I Falsified an expenses claim, so now what

[feelprettyawful]

sorry long explanation, but decision is whether to come clean or not...

Normal practice at my work is we pay in advance out of pocket for travel expenses & claim back later. This worked fine until sudden trip cancellations due to covid.

I tried to get refunds for everything covid-cancelled but then to keep the repayment claim applications simple, on one item I claimed full price rather than the 3 different partial refund claims I could have done for same value. Difference from auditors' viewpoint is about £40 out of Account A that I was actually refunded for and should have claimed out of Account B. I don't know if I still have all the original tickets etc. but I may have images of them. And emails showing partial refunds, etc.

Auditor is asking for proof I tried to get refunds on everything. I either come clean about the falsification using my partial/failed real claims to refund.. or ... try to keep up the lies. I am half tempted to come clean & if I lose my job and career that might have its own merits, anyway, although it would upset a lot of people and put me in poverty, I suppose.

It matters to me that I have worked about 300 hours unpaid this year. All the time I spend trying talking to auditor is also unpaid hours. I understand that The auditor won't give a shit about my unpaid hours and neither do I suppose will most MNers. I am net out of pocket still, technically, just £4 or so.

Irk. How fucked am I?

Critical Global Issue.

Explain truthfully and I'm pretty certain you won't even remember this in a years time.

*Don’t fudge emails. Don’t lie or act thick - you’re clearly in a position of trust and professionalism, with which acting thick would be at odds. Don’t mention your extra hours - not relevant and makes you look shady (as written way more eloquently above). Don’t say you did it incorrectly deliberately for brevity/simplicity. These are bad suggestions that’ll make things worse.

Do do as another poster suggested, hand them your evidence as requested with an ‘oops, on review, £40 has been allocated incorrectly and I haven’t reclaimed £4’.*

There’s no point writing my own post when this one says it all! Keep it simple.

Don’t lie.

Don’t act thick.

Be furious because you’ve done your absolute best with the refunds and they way I read it you are the person who will be out of pocket due to the partial refunds.

Point out the hours of unpaid work you have put in this year demonstrating your commitment to your employer. Point out the clear lack of commitment they have shown you in return.

Tell them that in future all expenses must be paid directly by the company as you are not prepared to accept being put in this stressful and humiliating position in future.

The auditor won't care, just say you can't find the tickets but you realised it's from a different account and you under claimed by £4. They really aren't worried about these things - £1000 would be different

I’d probably just give them what they asked for - proof that you tried to get a refund - that’s literally all they’ve asked for.

And you did that over the phone didn’t you? So no email available.