My Company Makes Me Pay Its Expenses and Keeps Delaying Reimbursement: Stop Advancing, Then Turn Each Item Into a Written Debt

The core answer: an advance is money the company owes you, so draw three lines today

Be clear about what this is. The costs of running the business belong to the company, and an employee has no legal duty to finance it from personal funds. What you have paid out is, in law, a debt the company owes you. It is not salary, but it is equally money you are entitled to recover. Once you see it that way the rest follows: you are not 'asking for reimbursement', you are reconciling an account and collecting.

Line one: set yourself a ceiling and stop when you reach it. Fix the ceiling by asking 'could I lose this amount without it affecting how I live', not by 'the company says it will pay next month'. At the ceiling, answer the next request in writing: 'The amount I have personally advanced and not yet been reimbursed stands at such a figure. For this expense, please pay the supplier directly or provide an advance first.' That statement does no damage to the relationship. It only states a fact.

Line two: every advance needs a written instruction. When a manager says 'just pay it for now', reply in the chat: 'To confirm, you are asking me to pay such an expense of such an amount from my own funds, to be reimbursed by the company. Correct?' A reply of 'yes' converts the payment from something you chose to spend into something the company asked you to advance. Without it, the company can later say it did not know, did not approve, or regards it as your personal expense.

Line three: get the right paper. The official receipt or invoice should carry the company's registered name and tax number, not your own. A receipt in your personal name may be impossible for finance to book, and that is the most frequent reason claims bounce. The types of official documents and their requirements are in official receipts and sales invoices in the Philippines.

And one line that is a prohibition, not a limit: do not use your personal bank account or e-wallet to receive or pay the company's trade money. That is no longer an advance. It places the company's cash flow in your name, and the tax and anti-money-laundering exposure lands on you. The third section deals with it separately.

Do this now: reconcile what you have paid, then make four written requests

Start with a schedule of advances. One row per payment: date, purpose, payee, amount and currency, method of payment (cash, card, transfer), who instructed it, whether there is a receipt, whether a claim was submitted, and what the company said. File the matching receipts, transfer screenshots and chat screenshots by number in one folder and keep a copy outside company systems. Before handing original receipts to finance, photograph or scan them and have the recipient sign for them or confirm by email. 'We cannot find the receipts you submitted' is a standard way of stalling.

Then send one email to your manager and finance with four requests.

Request one: confirm the amount. 'Attached is the schedule of expenses I have advanced for the company up to such a date, totalling such an amount. Please confirm.' The aim is written acceptance of the figure, even if it is only 'received, under review'.

Request two: give a payment date. Ask the company to say by which day it will pay. If it pleads tight cash, instalments are acceptable provided each date and amount is written down.

Request three: change how future costs are paid. Ask that from now on business spending be handled in one of these ways: the company pays the supplier directly; it issues you a float which is replenished against receipts; or it issues a card in the company's name. State plainly that you will not continue to advance personal funds.

Request four: clarify the rules. Is there a written reimbursement policy, what documents are required, who approves, and how long does payment take? If no policy exists, ask that the standard to be applied this time be set out in the reply.

On tone, the email should read like a statement of account, not a letter of complaint. Write 'the following amounts remain unsettled', not 'the company keeps failing to pay'. Do not assign blame; confirm numbers and dates. After sending it, move your verbal reminders into writing as well, each one referring back to the previous message.

If, besides not reimbursing, the company has not remitted the contributions deducted from your pay, cash is probably very tight; see what to do when deducted contributions were never paid.

Sort the money into types: what you may front briefly and what must never pass through your name

Short answer: small, occasional, receipted day-to-day costs can be fronted for a short time. Anything large, recurring, or that sends company money through your personal account should be refused.

Type one: minor office and travel costs. Taxis, couriers, urgent supplies, meals on a trip. These can be advanced, but claim weekly or monthly and never let them pile up. Have the company book the big travel items, flights and hotels, directly.

Type two: the fees for your own visa, employment permit and resident card. This type generates the most disputes. Who bears the cost of securing work status for a foreign employee depends on what the employment contract or secondment agreement says. If it states that the company pays and you are asked to front the fees, treat it as an advance and keep the official receipts. Some companies announce at separation that 'you must refund the visa fees'. That too turns on what was signed, and a demand with no written basis can be contested.

Type three: the company's fixed costs. Office or dormitory rent, utilities, internet, staff wages. A company asking employees to cover these already has a cash-flow problem. The sums are large and recurring, and if the business fails you stand last among its creditors. Refuse clearly. How rental receipts work is in official receipts for rent in the Philippines.

Type four: purchases, supplier payments and customer refunds. Do not advance them. This is working capital for the core business, not something a reimbursement claim can fix.

Type five, the red line: using a personal account to receive, pay or exchange money for the company. The story is usually that the corporate account is not open yet, that it is too slow, or 'just receive it and pass it on'. Customers then pay into your bank account or e-wallet and you transfer onward. To a bank and to the tax authority, that money is your income and those are your transactions. If the pattern looks unusual, it is your account that is restricted or frozen and you who are questioned, and matters are worse still if the source of funds is tainted. The difference between the two kinds of account is in personal versus corporate accounts. A company that insists is approaching the situation described in how to refuse when the boss asks you to do something illegal.

If it keeps dragging: from a written demand to conciliation and legal process

Short answer: recovery can be escalated through four levels. Begin with the lightest, but leave a written trail from the first one onward.

Level one: a written demand with a deadline. Building on your statement of account, if the promised date passes unpaid, send another message. Refer to the earlier email and the company's reply, state the outstanding amount, require payment by a given date and say that until then you will advance nothing further. Copy a manager one level above your own. Seconded staff can copy finance or HR at head office too. Many delays are stuck on a single approver's desk, and copying upward often clears them.

