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Per diem is used to reimburse employees a flat daily rate (per diem) for meals/incidentals and lodging rather than reimbursing actual expenses. DATABASICS Expense supports three types of per diem: meals per diem, lodging per diem or maximum (combined meals and lodging) per diem. Per diem rates are based on organizational structure (OBS), date, city and currency. Per diem may be reduced in certain circumstances. Expense supports deductions for partial travel days (allowance), multiple cities in the same day (multi city rule) and mixing per diem and meals or lodging expenses on the same day (deduction).

^{Expense also supports validation of actual expenses against published per diem rates and automatic reallocation of overages to unallowable accounts as an alternative to reimbursing employees flat daily rates. This feature is covered in a separate document entitled "Expense WBS Rules".}

Preliminary Steps

Before a functioning per diem structure can be built, the following preliminary steps need to be completed in Admin.

OBS Structure

Per diem rates can be setup based on Operating Unit, Department or Location. The attribute on which this is based on can be setup under T&E Options. The rates can be setup based on one of these attributes only. _{That is, the rates cannot be based on a combination of Operating Unit and Location. Once the attribute is selected under T&E Options, only that attribute will appear in the rate setup screen.}

Per diem-format expense type

1. In the Expense Type setup, create at least one per diem-format expense type.
2. Under the Expense → Expense Type setup click Add
3. In the Format Type field, select the appropriate per diem type:
   • Max Per Diem - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers both meals and lodging.
   • Meals Per Diem Only - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only meals.
   • Lodging Per Diem Only - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only lodging
4. In the Category, Other field, you may specify meal per diem expense type deductions to be applied individually towards breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is not required but may be useful if you prefer to track deductions based on meal breakout.
5. In the City Field, select Yes.

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Support Pocket Money for per diem. See Allowance Rule

Support meal deduction percentages based on time out of office. See Deduction Rule

This feature allows users to enter the actual time leaving and returning to the office. Similar to the default meals per diem setup, up to four allowance rules may be created for the out of office tracking of the Meal Per Diem expense type. This is done by selecting the minimum and maximum hour ranges for each of the "Out of Office" labels in the Per Diem Hours tab (This tab will not display until Per Diem Hours field is set to Yes and expense type has been saved). For example, if a user is only to be paid a full days meals per diem rate when they are out of office more than 15 hours, a row would be added to the Per diem Hours tab for "All Day" with a minimum of 15.01 and maximum of 24. The hour maximum and minimum must be between 0.00 and 24 and have no overlapping times.

1. In the Per Diem Hours Enabled field, select Yes

2. In the Meals Provided field, select Yes if you would like meals provided deducted from the user's total. Otherwise, set this field to No

3. Meals Provided Label - Add a Label for this field

4. Click Save

5. Click the Per Diem Hours Enabled tab on the bottom windowpane 
6. Add up to four ranges for time out of office

See Allowance Rule for managing allowances

Multiple City Same Day Travel

Meals Per Diem expense types with Per Diem Hours enable allows for multiple city same day travel. When this occurs on an expense report the Per Diem allowance will either a single highest or lowest Per Diem rate for this days travel, depending on system setup.

Cities

Specific per diem rates are assigned to cities. The country/state/city structure should be set up before entering corresponding rates. If government rates are loaded (see: Loading Government Per Diem Data ) then cities will be automatically loaded as well so that no further action in this section is necessary.

Go to the City Setup section for information on how to manually add cities to the application.

Expired Cities

When a city is no longer contained within the government file, the application marks that city as "expired" based on the date it was removed from the government's data. If that city is used on a date after its expiration, a zero rate will apply. However, if the city is used on a date before its expiration, the corresponding non-zero rate will apply. If an expired city is selected, a notification will appear explaining that the city is no longer valid. Note: some may have a notation of "Expired" if at one point the city was expired and may be re-enabled. 

