How to Generate a Fake Fast Food Bill in Five Easy Steps

Have you ever needed to pad an expense report or bill at work? You know, claiming that you went out to eat at a fast food restaurant or something when in reality you ordered delivery from your favorite Chinese place down the street. Maybe your boss needs that receipt from Panera Bread in order to prove that you were working on company time and not goofing off online. Whatever the reason, generating fake fast food bill has never been easier! Here’s how to do it in five easy steps.

Create an order

It’s important that you create an order for your date. If you’re going to take them out for dinner, simply pick something from their menu. Or if you want to go somewhere else, pick one of their competitors. This can serve as your baseline data, so you know how much you’ll be spending on each date. It also means that when it comes time to start doling out cash from your weekly budgeting, it will be much easier for you to determine how much should go toward spending money. Perhaps most importantly, though?

Add your total

Place your total at top of page on receipt. Include plus sales tax if that’s how it is stated on your receipt. If you aren’t adding taxes, simply write total. Be sure to include cents! For example, $3.45 would become $3.45 + .00. While customers are typically charged for each item, some establishments give discounts if an entire meal is purchased at once. A good example would be a breakfast combo: Your meal may come with coffee and orange juice, but there may be a discount if you purchase both items together.

Total the items with tax

Your fast food bill should be itemized, listing out each item that was purchased. Some restaurants do not list tax on their receipts, which can make it difficult for you to accurately determine how much you spent. To quickly fix that problem, simply look at your check for each individual price and add them together; then multiply by 1.10 if your receipt does not include sales tax information. Once you have added up all of your items (including sales tax), check off any applicable discounts or coupons and write down your final amount. You will then be able to take that number and reference it when creating your fake fast food bill template. Be sure not to forget any applicable tips as well!

Calculate your tip

While you may have gotten used to tipping on your food total, do it yourself. Calculating tips isn’t always straightforward and most people are bad at estimating their tip based on what you ordered. Leave yourself some wiggle room so you can tip more than 20% if necessary (but don’t forget that 10-15% is typical for non-sit down meals). It will be a nice gesture for your server, who likely doesn’t make much money working in fast food. A good rule of thumb is 15% for good service, 18% for excellent service and around 20% when ordering large orders or special requests. Of course, feel free to adjust these numbers as needed; they’re just guidelines.

Fax your receipt

Faxing your receipt (instead of using snail mail) will get you your reimbursement faster. This little trick can shave off anywhere from two to six weeks, depending on how your business handles reimbursements. And those couple of weeks may be just enough time for you to generate more expenses and bill again. Sure, it might feel a little sneaky, but isn’t that what being an entrepreneur is all about? If you want to try it out but aren’t sure if your boss would buy into it, lay out your receipts and bring up how much time—and money—you spend on getting reimbursed for work-related travel.