Almost all companies have an ethics/gift-giving policy in place. In these policies some of them allow you to take a client to a business dinner as long as it clearly business and not personal. These policies are in place to protect the company from a bribery law suit. Take for example a renowned doctor, you can take him to dinner to discuss your product and see if he would be willing to endorse your product. However, you can’t just hand him a check to endorse you. When and if you do this, you are required to file an expense report detailing the intent and reasoning for the meeting. this is rather difficult if these policies aren’t defined within accompany.