No really, I want to pay.
February 9, 2021 9:05 AM Subscribe
I want to go to a conference but I can't pay directly, my employer has to. How can I ask my boss to take it out of my paycheck?
I want to go to a work conference but the company hosting the conference is weird and paranoid (hyperbole but not entirely false) and does not allow individuals to register, you must be sponsored by your employer. But my employer has been tightening the budget and no longer sends people to conferences unless you are presenting. I would happily pay my own way to the conference so I thought I would ask my boss if they can pay and then take the cost out of my paycheck, but I'm pretty sure salaries and conference costs come out of different budgets so I'm not sure if this is an easy thing to do or a huge ask that will tick off the accounting department (I work for a large organization so asking people in accounting to do one-off things is not an easy ask).
Is there a good way to ask for this? Are there things I'm not thinking of that might make it easier? Accounting is a bit of a black box to me so I don't actually know if this is a simple or difficult ask.
I want to go to a work conference but the company hosting the conference is weird and paranoid (hyperbole but not entirely false) and does not allow individuals to register, you must be sponsored by your employer. But my employer has been tightening the budget and no longer sends people to conferences unless you are presenting. I would happily pay my own way to the conference so I thought I would ask my boss if they can pay and then take the cost out of my paycheck, but I'm pretty sure salaries and conference costs come out of different budgets so I'm not sure if this is an easy thing to do or a huge ask that will tick off the accounting department (I work for a large organization so asking people in accounting to do one-off things is not an easy ask).
Is there a good way to ask for this? Are there things I'm not thinking of that might make it easier? Accounting is a bit of a black box to me so I don't actually know if this is a simple or difficult ask.
I'm going to take it as a given that the conference really won't let you register yourself. I question that assumption. Many conferences require employer affiliation, but then allow payment through credit card. The conference has no idea whether the payment came from you or the employer.
I work for a large organization. I'm fairly certain there is no mechanism for us to deduct money from an employee's paycheck except for a few very tightly controlled reasons related to mismanagement of funds (in particular, to correct expense reports that include personal expenses). Yes, most companies keep salary accounts and expenses accounts separate to ensure regulatory compliance.
At my organization, my budget is used at my discretion except for certain employer-mandated benefits/payments (which are budgeted for at the organization level). In other words, your conference would be paid for by the organization if you were presenting, but if I wanted an employee to go without presenting, it would come from my discretionary budget and I would need to spend less money on other things. So, if you asked me to go to the conference, I would work with you to identify some other expense that you determine you don't actually need to replace the cost. Can you identify such an expense?
posted by saeculorum at 9:14 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
I work for a large organization. I'm fairly certain there is no mechanism for us to deduct money from an employee's paycheck except for a few very tightly controlled reasons related to mismanagement of funds (in particular, to correct expense reports that include personal expenses). Yes, most companies keep salary accounts and expenses accounts separate to ensure regulatory compliance.
At my organization, my budget is used at my discretion except for certain employer-mandated benefits/payments (which are budgeted for at the organization level). In other words, your conference would be paid for by the organization if you were presenting, but if I wanted an employee to go without presenting, it would come from my discretionary budget and I would need to spend less money on other things. So, if you asked me to go to the conference, I would work with you to identify some other expense that you determine you don't actually need to replace the cost. Can you identify such an expense?
posted by saeculorum at 9:14 AM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
I think you're overthinking this. Register under your name and professional information (title, employer, etc.). Pay with your credit card. If you get any questions, say that your company handles conference registrations that way and that you then submit for reimbursement as a regular business expense.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:18 AM on February 9, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:18 AM on February 9, 2021 [13 favorites]
I would get clarification from the event managers what they need - it might simply be that you register with your work email, or at most an email from your boss endorsing your application.
They have no way of knowing whether the payment is a personal or company credit card, as anyone who carries a company credit card will have one in their name.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:22 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
They have no way of knowing whether the payment is a personal or company credit card, as anyone who carries a company credit card will have one in their name.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:22 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
are you saying they will not accept a credit card as payment? Or that the billing address on the credit card has to be your employer's rather than your own?
