Top 10 ways to make good use of your time on daily trips

What is a business trip?

Typically, a business trip is the sending of an employee of an enterprise for a certain period of time to perform some task in another division of the company or another place. There is a document regulating this circumstance. This is Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 749 as amended on July 29, 2015.

Typically, travel days are counted from the time the vehicle departs and ends with its return. Business travel is considered to be the days between the date of departure and arrival. In the absence of tickets certifying travel, the start date is considered from the moment of check-in at the hotel or drawing up a rental agreement for residential premises . At a temporary place of work, the start and end dates of work must be recorded, and in the absence of other documents confirming the terms of the business trip, the countdown is based on them.

It is important to note that travel and accommodation are usually paid for by the employer. And also for the entire period of the trip, the salary of the posted worker is maintained. All cash payments provided for during the trip are made in the currency of the country to which the employee was sent.

After arrival, the employee must submit a documented report to the HR department or management team within 3 working days Documents that need to be provided:

A complete advance report of all expenses.
Residential rental agreement.
Travel tickets or documents certifying it.
Documentary evidence of expenses related to business travel expenses.

Key concepts and legislative framework

First, you need to understand what a business trip is and in what cases it applies.

So, a business trip is the sending of an employee for a certain period of time, agreed upon by the management of the company, to fulfill an assignment given by the company, away from the employee’s place of permanent work.

In addition, dispatch to another division of the same company, located in a different location, is also considered a business dispatch of an employee.

The main document regulating the planning and implementation of activities for the secondment of workers, Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 749 as amended on July 29, 2015.

The trip begins its countdown from the moment of departure of the train, plane or other vehicle on which the employee departs. The day of arrival from a business trip is the day when the train or other transport arrives back. The number of days between these two dates is the actual time spent on work leave .

If travel documents have not been preserved, then the start date is usually considered to be the date of registration at the hotel or the date in the rental agreement. If these documents are not available, then the dates correspond to the dates on which the arrival and departure of the seconded employee at the temporary place of performance of official duties was noted.

All costs associated with renting accommodation and travel are reimbursed by the employer. At the same time, the employee retains his average salary for the duration of the trip.

If a business trip on a weekend takes place outside of Russia, then all payments (including daily allowances) are made in the currency of the country where the employee was sent.

Upon returning from a work trip, the employee is obliged to submit the following documents to the HR department or direct management within 3 working days :

An advance report of all amounts spent.
Documents for renting housing for living.
Documents confirming travel expenses.
Documents confirming other expenses related directly to the implementation of the tasks assigned to him.

What if you are leaving on a business trip on a weekend?

This often happens when you need to be at a business trip on Monday morning. Therefore, the departure date falls on Saturday or Sunday. There are two calculation options: double or single, with a written request from the employee to use time off on this date. Daily allowances are calculated only for those days during which the business trip lasted.

It happens that a business trip is delayed, and the employee has to be away from home on weekends. Payment in this case occurs only if the employee worked on these days, which is officially certified in the form of an order. Then the calculation is made in double amount or time off and a single payment are taken.

We're going to work. Five ways to make the most of your travel time

Photo: Nevspic.com

Perhaps right now you are stuck in a traffic jam or standing breathless in a crowded public transport on the way to work. Take a deep breath and read this text, which we have prepared especially for you based on numerous studies by British and American scientists.

In 2006, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues surveyed 909 working women in Texas and found that their most unpleasant event of the day was the morning commute to the office. The way home was in third place, work - in second.

Travel time

To begin with, it would be nice to ask yourself a simple question: why the hell am I going to such a distance in the first place?

I have a friend who travels to work from Cherepovets to Vologda. And, probably, all the inconveniences associated with this are worth it if he is paid crazy money in Vologda...

25 million working Americans spend more than an hour and a half on the road every day, data from the US Census Bureau shows. Brits spend an average of 54 minutes on the road. In most of the world's largest cities, from Milan to Manila, residents spend more than an hour on public transport.

Most people are willing to travel far for a high salary or a good home in a prestigious area. In one experiment, more than 500 Americans were asked to choose one of two jobs. First: salary - $67,000 per year, travel time - 50 minutes; second: salary - $64,000, travel time - 20 minutes. Everything else is the same: area of residence, career prospects, pleasure from the position. The vast majority of participants (84%) voted for the first option: they were willing to sacrifice an entire hour of work a day—250 hours a year—for $3,000. The researchers checked whether the participants understood this arrangement: yes, they did. But their responses reflected an inability to fully appreciate the emotional and physical costs of a long journey.

Don't repeat such mistakes - you won't end up with grief.

And one more thing... One of the radical ways to reduce travel time without changing your place of work or residence is to periodically work at home or close to home, for example in coworking spaces.

Studies have found that people who work remotely on certain days are more productive and satisfied with life.

