Business expenses: keeping track of executives

The conviction of Conrad Black in the US on three charges of fraud and one of obstructing the course of justice has brought the question of corporate extravagance into sharp focus. Just where do executives and directors draw the line when travelling on business or entertaining clients and customers? Follow these rules of thumb to stay squeaky clean:

• Stay in your comfort zone

When travelling on business, your expenditure should reflect your normal income and lifestyle. If you expend the company's money on luxuries that would normally be beyond your own pocket, then you are asking for trouble.

• One man's meat

In some image-conscious sectors shareholders are more likely to accept a degree of extravagance. Conventions differ in different industries. A football or show business agent negotiating a big contract could probably justify higher proportionate entertainment expenses than a sub-contractor negotiating the same price for a wastewater pipeline trench on a public building project.

• That's entertainment

Paying for a £250 lunch after discussing financial restructuring with a highly rewarded City broker who earns a million-pound-a-year bonus would be considered 'business as usual'. Paying £250 for a bouncy castle at a customers' kids' birthday party could be considered a corrupt payment in, say, the engineering or construction sector.

• Forget percentages

The sums spent entertaining potential clients or customers should be measured according to the magnitude of their potential value to your business, but the percentage diminishes as the numbers increase. Spending £50 buying lunch in pursuit of an order valued at £2,500 (2%) would probably be fine, whereas spending £5,000 at a corporate event chasing a £250,000 order would be considered highly excessive - and blowing £50,000 seeking an order worth £2.5m would border on criminality. Spending has to be proportionate.

• Sweet somethings

Expending the company's money on entertainment after a deal has already been done and the transaction is already in progress could be viewed in a different light, too. The justification 'keeping the customer sweet' isn't the same as winning the order or contract in the first place.

• Buddy building

Be careful how you spend the company's money with colleagues in the employ of the same enterprise or group. Team building is fine, up to a point, but extravagant outlay on, say, drinks, hotels, gambling and entertainment, when a conventional meeting would suffice, could be construed as an irresponsible waste of the shareholders funds.

• High flyer

Top people may need to be pampered, but, as a general rule, travelling should be arranged on the basis of the most cost and time efficient method - not the most luxurious or pleasing method available.

• Family affair?

There should always be a solid business justification for including partners, spouses, siblings, offspring or other relatives and any non-business connections in corporate event involving an expense account.

• Horses for courses

Take care to separate money spent on your hobbies and outside interests from your legitimate business spending. This includes such things as overseas travel, the use of holiday homes, golf club membership and activity, horse racing, sporting events, gambling, boating, clubbing and the use of illicit substances or services in a non-business context. If you're participating because these are things that you like to enjoy, that might just have a beneficial business consequence, you'd better be ready to explain exactly what those benefits are.

• Whose money is it, anyway?

Owning a business outright or being a major shareholder or director does not entitle you to treat the business's money as your own. Other stakeholders in the business - like the bank, shareholders, HM Revenue & Customs, the local authority, the pension fund, suppliers, creditors and employees - have legitimate interests in the conduct of its affairs that may take precedence over yours. You might think, quite rightly, that it's your company, but its money is emphatically not yours to spend. You can spend the money it pays you, after tax, in salary, bonuses, legitimate expenses and dividends as extravagantly as you like.

If in any doubt, take professional advice.

Stephen Fox is a fraud defence expert and partner at national law firm Ralli Solicitors

For more info go to www.ralli.co.uk