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:23 AM on February 9, 2021
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:23 AM on February 9, 2021
"Hey, boss! I'd really like to go to Conference X, but they require my employer to register me. I know you can't pay for it because of policy ABC, but can we figure out a way for the company to do the registration but for me to pay for it myself?"
Don't be specific about asking to have it taken out of your pay, because that assumes a solution where there might well be other, better solutions.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2021 [7 favorites]
Don't be specific about asking to have it taken out of your pay, because that assumes a solution where there might well be other, better solutions.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2021 [7 favorites]
I can't imagine a mechanism for taking this out of your paycheck; that's just not how these things work in my experience.
Jacquilynne has the right idea here - just tell your boss you are willing to pay your own way but need the company to register you, and ask if there's a standard process for this. (But first, just see if you can get through the process with your company email/contact information and your own credit card. This would be quite do-able at most conferences I'm familiar with, but perhaps not the way this one is set up. If so, the right way to do this is probably going to depend on what sort of proof the conference is asking for, so know that before you meet with your boss since that's the first thing they're going to ask.)
posted by Stacey at 9:38 AM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
Jacquilynne has the right idea here - just tell your boss you are willing to pay your own way but need the company to register you, and ask if there's a standard process for this. (But first, just see if you can get through the process with your company email/contact information and your own credit card. This would be quite do-able at most conferences I'm familiar with, but perhaps not the way this one is set up. If so, the right way to do this is probably going to depend on what sort of proof the conference is asking for, so know that before you meet with your boss since that's the first thing they're going to ask.)
posted by Stacey at 9:38 AM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
For this kind of conference, companies usually submit their list of attendees. There's typically no public facing registration.
Just ask your boss "Is there a way that I can attend and pay out of pocket?" Don't suggest a specific mechanism. And accept that the answer might be no this year. For example it might not be fair to other employees who can't afford to pay the cost of travel & the conference fees out of their own pocket. Or it might be seen as not a benefit for the company for you, specifically, to attend.
posted by muddgirl at 9:40 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just ask your boss "Is there a way that I can attend and pay out of pocket?" Don't suggest a specific mechanism. And accept that the answer might be no this year. For example it might not be fair to other employees who can't afford to pay the cost of travel & the conference fees out of their own pocket. Or it might be seen as not a benefit for the company for you, specifically, to attend.
posted by muddgirl at 9:40 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Normally companies pay one of three ways - check in response to invoice, ACH in response to invoice, or credit card.
If it's one of the first two, you could just have your business office give you the invoice and pay via check. If it's the latter, could you just work with them to pay with your personal credit card.
From what I know about institutional accounting, paying via a payroll deduction for you is going to be wildly the most complicated and unlikely. They should pay you as they regularly do, and you should pay for the conference. Even if for some unlikely reason you can't pay for the conference, it will certainly be easier for them to pay for the conference and then for you to reimburse them via check.
posted by mercredi at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2021
If it's one of the first two, you could just have your business office give you the invoice and pay via check. If it's the latter, could you just work with them to pay with your personal credit card.
From what I know about institutional accounting, paying via a payroll deduction for you is going to be wildly the most complicated and unlikely. They should pay you as they regularly do, and you should pay for the conference. Even if for some unlikely reason you can't pay for the conference, it will certainly be easier for them to pay for the conference and then for you to reimburse them via check.
posted by mercredi at 9:41 AM on February 9, 2021
Response by poster: Good questions. Currently registration is not open, but when I've checked in years past the only way to pay is to give them an accounting code from my employer so the vendor can invoice us. Registration is through a portal that is tightly-controlled by the vendor hosting the conference: if you aren't an employee of a customer, you can't even log in to the portal to reach the registration page. The company that hosts the conference is a large vendor and anyone invited to the conference is going to be affiliated with one of the vendor's customer organizations, so it's reasonable to expect that payments will go through the same channel as everything else.
With that said this makes me wonder if there are exceptions to the "everyone pays with an accounting code" process so when registration opens I guess I'll just call the hosting vendor, tell them I'm an employee of their customer and my employer isn't paying for me, and ask if I can register myself with a credit card. The worst they can say is no.