An experiment conducted at the Chinese travel agency Ctrip by Stanford economist Nick Bloom and his colleagues found that employees assigned to work from home got 13% more done than those who remained in the office, experienced greater job satisfaction, and were 50% less likely to quit. .

Time to get ready for work

Commuting to work provides a chance to comfortably transition from personal to professional life. There are simple rituals to ease the "retuning." Francesca Gino and Hal Hershfield from the University of California, Los Angeles found that those who repeat the same actions along the way - for example, reading the news or looking through the daily to-do list - are more excited about the work ahead and are more satisfied with their responsibilities and experience less stress than those who do no such thing. So consider getting into a travel habit.

Preparing for Productivity

Spending at least part of your journey planning your day or week will help you arrive at the office in a better mood and be able to perform better. These are the results of a number of studies we carried out in the UK and America. After speaking to 225 employees at DigitasLBi's UK offices, researchers found that the more time people spent commuting, the less satisfied they were with their jobs and the more willing they were to quit. But there were exceptions to this rule, which led to the assumption that some employees have psychological characteristics that help them avoid the negative impact of long journeys. They discovered the ability to self-control, that is, the ability to resist temptations in the name of long-term goals.

"Pocket of Freedom"

In a traffic jam, on a crowded train or bus, you most likely do not feel in control of the situation. But you can focus on what you are doing during the trip. After all, you have favorite activities: music, podcasts, reading.

We overheard the expression “pocket of freedom” from Adela, the grandmother of one of the authors (John), who spent her youth in the Polish ghettos during the Nazi occupation.

Despite hunger and fear, every evening she studied with her niece for an hour. This habit, according to Adela’s recollections, helped her survive. Therefore, along the way, you can not only absorb media content, but also learn languages through audio courses or, if your hands are free, draw or knit. This advice is backed by research showing a correlation between high levels of independence and well-being, high work productivity and low stress levels.

Communicate!

One of the disadvantages of a long journey is loneliness. Behavioral psychologists Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago and Juliana Schroeder of the University of California at Berkeley have shown that talking to strangers can make our way easier. Scientists came to the station, persuaded more than 200 people to take part in the experiment and randomly assigned them to three groups. Some were asked to communicate with a fellow traveler on the road, others were asked not to speak to anyone, and others were asked to behave as usual.

It turned out that those who were asked to talk to a stranger were more satisfied with the trip and did not feel a decline in work productivity.

If you use public transport, try taking off your headphones and breaking the unwritten rule of riding silently. If you're driving, talk to your friends using speakerphone. And if you're using a company bus, just start talking to the person sitting next to you!

Prepared by Sergey Mikhailov Samolet

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How are travel allowances calculated on weekends?

Usually all working days are counted. Daily calculation is not carried out if the trip took one day. To calculate pay, the employee's average earnings for the past year are calculated. To do this, the amount of all wage payments during is divided by the amount of days actually worked. The result is multiplied by the number of days that the employee will be on a business trip.

Example

An employee of the Vesna enterprise, Petr Kolesnikov, was sent on a business trip for this organization to a subsidiary branch for 5 days. After all the necessary calculations, it turned out that Kolesnikov worked 180 working days. At the same time, he earned 30,000 rubles monthly. Calculation of Kolesnikov’s average salary:

30000Х12/180 = 2000 rubles per day.
Calculation of travel allowances for 5 days:
2000X5=10000 rubles.

Typically, daily rates on a weekend are determined by the head of the company or an employee authorized by him. The standard amount of these payments, established by the law of the Russian Federation, is 700 rubles per day, if the business trip is carried out on the territory of Russia; abroad, the amount of these payments is 2,500 rubles per day. These payments are not subject to tax. But if the amount exceeds the norms, then from the point of view of the tax code this is considered the income of an individual and therefore the amount exceeding the norm is subject to tax.

As for the execution of the order, it is standard. If the business trip falls on a weekend, then an order is written to recruit the employee to work, due to production needs, on the weekend.

Travel certificate as a barrier

Let's start with Letter N 17-4/1647 as more ambiguous. It considers the following situation. The company's employees go on business trips. For each business trip, an order from the director and a service assignment are issued. At the end of the business trip, the employee draws up a report. Travel expenses are confirmed by the necessary primary documents: strict reporting forms from hotels, air and railway tickets, etc. However, there is one nuance that spoils the good picture: the company does not issue or issue a travel certificate to the employee . This makes her naturally uneasy. And the question that worries me most is: are travel expenses not subject to insurance premiums if they are not confirmed by a travel certificate? The compilers of Letter No. 17-4/1647, judging by the response, believe that they are taxed. And this is how it is argued. Part 1 of Art. 7 of the Federal Law of July 24, 2009 N 212-FZ “On insurance contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation, the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund” (hereinafter referred to as Law N 212-FZ) defines the object of taxation of insurance contributions. For payers of insurance premiums - organizations, such payments and other remunerations accrued by them in favor of individuals, in particular, within the framework of labor relations are recognized. As stated in Part 1 of Art. 8 of Law N 212-FZ, the base for calculating insurance premiums is defined as the amount of payments and other remunerations accrued by companies for the billing period in favor of individuals, with the exception of the amounts specified in Art. 9 of Law No. 212-FZ. It also stipulates that when paying expenses for business trips of employees both within the territory of Russia and abroad, the following actually made and documented targeted expenses are not subject to insurance premiums:

