The familiar saying “it’s not over until it’s over” is especially true in relocation services.  With its many moving parts and potential pitfalls, some relocation providers tend to think their job is done when a transferee is delivered from Point A to Point B.  The final reporting, a critical step in the process sometimes performed months later, often gets much less attention than it should.
                             
If a relocation services provider cannot produce accurate year-end tax statements for their client’s transferees, the result is a time-consuming ripple effect that starts in the payroll department, moves through Human Resources and eventually impacts the transferees themselves.  The problems that result from working with a provider that isn’t a “finisher” can be significant.
 
How important is thorough and accurate reporting of all taxable relocation expenses? 

• Ask any transferee who had to go through the stress and inconvenience of filing for an extension because of incorrect W-2 statements.
• Ask any payroll department that has had to issue corrected W-2 Forms because the year-end statements from their relocation provider reported grossed-up expenses improperly.
• Ask any accounting department that has faced IRS scrutiny because their relocation provider was not aware of a recent change in the tax code.
• Ask any relocation manager who has had to clean up after a provider that promised to deliver gross-up management services and then used a boilerplate methodology designed for some other company’s relocation policy.

Beyond reducing the obvious headaches caused by inaccurate year-end reporting, having reliable expense and gross-up management reinforces transferees’ confidence that their needs are being taken care of.  It also gives the HR, payroll and accounting departments confidence that the job is being performed properly. This allows them to focus their time and energy on other key initiatives knowing that departmental resources won’t be taxed by unexpected distractions.

Confidence that your relocation services provider will finish the job is important, not only to your HR, payroll and accounting teams, but ultimately to the transferees themselves. Without confidence that your provider can deliver accurate and timely expense management at the end of a relocation, you may want to begin looking for a relocation services organization that has proven that it can finish the job.