Despite the fact that today it is possible to contact another division of the company or another enterprise via the Internet or by telephone, employers have to send employees on business trips. Often, the help of a highly qualified specialist is required not only at the main place of work, but also in other branches and divisions of the company. The purposes of travel may involve a short-term or long-term stay on a business trip. Previously, the duration of a business trip was strictly limited by law, but today the maximum duration of a business trip is not regulated.
How to determine the duration of a business trip
A business trip is considered the usual execution of instructions from the employer, but involves the performance of labor functions not at the main place of work, but at the enterprise of the receiving party, located in another area.
Before sending an employee on a business trip, the employer is obliged to determine the purpose of the trip and, depending on the complexity of the tasks assigned to the employee, set a date for the business trip. The first day of a business trip is always taken to be the day of departure indicated on the travel ticket for the selected transport. The same applies to the day the trip ends - the date will be indicated on the ticket as the day of arrival at the locality in which the employer’s organization is located.
Changes in the timing of a business trip must be reported by issuing a special order. The time that the employee will spend on the road (including the time of forced stops, for example, due to flight delays/cancellations) should also be taken into account when indicating the travel dates, since these days are also recognized as working days and are subject to payment.
You also need to take into account the time it takes to check in for your flight. For example, even if the plane's departure is scheduled for 2 a.m. on November 15, you need to indicate November 14 as the first day of travel, because you need to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before departure.
How is the duration of the trip determined?
The head of the organization or other authorized person has the right to determine the duration of the employee’s trip based on what goals of the trip are set for him and what tasks he must solve.
The duration of the trip must be determined in advance, before the employee leaves for the destination, since the employer is obliged to calculate and pay him an advance.
If during an employee’s trip there is a delay in transport, or for reasons beyond the employee’s control the resolution of work issues is delayed, the period of the work trip is extended. In this case, management is obliged to either increase payments to the employee or provide him with additional days off.
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What to do when the Employer does not want to formalize it?
What is the maximum duration of a business trip?
To correctly determine the estimated duration of a business trip, you need to take into account the following factors:
- place of arrival (within Russia or abroad);
- the complexity of the tasks assigned to the employee;
- scope of proposed work;
- features of instructions related to the specifics of the company’s activities.
Previously, there were clear regulations regarding the maximum duration of an employee's stay on a trip, but today the norms have been abolished. That is, the managers of subordinates have the right to set the duration of a business trip at their discretion, based on the complexity of completing the tasks assigned to the employee.
Despite the relaxations regarding the duration of the trip, the legislator did not cancel the procedure for paying for business trips - the employee must receive a salary, compensation for the costs of purchasing travel tickets, daily allowances to pay for housing and food, as well as other payments designed to reimburse him for expenses during the trip (as agreed with the employer).
If, contrary to the employer’s decision, the employee went on a trip earlier than expected, the employer has the right not to pay for the extra days.
Maximum period for sending abroad.
An employee’s long trip abroad carries certain risks of changing his status from resident to non-resident. But, despite this, the law does not limit the duration of such trips in any way, which means they can be determined by the employer independently.
Natalia
Labor expert
It is important to know! The employer is obliged to pay the employee additional expenses associated with traveling abroad, including the cost of obtaining a foreign passport and obtaining a visa, if the employee does not have these documents.
How to change the timing of a business trip
At the legislative level, the procedure for changing the timing of business trips is not approved, but company managers are required to draw up certain documents. If the company's activities involve frequent organization of business trips, it would be more convenient to develop a local regulation that would fully regulate the issues of business trips, including a clause on changing their dates.
Registration of changes in the duration of a business trip begins with the issuance of an appropriate order, both in the case of increasing the duration of the trip and reducing its duration. In this case, there is no need to make changes to the previously issued order and official assignment.
Apart from drawing up an order, no action needs to be taken - the order is a sufficient basis for adjusting payments to a posted employee and for taking into account the costs of making these payments as expenses when calculating the taxable base for income tax.
Can a business trip be indefinite?
Despite the fact that the law does not limit the duration of business trips, they cannot be indefinite. This conclusion can be drawn from Art. 166 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which contains the concept of a business trip and indicates that the duration of the trip must be certain.
However, in practice, there are cases when a seconded employee, after the end of his official trip, remains to work in a separate division of the enterprise to which he was sent to resolve certain tasks. In this case, by agreement between him and the management of the organization, the transfer of the employee to permanent work in this separate unit can be arranged.