In the past there have been a few opportunities for consulting companies and other vendors to have booths at the conference, but getting access to those booths would also be based on existing relationships with the hosting company so I can't just pretend to be a previously-unknown consultant or vendor - I would have to have an actual company and go through the vendor's "we know who you are and you've signed our NDA, you can access our documentation and come to our events" process for consultants.
I like saeculorum's idea of finding a way to save money in the discretionary budget that can be reallocated to the conference. We're already pretty lean so I don't have any ideas yet but I can be on the lookout.
jacquilynne makes a good point about just asking except I already had that conversation and was told no. In fact, until a couple years ago they would pay for me to go but then the budget-tightening happened.
But as others point out if the vendor says no, I can ask my boss about paying my own way (not necessarily "out of my paycheck") and see if we can somehow work it out. The fact that doing it out of payroll is the hard way to do this helps me understand how to ask.
And I guess I could come up with a presentation.
posted by Tehhund at 9:44 AM on February 9, 2021
With that said this makes me wonder if there are exceptions to the "everyone pays with an accounting code" process so when registration opens I guess I'll just call the hosting vendor, tell them I'm an employee of their customer and my employer isn't paying for me, and ask if I can register myself with a credit card. The worst they can say is no.
In the past there have been a few opportunities for consulting companies and other vendors to have booths at the conference, but getting access to those booths would also be based on existing relationships with the hosting company so I can't just pretend to be a previously-unknown consultant or vendor - I would have to have an actual company and go through the vendor's "we know who you are and you've signed our NDA, you can access our documentation and come to our events" process for consultants.
I like saeculorum's idea of finding a way to save money in the discretionary budget that can be reallocated to the conference. We're already pretty lean so I don't have any ideas yet but I can be on the lookout.
jacquilynne makes a good point about just asking except I already had that conversation and was told no. In fact, until a couple years ago they would pay for me to go but then the budget-tightening happened.
But as others point out if the vendor says no, I can ask my boss about paying my own way (not necessarily "out of my paycheck") and see if we can somehow work it out. The fact that doing it out of payroll is the hard way to do this helps me understand how to ask.
And I guess I could come up with a presentation.
posted by Tehhund at 9:44 AM on February 9, 2021
Yeah, at my institution the way to do this would be to go through the regular invoicing process (conference invoices company) and ask your accounting if they could pay the invoice directly, and you could reimburse them for the cost.
posted by mercredi at 9:47 AM on February 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by mercredi at 9:47 AM on February 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
At a company I worked for, stuff like this was handled by the invoice going to the company, the company pays it, employee writes the company a check to cover it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:56 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
You might rephrase as 'my employer requires me to pay with a credit card'. Saves the debate about whether you're attending in a personal capacity. And honestly, mine would insist on that because it goes through as an expense. If an invoice came to accounting it might never find its way to me.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:37 PM on February 9, 2021
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:37 PM on February 9, 2021
A little bit confused:
jacquilynne makes a good point about just asking except I already had that conversation and was told no. In fact, until a couple years ago they would pay for me to go but then the budget-tightening happened.
I think the suggestion is actually to ask how YOU can pay for it, not that your company should pay it. Are you saying that your company is refusing to even work with you on that piece, or am I misunderstanding?
posted by sm1tten at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
jacquilynne makes a good point about just asking except I already had that conversation and was told no. In fact, until a couple years ago they would pay for me to go but then the budget-tightening happened.
I think the suggestion is actually to ask how YOU can pay for it, not that your company should pay it. Are you saying that your company is refusing to even work with you on that piece, or am I misunderstanding?
posted by sm1tten at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Long shot, but: The company that hosts the conference is a large vendor... Does this company work with any professional associations to which you belong? Perhaps that membership/alumni status/licensure/etc. could provide an access code for "sponsored" registration (you'd pay the org), if going through your workplace doesn't pan out. Hope you're able to attend, Tehhund.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:40 PM on February 9, 2021
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:40 PM on February 9, 2021
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