PE interview travel reimbursement still not paid after ~3 weeks

EDIT: I finally followed up with firm directly, after 3 weeks. Turned out the stupid headhunter never forwarded my email with receipts/submitted my expenses to the firm, and what's more ridiculous was that I even reminded them/asked them to follow up on progress after one week, and they said they would remind the firm. LMAO. This headhunter also made other stupid mistakes such as communicating the interview time incorrectly and not communicating offer details/sigining progress promptly. Looks like it's too easy to get paid $100k per hire.

invited to interview and was told travel would be on them. still not reimbursed after almost 3 weeks from when I submitted the expenses. I've even reminded the headhunter at the week 2 mark to remind/communicate this to the firm, but nothing in my bank yet. (btw i got an offer if that makes any difference.)

i mean, i hope they don't plan on just leaving this unresolved. should i just contact the firm directly to ask about this again? has anyone else encountered something like this? just seems so weird that they can't process a simple reimbursement after almost 3 weeks

8 Comments
 

Not PE, but I've had SA interviews that required travel and were reimbursed in the past. Took months each time. Just like any other business, they want to stretch out their payables as far as they can, and you have no leverage to get them to pay it sooner. I'm sure it will come eventually.

 

Most middle market PE firm's administrative functions are an absolute shit show. I would just send them a gentle note - it's likely the fact that they are understaffed and disorganized in administrative functions that is causing this issue. 

This is actually one of those small things that can slowly build massive resentment towards your firm when working in PE. Late reimbursements for expenses on personal cards, delays in getting co-invest actualized, or even delays in bonus payments are all extremely common and products of complete negligence on behalf of the Partners at the firm who want to horde as much of the management fees as possible and not invest in basic professional administrative functions. 

 
Most Helpful

If you can afford to float it for a month, just leave it alone. Multiple steps need to happen for you to get paid. My own expenses take several weeks, and I'm an employee. Notably:

  • You have to submit the receipts
  • Fund has to route them to the right person to create a report (e.g., administrative assistant)
  • Assistant has to create the report and get approval from someone (e.g., recruiting lead)
  • Report has to be reviewed and approved by accounting/finance
  • Accounting/finance has to input your banking info for a special disbursement
  • AP has to run (which is often only every 2 weeks)
  • If mailing a check, check needs to be sent and collected by you; if ACH, skip this

Every step takes time. I honestly wouldn't expect you to get paid until 4-6 weeks from when you submitted the receipts. Just chill unless you're really strapped for cash. Pestering them will probably just be annoying.

 

Ya likely won’t get it back - interviewed at several PE and HFs during junior summer and even though they said I’ll get reimbursed, they never did even after following up 

 

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