Maximum duration of a business trip: the employee returned later
It happens that an employee, for certain reasons, returns to the company at his main place of work later than expected. Such changes entail additional payments; in addition, the HR department will be forced to document the end of the trip later than the previously approved date. The document should indicate the basis for extending the trip, this could be:
- impossibility of fulfilling the employer’s instructions within the time determined before the business trip;
- assigning an employee an additional amount of work;
- the presence of the employer’s interest in extending the business trip or the interest of the host company;
- delay/cancellation of an airplane flight or train departure;
- lack of travel tickets at the box office;
- an employee’s illness acquired during the trip or injury.
In any case, the employee is required to provide documentary evidence that the extension of the business trip was necessary if the trip was delayed due to his fault or due to the lack of travel tickets. As soon as the employee arrives, he must report within 3 days on the reasons for the delay.
If, before departure, the employee received money intended to pay for travel and accommodation during the business trip, and it was extended, the employer is obliged to instruct an accountant to recalculate the amount issued. When paying travel money, it is necessary to generate pay slips.
What to do if you need to extend your business trip?
If the fulfillment of a task received when sent on a trip requires the presence of a specialist for more than the established period, for example, for technical reasons, or the person fell ill and could not do work for several days, by analogy with a recall from a business trip ahead of schedule, an order to extend the business trip may be issued.
The employee will also be familiarized with his signature after his arrival at the main workplace.
The only nuance that is important not to forget is that if the posted employee belongs to the category of persons who have certain guarantees and benefits that require the employee’s consent to perform official duties outside his main workplace, associated with traveling to another location for a certain period of time, consent to extend the business trip must be get again.
By prior means, for example, by telephone, the person must agree to stay late to complete the assigned work.
Such employees include:
- employees with children under three years of age;
- parents of children under five years of age raising without the help of a second spouse;
- persons who have a dependent child recognized as disabled;
- workers caring for incapacitated relatives, according to a medical report on the need for outside care;
- working disabled people.
Common mistakes
Error: The employer, when calculating the duration of a business trip, did not take into account weekends.
Comment: Weekends are necessarily taken into account in the duration of a business trip. Even if an employee does not work on a day off, he is entitled to be paid a daily allowance.
Error: The employer set the duration of the business trip to 1 year, since this is the maximum period for which the law allows a construction worker to be sent on a business trip.
Comment: Current legislation does not establish a maximum duration of a business trip - it can be any, depending on the complexity of the tasks assigned to the employee.
Regulation in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation
Labor legislation (Article 166 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) provides a clear definition of what should be considered business trips. These are trips carried out on behalf of the employer for a certain period of time (usually a day or more) to perform work functions outside the aspen place of work.
At the same time, the legislator determined that trips of employees who have a traveling or mobile nature of work (for example, drivers, carriage conductors, traveling cashiers) should not be considered business trips.
The general rules for registration and compensation of travel expenses are outlined in government decree No. 749 of October 13, 2008. Among the basic points that should be remembered are the following:
- The size of the maximum tax-free travel allowance is established by law. Everything above is taxed according to the general rules;
- the employer is obliged to determine in an internal local document the procedure for sending employees on business trips, as well as confirmation of the expenses incurred;
- days of departure, arrival, travel, type of transport, associated costs and their maximum amounts are determined by the company’s local document;
- expenses incurred must be documented;
- the duration of the business trip is set by the employer in agreement with the worker;
- The law establishes a list of persons who are prohibited from being sent on business trips, even with their consent (pregnant women, minors, disabled people).
Remember, the general rules for sending on a business trip are regulated by legislative regulations. The specifics of each specific company should be displayed in local documents.
Answers to common questions about the maximum duration of a business trip
Question No. 1: The employer arranged a business trip for an employee, which should begin on January 13. But the employee took the initiative, exchanged a plane ticket and flew to his destination 3 days earlier. Should the manager pay for these 3 days?
Answer: If the initiative to change the timing of a business trip did not come from the employer, he is not obliged to pay wages and daily allowances on those days that were not included in the travel period.
Question No. 2: Should weekends and holidays be taken into account when determining the timing of a business trip?
Answer: Yes, weekends and holidays are also taken into account in the total duration of the business trip.
If an employee is on holiday on a day off, he is entitled to a daily allowance; if he was working, he is entitled to double daily allowance and the average salary (or single amount, if the employee wishes to take time off upon returning from a trip). Rate the quality of the article. Your opinion is important to us:
How can I change the duration of my trip?
Changes in duration must be agreed upon with the employee by way of notice.
