Manager has refused mileage claim - AIBU?

[wonderingwanderer2]

I work in the community and so submit my mileage expenses each month. I tend to write my visits in before I do them otherwise I worry I will forget - this is clearly not a good strategy due to what has happened below and I will now do them retrospectively.

I submitted my July mileage and my manager rejected it on the basis that there was one entry that was incorrect - a face-to-face visit had been changed to an online one and I had forgotten to delete the entry - she had seen that it was a Teams meeting in my diary. I apologised and deleted the entry and resubmitted it. I have only just noticed that the mileage for the whole month (a substantial amount) has been rejected again.

Is she allowed to do this? Obviously I was at fault for not deleting the other entry when the meeting was changed to an online one, but AIBU to think she's wrong to not pay my mileage for the rest of the month now the incorrect entry has been deleted? How should I raise this with her?

Don't contact her until Monday. She rightly will now need to double check it, and maybe all previous claims.

Yes one system i used had a road map (eg google maps) you put in the office (current location) and where you were going to, it gave the different routes, you could pick and adjust the path of travel the system would then calculate the milage based on the rates × road distance.

Yes, that's exactly the system I used.

But, for example, one day there was a burst watermain and I had to a) run my engine stuck in traffic for 20 minutes and then b) follow a diversion round it that was temporary.

Using google maps retrospectively wouldn't help with the unexpected costs there. To be honest I just wrote stuff like that off.

I had to 'go to the effort' of google mapping it because that was the organisational policy for how mileage should be tracked.

Isn't it more likely that, given your slapdash approach to your expenses, manager has spotted another error, or something that needs clarification? Either that or there's a system requirement to resubmit the whole claim differently.

I would just wait until Monday and ask her.

This. I think the initial rejection due to the error means it has missed cut off for this months payroll and will be paid next month.

I work in a finance department so I think YABU massively. There will have been a deadline to submit your expenses/mileage and anything incorrect should be corrected and paid the next month. I would have also chose to audit you as it is a major red flag that you were pre filling out your mileage sheets and there could have been many more gone unnoticed (which You would need to pay back, hence them not paying you any money until your audit is completed)

I didn’t say it couldn’t happen, I said it isn’t normally a defence when you have signed and certified something. Do you not understand that finer point?

And actually no, I have never made a false expense claim. If that means I am perfect then I guess I am and no I am not exhausted by keeping my expense claims honest.

YABU.
contact your manager on Monday.
They will either be reviewing all your claims submitted, you’ve missed the cutoff time for claims to be paid out, your manager themselves is now in trouble, etc, and isn’t allowed to approve anything, all sorts of reasons.

It’ll be an admin thing. I’m sure it’ll get sorted on Monday.

You do not know that. You are making up facts to fit your scenario. There is actually only one fact. The OP claimed mileage for a journey that they did not make. The OP says it was a mistake. We have no evidence whether it was a mistake or a conscious effort. But oddly, sometimes people do take conscious efforts to fiddle their expenses. So the employer is entitled, if they so wish, to audit all the claims the OP has made to see whether this was the only "human error" they made. In which case the employer may accept it was human error. But they are not required to. They could just as easily see it as fraud and discipline or even dismiss. They probably won't since the OP is leaving anyway - but if they find a pattern of such "human errors" they (a) may decide to discipline or dismiss, (b) might decide to update the reference they provided, or (c) may take legal action and/or call the police.

As a manager who holds budget authorities, I am not allowed to "guess" at whether somebody makes a human error or not. I am required to audit their activities, and depending on the scenario I may have to involve our internal auditors or finance officers. That applies to everyone. Not just the employees that I don't like, aren't leaving, or whatever other personal circumstances they have. Even handed. Not heavy handed. Which part of taking financial responsibility are you struggling with?

Same process in my workplace. Came to my attention that someone had claimed mileage for a journey when I knew for a fact they had used the pool car. (I was the subsequent booking). Their mileage claim had come to me to authorise as their manager was on leave. Said it was a mistake and they had entered the journey in advance but swopped to the pool car last minute due their own vehicle being blocked in. I rejected the claim and referred it back to their manager to follow up on their return. Unfortunately the subsequent audit revealed that this wasn't an isolated incident. Mistakes do happen but unfortunately so do fraudulent claims.

Why would you fill in your mileage claim before you've done the journey? It's quite odd.

Ok cba to get into the fraud thing but it definitely was a one off and I am not in the habit of making fraudulent claims. Would I not be told that I am being audited if I am? I am surprised she has rejected the resubmitted claim without telling me.

Re doing the mileage on Google maps this is how I was advised to do it when I started the job.

But I bet you weren't told to fill in your claim before you did the journey.

Keep a sheet in the car enter mileage at time of set off and arrival. Do it correctly each time.

Having said that with the price of fuel I wonder if folks are out of pocket at the moment

I think you've opened yourself up to a whole load of stress by submitting a false claim. You will likely get your mileage eventually, but probably will undergo a full audit of all expenses before it's paid. As PP has pointed out, sometimes it's not an innocent mistake so the company must investigate fully.

No. For fraud to exist there needs to be intention. That is missing in this scenario.

For fraud to exist there needs to be intention. That is missing in this scenario
As far as we've been told by the OP. So you can't say for sure.

I wouldn't be surprised if the full claim is being audited to ensure it is correct.

That's just good practice from the business point of view. That's not saying that the incorrect journey wasn't an honest mistake. It's just ensuring that the claim is correct and the company are not paying out incorrectly.

It is also possible that the amended claim form missed the deadline for payment.

Just speak to the manager on Monday and ask

Could you have made any previous errors too? Do you keep a copy of what you submit? I think they are auditing.

You do not know that. You know that the OP says that. And I am not suggesting it isn't true. I am suggesting, based on experience, that few people admit to things they intentionally did wrong, at least in the first instance. I am also pointing out that in employment the legal requirements are very different to criminal law. In employment the employer only requires a "reasonable belief" of something not evidence of it. So if the employer formed a reasonable belief that the employee claimed expenses to which they are not entitled (which they did!) then that is sufficient for a fair dismissal. So the requirements for the employer to act are not missing. Whether there is evidence sufficient for a criminal test is a very different thing - but if an audit found that the error was part of a pattern then that may be enough to prove intent.

Friend writes hers on sheet that she keeps in her car OP then ticks them off as she does each journey. Means she doesnt forget and it double checks as she ticks each one off