Tell me about your experience handling executive expense reports and budget reconciliation. Describe a time you identified a discrepancy or a policy violation. What steps did you take to resolve it?

Situation

In my previous role as an executive assistant at a BPO company, I was responsible for consolidating and reviewing the Vice President's monthly corporate card statements. I noticed a series of unusually high charges from a luxury hotel restaurant that were miscoded as client meals, but the dates did not align with any known client meeting.

Task

My task was to verify whether these were legitimate business expenses, and if not, to ensure they were corrected and properly flagged to maintain compliance with our T&E policy.

Action

I cross-referenced the charges with the VP's calendar and email archives. When I could not find any related appointment, I discreetly approached the VP with a printed summary, asking for clarification on the vendor and purpose. The VP realized the charges were from a personal dinner with friends that had been mistakenly charged to the corporate card by the restaurant staff. I then helped draft a reimbursement form, ensured the personal amount was paid back to the company, and amended the expense report in our system. I also suggested to finance that we add a mandatory business-purpose field for all restaurant expenses above a certain threshold.

Result

The mistake was corrected before audit, no company funds were misused, and the VP appreciated my vigilance. The new policy suggestion was adopted, reducing similar errors by over 30% in the next quarter.