receipts in a folder in a drawer. It's a pain, but not that hard and something you need to get right. Most of mine is corporate card.

I hope you are OK.

You did the right thing, hope today went well OP.

@Royallyscrewed hope everything went ok today.

Haha are you our finance team @sleepyquest ??

I bought some corporate do stuff on amazon on my card, it then linked and paid for THE ENTIRE OF CHRISTMAS for 3 kids on it, thought it had been a cheap year

I didn’t do mine until June which is when I realised! Finance were fine though, paid it all back, told them, they gave me a corporate card use policy and laughed.

Just fess up mistakes happen, seriously it’ll be fine.

My old manager did this with the bosses Uber account 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hope it's all sorted!x