Travel Guide - Getting Reimbursed

Reimbursements

Subsistence Allowances: Lodging, Meals and Incidentals
In general, reimbursement for meals and lodging expenses for travel is based on published rates.

Meal per diem for domestic travel
All meal per diem allowances include incidental expenses. Receipts are not required. The amount expended on one meal of a full day's allowance is at your discretion and the total daily reimbursement cannot exceed the maximum meal allowance.

Seven different per diem reimbursement rates have been approved, depending on the travel destination.
See FIN 509, or our online per diem chart.

Meal per diem for foreign travel
Meal and incidental expenses are reimbursed up to the maximum rate allowed, at the established rates published in the U.S. Department of State Standardized Regulations.

Partial allowance/Meals provided
Items such as lunches paid separately by the university must be deducted from per diem. Meal per diems are not allowed when meals are provided at no cost at a conference or by an airline.

Long-term travel
If an employee is on official university business in-state for longer than 30 days at a location outside the 35-mile radius from their residence and duty post, no more than $20 per day may be reimbursed for per diem and no more than $39 per day for lodging and per diem.

Lodging allowances
Lodging reimbursement amounts include room charges and applicable taxes. Lodging must be the lowest available rate at a commercial establishment limited to the published index rate.

Original receipts are required. If the conference lodging rate exceeds the index, a copy of the complete conference announcement or program that shows the lodging rate must be submitted with your travel reimbursement claim. Lodging rates for individual cities and counties are available in FIN 509.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE LODGING RATE
ASU President Michael Crow has give Authorizing Travel Officials (ATO) the authority to approve lodging reimbursements at the federal rate on a case-by-case basis when the ATO has decided that compliance with the State of Arizona lodging rates is impractical under the circumstances for a particular trip.

Impractical under the circumstances means that if you need to stay within a lodging rate, you would either be out of pocket for a portion of the lodging costs or would need to stay at a hotel farther away or at one that is of a lower level than is normally approved for travel on university business.

To implement this exception procedure the traveler needs to indicate on the Travel Authorization form that the "Traveler is approved for federal lodging rate maximum for this trip" and then submit the Travel Authorization form to the ATO for approval.
NOTE: Current university policy states that all other lodging exceptions must have VP approval.

REIMBURSEMENTS EXPLAINED

The university will reimburse travelers for the following expenses:

Subsistence
• Meals, lodging and incidentals (M&IE), to specified maximum amounts.
• Transportation
• Airfares, car rental, private car mileage, emergency repairs to university cars, parking fees, etc.

Miscellaneous Business Expenses
When approved in advance and when they are related to university business, the university may cover expenses not specifically outlined in the FIN 500 section of the Financial Services Policy and Procedures Manual.

Special fees for foreign travel
Reasonable costs associated with or required for travel in a foreign country (for example, currency exchange fees).

Registration fees
For conferences, conventions and meetings of professional or learned societies.