Level two: settle it in final pay. If you have decided to leave, write the unreimbursed advances into the final settlement alongside last salary and pro-rated thirteenth-month pay, and confirm each item. Do not sign a paper saying no sums remain outstanding between the parties before the advances are paid. If the company proposes to set off amounts it says you owe, ask for an itemised breakdown and the basis. What final pay consists of is in final pay and separation pay in the Philippines.

Level three: request conciliation. Money claims arising from employment can be brought to the labour department for conciliation; the process is in how to file a labour complaint in the Philippines. Whether advances fall within what it handles, and whether they should be raised with unpaid wages or pursued separately as a civil debt, will be indicated at intake. Bring your schedule, receipts and correspondence.

Level four: a lawyer's letter and the courts. For larger sums, or where the company flatly denies the debt, have a lawyer send a demand; see what a demand letter is in the Philippines. For money debts within a set limit, Philippine courts run a simplified small claims procedure. Whether it applies and what the limit is depend on the court rules in force.

If your evidence is incomplete. Where receipts went to finance and you kept no copy, email finance asking it to confirm that it received the listed documents on a given date. Card and e-wallet records can be exported again. Cash paid with no receipt is the hardest to prove, so look for chats from that day or ask the payee for a written confirmation.

The downside: if the company is insolvent or the owner has vanished, how much you actually recover is uncertain however sound your claim. That is exactly why the lines drawn in the first section matter more than every recovery tool that follows.

Extra issues for seconded staff: two companies, two currencies, and what head office will accept

Short answer: before advancing anything, a seconded employee should be able to say which company will finally reimburse, in which currency, and against what documents. If you cannot answer, do not pay.

First, who is it that owes you? A common structure is a contract with a company in China and a posting to its Philippine subsidiary or representative office. You spend on the Philippine operation, yet the claim travels through head office. The local side says 'head office has not approved it' and head office says 'that is a local cost'. So each written confirmation should name the entity that will reimburse. How responsibility divides when the contractual employer and the host differ is discussed in when the agency and the host company each deny responsibility.

Second, can the documents be booked in China? Philippine official receipts and Chinese invoices belong to different systems, and finance at home will usually also want translations, proof of payment and the approval trail. Ask head office finance beforehand for its list of requirements for overseas expenses and collect to that list. It is far easier than repairing the file afterwards; details are in will a Philippine receipt be accepted for reimbursement in China.

Third, exchange rate and currency. You pay in pesos and are reimbursed in renminbi: at which day's rate, from which source? Who bears the movement after a delay of several months? Ideally the secondment agreement or expense policy settles this. If it does not, state on each claim the date of payment and the basis you used to convert.

Fourth, do not let reimbursement and salary blur together. Some companies pay reimbursements inside the payroll run, and others do the reverse and pay part of salary labelled as 'reimbursement'. The first can leave you taxed on money that is not income. The second is non-compliant and also drags down contributions and benefits computed on your salary base. The salary declared in your work visa application should match what you are actually paid; see when your actual pay is lower than the salary declared for your visa.

Fifth, which side's rules apply. A dispute under the contract with the Chinese company generally has to go back through channels in China, while employment and debts formed with the Philippine company go through Philippine channels. Where both are involved, have a lawyer judge which route is more realistic before you start.

If you were asked to pay for one thing after another from your first days in the country, in a way that bears no resemblance to what you were told before leaving, the wider response is in what to do when the job is not what you were promised.

You want to stay: how to stop advancing without a falling-out, and what Yixing does

A workable frame: decide whether the company is slow or broke, because the right response differs completely. In a slow company the money does arrive; approvals are layered and secondment claims wait on head office. The answer is a complete file submitted once, regular follow-up and a request for a float. In a company without cash, several signs appear together: reimbursements take longer each time, salaries start arriving late, contributions go unpaid, suppliers come to the door, and the owner becomes harder to reach. If you see two or more, bring your advances down to zero and start preparing your own exit.

Ways to decline without a quarrel. One, use facts instead of feelings: 'I have advanced such an amount that has not been repaid, and I do not have the personal funds to go further.' Two, offer an alternative in the same breath: 'Could finance pay this one directly? I will send the payment details.' Three, hand the decision back to someone with authority: 'If I am to continue advancing, please have the director confirm the amount and reimbursement date by email.' In most cases nobody is determined that you must pay; it is merely the least effort. Offer another route that is just as easy and the issue passes.

Three things not to do. Do not take card instalments or borrow from others to fund the company. Do not help yourself by deducting what you are owed from company money passing through your hands, even if the figures match exactly; in law that may be treated as misappropriation, and you would move from creditor to accused. And do not keep quiet out of worry about a visa renewal, because the more you have advanced, the harder it becomes to leave.

What Yixing does. Whether advances can be recovered and by which legal route is for a licensed lawyer. Yixing is a private consultancy, not a law firm. Our part is the visa and HR track: we can help you verify which charges in a work visa, employment permit or resident card filing are official government fees and what the receipts look like, so that you are not fronting money for vaguely described 'processing fees'; and when a company's finances force you to resign or move, we map the status bridge and documents. Employers that want to put the costs and process for foreign staff in order can also ask through Yixing visa and HR services.

Yixing International Travel Agency is a Chinese-language business consultancy registered in Makati, Philippines, holding SEC Registration CS202009551, Bureau of Immigration Accreditation No. CA-202624381-1 (valid to 2027-06-30), DOLE accreditation and PRA accreditation. We are not affiliated with any government agency and promise no outcome. How to choose a lawyer is in how to find a reliable lawyer in the Philippines. Consult a licensed lawyer for your specific case; this article is not legal advice.