for travel to and from your destination;
fees for airport services, commission fees, expenses for travel to the airport or train station at the places of departure, destination or transfers, for baggage transportation;
expenses for renting residential premises;
expenses for payment of communication services;
fees for issuing (receiving) and registering a service foreign passport, fees for issuing (receiving) visas;
costs of exchanging cash or a bank check for cash in foreign currency.

In accordance with the provisions of Art. 166 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation has developed a Regulation on the specifics of sending employees on business trips (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 13, 2008 N 749, hereinafter referred to as the Regulation on Business Travel). Paragraph 7 of this document states that, based on the employer’s decision, the employee is issued a travel certificate confirming the duration of his stay on a business trip, namely the date of arrival at the destination and the date of departure from there. The actual length of stay at the place of business trip is determined by the marks on the date of arrival and date of departure, put on the travel document by the receiving party. Upon returning from a business trip, an employee is required to submit an advance report to the employer within three working days. It must be accompanied by a duly executed travel certificate, documents on the rental of accommodation, actual travel expenses and other expenses associated with the business trip. So, according to officials of the Ministry of Labor, issuing a report without attaching a travel certificate is a direct violation of the requirements of current legislation . This means that payments made to a posted employee cannot be considered as reimbursement of expenses in connection with the business trip. And if so, then such payments are subject to mandatory insurance contributions in accordance with the general procedure . To be honest, it is difficult for us to agree with such conclusions. For example, there are business trips for which it is pointless to issue a travel certificate. Let's say a correspondent is on a job assignment that requires him to interview an ordinary citizen in his home. Who in this situation should put marks on the travel certificate? Or, let’s say, an employing company organizes an offsite seminar for its employees in another region. What to do in this case? And there are still so many other options. In our opinion, there is no reason to worry. Optimism inspires another Letter of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated February 14, 2013 N 14-2-291. In it, referring, by the way, to the Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 16, 2011 N 03-03-06/3/7, officials of the Ministry of Labor agree that if it is impossible to put notes on arrival and departure on the travel certificate, the fact that the employee is at the place of business trip in the established time can be confirmed by other documents. These include, for example:

order to send an employee on a business trip;
official assignment for sending on a business trip and a report on its implementation;
travel documents indicating the dates of arrival and departure from the destination;
hotel invoice confirming the period of stay at the place of business trip.

The specified procedure for documenting a business trip should be fixed in an internal company document. Thus, in our opinion, if a company is able to prove that, for reasons beyond its control, a travel certificate cannot be issued, there is nothing to worry about regarding the assessment of mandatory insurance contributions for payments related to a business trip.

How to correctly fill out a time sheet?

Despite the employee being on a business trip, the days must be marked as working days in his timesheet. With the only difference: days spent on a business trip are marked either with the letter “K” or the number “06”. This is when the business trip falls on regular working days. On weekends, these marks will look different: in the form of the letters “RV” or the number “03”.

At the same time, it is possible to mark two values on the timesheet at once in order to see when work during the trip coincided with days off. This is done in order to know for which days worked double wages are calculated. Payment for travel expenses on weekends and holidays is calculated equally. But entering both values at once ensures that the calculation is carried out in certain amounts, and the employee retains all his rights while he is absent from his main job.

Days for which per diem is paid

Daily allowance is paid for each day spent on a business trip. This is directly indicated by:

clause 11 of the Regulations under Resolution No. 749;
subp. “b” clause 1 of Resolution No. 729.

A similar conclusion follows from the wording used in paragraph 5 of Resolution No. 812.

Moreover, an exception is not made for days (clause 11 of the Regulations under Resolution No. 749, clause 6 of Resolution No. 812):

general weekend;
non-working holidays;
forced delays in transit;
illness that occurred during the business trip.

Accordingly, the need to pay daily allowance also applies to days on the road. The start and end dates of the journey are, as a rule, determined by travel tickets (including they may coincide with general days off or non-working holidays if there is a need to leave/arrive on these days). If the place of departure/arrival of transport is remote from the place of permanent work, the departure/arrival time is adjusted taking into account the time required to travel between these two points (clause 4 of the Regulations under Resolution No. 749), and this may shift the departure/arrival date.

If the trip is carried out on official or personal transport, the date of departure/arrival is determined according to the waybill (clause 7 of the Regulations to Resolution No. 749).