The employer makes changes to an already accepted order or issues a new document, which the employee must be familiarized with under signature after arriving from a business trip. Changes must be financially supported.
The employer sends the employee additional money to pay for:
- travel (if necessary);
- rental housing;
- daily allowance;
- other expenses agreed upon with the head of the enterprise.
Expenses may be reimbursed upon the employee's return.
The employer can also return part of the expenses that were justified for a business purpose and were spent from the employee’s personal funds.
Extension registration
The employer supplements an already issued order or accepts a new one.
The possibility of extending a business trip also remains at the discretion of the manager responsible for the purposes of the business trip and who sent the employee on the trip.
The employer has the right to accept an order in form T9, which indicates:
- information about the employee, his personnel number;
- purpose of the trip;
- the expected date of change in the duration of the business trip.
There is no need to issue a travel permit or renew it, but the employer has the right to do this at his own discretion.
How many times a year can they go on a business trip to Russian Railways?
Although this is not stipulated by law, there are two travel periods: planned and actual. The planned period is the expected dates of the business trip, which are reflected in the business trip order (clause 3 of the regulations approved by the resolution
Government of the Russian Federation dated October 13, 2008 No. 749). The order is drawn up before the person leaves on a business trip. The manager also signs the document before sending the employee on a trip.
Therefore, these dates are indicative only. In practice, a business trip may drag on or even, on the contrary, end prematurely. This can happen for various reasons: the employee was delayed on the way, got sick, or, for example, completed a work task ahead of schedule. In any case, this shifts the actual dates of the trip relative to the planned ones. The maximum period for which a business trip can be issued. Having carefully studied the regulatory framework fundamental in 2021, for the registration of a business trip considered a business trip, we note the basic requirements:
- the presence of a written order from the manager, defining: the purpose of separating the employee from the main workplace and sending him to another area;
- deadlines sufficient to complete the assigned task;
The manager determines the period for which the employee goes on a business trip. In the event that a business trip takes longer than planned, due to an unforeseen stop along the way or the additional time required to complete the task, the person must be compensated for additional expenses. Moreover, in case of extension of the business trip, an advance payment for daily expenses and accommodation during the estimated period can be sent by postal order or transferred to the employee’s bank account. How is a day off on a business trip paid? If an employee is forced, in order to get to the destination of a business trip, to travel on his scheduled day off or a non-working day by law (holiday), first of all, his consent must be obtained in accordance with the norms of labor legislation. Employees cannot be sent on business trips (with the exception of business trips related to apprenticeship) during the period of validity of the apprenticeship contract (Article 203 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). In relation to certain categories of workers (women with children under three years of age; parents raising children under five years of age without a spouse (as well as guardians and trustees of such children); workers with disabled children or caring for sick members of their families in accordance with a medical report), the law establishes a restriction according to which such employees can be sent on business trips only with their written consent and provided that this is not prohibited to them in accordance with a medical report issued in the prescribed manner. In this case, these persons must be informed in writing of their right to refuse to be sent on a business trip (Art.
The procedure for sending an employee on a business trip
Now that the company has developed local Regulations, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with how business trips are processed in practice.
Typically, the basis for a business trip is:
- Memorandum from the head of the department. This may be your own initiative, or the need to inform about some event or fact, where the help of a competent specialist who is not in this department is required to eliminate the problem.
- The company's work plan for business trips (inspections, visits). Typically approved at the beginning of the financial year.
- Invitation (letter asking for help) from the receiving party. Participation in various seminars, meetings, the need to help solve a problematic issue, or eliminate an emergency (emergency) situation.
Before you start filling out an order, you need to make sure that the worker is at work, is not sick, and has not taken leave for this period. It is also clarified whether the employer has the right to send him on a business trip (it is prohibited to send pregnant women, disabled people, and minors on business trips). Sending young single mothers with minor children and mothers with children under 3 years of age on a business trip can be carried out only with their consent.
How many times a year can they go on a business trip?
However, there is still a possibility of an administrative fine (Part 1 of Article 18.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). When a foreigner temporarily residing in Russia is sent on a business trip, the period of his work outside the region in which temporary residence is permitted must not exceed 40 calendar days within 12 calendar months.
In this case, the employee must work in the profession specified in the list approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated July 28, 2010 No. 564n. If a foreigner goes on a business trip within the region where he is allowed temporary residence, there is no limitation on the duration of the business trip. This procedure is provided for in subparagraph “a” of paragraph 2 of the appendix to the order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated July 28, 2010 No. 564n.
