Expense Policy
Gitlab Foundation will pay and reimburse employees for necessary and reasonable business expenses incurred on behalf of or in connection with carrying out the organization's activities. Items not listed on the approved expenses.
Reason for Policy
To ensure sound business practices and proper reporting of all business expenses in compliance with applicable regulations, including tax regulations under the Internal Revenue Code.
Responsibility of Team Members
Team members, their manager and the CFO are responsible for ensuring that all reimbursements for travel and non-travel business expenses are necessary and reasonable and are made in accordance with this policy and external regulations. When submitting expense reimbursement, supporting documentation should be provided. In certain instances, GitLab Foundation may require additional information supporting an expense. Each team member is expected to exercise sound and prudent judgment while traveling on business or incurring business expenses on behalf of GitLab Foundation. It is each team member's responsibility to correctly complete their request for expense reimbursement and obtain their manager’s approval.
Accountable Plan
GitLab Foundation maintains an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "accountable plan," under which reimbursements for travel, entertainment and non-travel business expenses are not required to be reported as income to the employee. Under the IRS accountable plan rules, the following three requirements must be met:
- Expenses reimbursed are towards nonprofit business purposes
- Excess reimbursements are returned within a reasonable period of time (no more than 60 days after receipt)
- Expenses are recorded and accounted for within a reasonable period of time (within 30 days of incurring the expense)
Any expenses that fail to meet all three rules for the accountable plan must be treated as taxable income to the employee and reported to the IRS on Form W-2 (subject to withholding of employment taxes). In order to meet and maintain the qualifications for an accountable plan, GitLab Foundation will audit Travel Reimbursement Requests for compliance.
Guidelines
- Each GitLab Foundation team member will receive a company-issued credit card through Divvy/ Bill Spend & Expense. This card should be used for all business-related expenses and use of personal credit cards and submission of reimbursements should be limited.
- Itemized receipts are required for all business related expenses that are greater than $50 USD or equivalent to local currency when you use your company issued-credit card.
- Business-related expenses paid for team members “out of pocket” that need to be reimbursed must be submitted through Divvy / Bill Spend & Expense (i.e., any expense by team members where the company card is not used).
- Itemized ****receipts are required for all out-of-pocket expenses, regardless of the amount.
- Cash: some trips, especially internationally, may require the use of cash and may not provide receipts. In these circumstances, team members should submit one reimbursement in Divvy / Bill Spend & Expense with a missing receipt affidavit and a list of all cash payments made for GitLab Foundation related expenses (date, merchant, purpose, $ of each transaction with the total listed at the bottom of the page). Click here for a template to attach to the affidavit. (See an example here).
- Receipt requirements. When an itemized receipt is required, the following information must be included
- Name of business
- Address/phone number
- Receipt number
- Date of service
- Price of individual items purchased
- Taxes, fees, discounts
- Method of payment
- If the tip is not included in the total it should be written on the receipt and match to the final amount actually paid.
- Business-related expenses and receipts are to be submitted at least once a month and must be submitted within 30 days of the invoice date, service date or purchase date or upon completion of a trip. This helps GitLab Foundation manage our budget and ensure accurate month-end reporting.
- Expenses, reimbursement, and all necessary receipts must be submitted through Divvy and assigned a category and class in line with our chart of accounts.
- Coding:
- Category: the type of expense or reimbursement. This will most often fall into one of the following:
- Meetings (meetings or meals with others)
- Staff Travel (team member individual travel and meals)
- Supplies
- Class: management and general or program
- Program: this class applies to any of your expenses that directly or indirectly further our program such as industry specific conferences, grantee or potential partner meetings including meals and travel.
- Management and general: this class applies to expenses that are more general in nature and include general team meetings, office supplies, gifts, etc.
- Funding Source: Generally, travel should be billed to GTLF which is our unrestricted classification. Restricted classifications such as Schmidt indicate specific approved expenses for that grant.
- Reason: please explain the purpose (i.e. “breakfast at Horizons” or “transport to ABC Foundation Dinner”)
- Team members, our audit firm, or other consultants should be able to look at your expenses and determine what they were for.
- If you paid expenses on behalf of another person, such as a grantee or partner organization, please list their names, titles and represented organization.