The only basis for not paying daily allowance is the employee’s ability to return daily from the place of business trip to his home (clause 11 of the Regulations to Resolution No. 749). Therefore, for one-day business trips, per diem, as a rule, is not paid.

The employer may decide to pay them, but in this case, in order to avoid tax consequences, it is better to correlate such payment not with daily allowance, but with other expenses arising on a business trip. If a business trip to an area from which it is possible to return daily lasts several days, then the decision on the advisability of this return is made by the employer.

Is it possible to refuse a business trip on a day off?

Any employee has every right to refuse a business trip on a weekend or holiday. A business trip is work anyway, so if it goes on the weekend, it turns out that they kind of “disappear.”

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation (Article 113) describes in detail in what situations an employee can be attracted to work on a day off. The article states that this only happens under extreme circumstances, such as a catastrophe or the threat of a natural disaster. In these cases, the employee does not have the right to refuse a business trip, since there is a vital need for it. Refusal in this case will be considered a violation of labor laws, and is punishable by a fine or dismissal.

In the absence of compelling reasons and the need for a business trip, a written agreement is concluded to involve the employee in work on a weekend or holiday. Such an agreement is drawn up by the traveling employee and the head of the organization.

Some tips:

Before sending an employee on a business trip, it is necessary to double-check the start and end dates of the trip in advance.
Check travel dates to ensure they coincide with weekends.
Carefully fill out timesheets to ensure that employee accruals are made correctly.

Every person has the right to rest. Therefore, the manager needs to be more attentive to the legality of arranging a business trip for his employees on weekends or holidays.

Travel time to pay or not

Travel time: to pay or not

Discussion on the forum

Colleagues, I need some advice. Workers work according to a shift schedule. Delivery

to work (starts at 6:30) and from work (20:30) by transport

enterprises. Travel time to work place is 1.5 hours (i.e. they leave at 5

morning). Is the employer obliged to pay for travel time and at what rate?

rate - what are the working hours? If delivery is in the morning, then what about additional payment?

for night mode (+40%)? In internal local acts payment of time

on the way is not specified. Thank you.

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B They don’t work on the road, do they? I think not, because it works at this time,

as far as I understand, only the driver who delivers your

workers to their place of work. When they were hired, they knew

that the place of work is so far away? Or do they have changing objects?

B Travel time is paid only for those who are traveling

work. And since they don’t have a traveler, they don’t have to pay for the trip

need to.

D Travel time to work is not working time in this case.

Article 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation gives a clear definition of what it includes. Time

there is no way marked there. Employer paid rest time

defined in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. There is no travel time to work there.

Expert opinion:

Article 91 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, defining working time as the time during which an employee, in accordance with the internal labor regulations and the terms of the employment contract, must perform labor duties, includes in this concept other periods of time that, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, relate to working hours. time.

The legislation considers such periods to be downtime (Part 3 of Article 72.2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation), certain breaks (Part 3 of Article 108, Articles 109, 258, 264 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and some others, and among them there is no travel time or time of delivery to work by company transport (except for cases when the work is of a traveling/mobile nature or is carried out on the road).

At the same time, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not contain definitions of these concepts, although according to Art. 57 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the condition determining the traveling, etc. nature of the work is a mandatory condition of the employment contract with the employee.

It can be found in some departmental regulations, for example in paragraph 2 of the still valid Regulations on the payment of allowances related to the mobile and traveling nature of work in construction, approved by the Resolution of the State Committee for Labor of the USSR and the Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions dated 06/01/1989 N 169/10-87: “The traveling nature of work is established for employees performing work at sites located at a considerable distance from the location of the organization, which is associated with trips during non-working hours from the location of the organization (assembly point) to the place of work at the site and back.”

Also, according to the Federal Industry Agreement on Construction and the Construction Materials Industry of the Russian Federation for 2011 - 2013 (clause 3.13), the traveling nature of work stipulates that employees travel during non-working hours from the location of the employer (collection point) to the place of work at the site and back. At the same time, a different amount of allowance is established for the traveling nature of work - depending on the time of travel of workers during non-working hours.

Thus, travel to the place of work is included in working hours only for a category of workers strictly defined by law (whose work is of a traveling/mobile nature or is carried out on the road); The time spent on this is compensated by a special bonus.

Article 168.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, part 2, provides that the list of jobs, professions, and positions of such workers is established by a collective agreement, agreements, and local regulations; in addition, the amount and procedure for reimbursement of these expenses may also be established by the employment contract. That is, the organization must independently decide on the classification of work for a specific position and profession as work of a traveling nature. And therefore, about the compensation associated with this.

As follows from the issue discussed at the forum, such a list does not exist in the organization and this deprives employees of the right to demand payment or other compensation for the time spent traveling to work.