Variation

Regions or other values could occupy the city tables, such as High City, Medium City and Low City

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1. The ability to track time for Per Diem Meals expense types (when enabled). This allows tracking of time out-of-office down to the minute on expense entry. Departure and Arrival times are then used to calculate the per diem rate based on user duration out of the office.
2. The ability to apply a percentage deduction per meal provided that is based on the user's time out of the office.
3. The ability to support "Pocket Money" an incidental charge that is percentage added on top the per diem rate.

Please note this example is only to aid in the setup of the new meals per diem features added in version 5.5.1. For meals per diem setups that do not require these features please refer to the standard per diem setup outside this example.

The following is an overview of how the meals per diem setup with track actual time, pocket money and meals deduction based on hours may look during setup. These steps demonstrate

• Step 1 the expense type setup with per diem hours tracking enabled

• Step 2 the allowance rule setup with pocket money support

• Step 3 the deduction rule setup with meals deduction percentage based on user's time out of office

Example Requirements

Allowance Rule Requirements for example: This will be referenced in (Step1 and Step 2)

          A. If the employee stays over 18 hours abroad

               Employee will be assigned with full per diem rate

          B. If the employee stays over 12 hours abroad and less than 18 hours

               Employee will be assigned with 3/4 or 75% per diem rate

          C. If the employee stays over 4 hour abroad but less than 12 hours

               Employee will be assigned with Half Day or 50% per diem rate

          D. If the employee stays from 1 hour abroad but less than 4 hours

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          Employee will receive a 20% Pocket Money added to the per diem rate.

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 If there is a meal (which is included e.g. in the accommodation costs) provided during the trip, following deduction is made - for each meal provided:

          i. 70% deduction from the per diem rate for each meal provided

             If the employee stays over 1 hour abroad but less than 4 hours

          ii. 50% deduction from per diem rate for each meal provided

             If the employee stay over 4 hours abroad but less than 12 hours

          ii. 35 % deduction from base PDR for each meal provided

             If the employee stays over 12 hours abroad and less than 18 hours

          iii. 25 % deduction from base PDR for each meal provided

             If the employee stays over 18 hours abroad

Step 1:

Hours tracking is an optional setting that is selected on the initial setup, by default hours tracking is set to "No." This step shows hour to configure the hours mapping for "Per Diem Meals Only" expense types that have per diem hours enabled.

1. Expand Expense by clicking on the plus sign.
2. Click Expense Type
3. Click on the Add button.
4. Fill in the following fields:
   1. Format Type*: Select Meals Per Diem Only.
   2. ID*: Enter an ID for the Expense Type. The maximum length of this field is 20 characters.
   3. Name*: Enter a name to identify the expense type. The maximum length of this field is 100 characters. 
   4. Expense Group*: Select the expense group from the drop down associated with the expense type.
   5. Icon: Select an icon for this expense type
   6. Restrict Access: 
      1. Yes - If the expense type will be restricted based on OBS or WBS assignment. This can pertain to a specific group or individual.
      2. No - If the expense type will be available for all. 
   7. Require Notes*:
      1. No - Notes field on expense type is optional.
      2. Yes - Notes field on expense type is required before the expense can be saved.
   8. Currency*: 
      1. Yes  - If user needs to specify a currency with the amount provided. An exchange rate field will appear if currency is different than users home currency. This is determined on the employee profile.
      2. No - User will not have the option to select a currency and will default to the employee's home currency.
   9. City*: (Note: Yes, must be selected if: this is a per Diem expense type; if an expense policy rule will be created comparing this expense type to the rates in the per Diem tables; or if VAT taxes may apply to this expense type.):
      1. Yes - If employees must select a city when entering this expense type.
      2. No - If no city field will appear for selection when employees enter this expense type.
   10. Allow Modify Description*:
       1. No - If description field is not needed on the expense type.
       2. Yes - If description field is needed on expense type and user is able to update the description text. This field is defaulted to the expense type name.
   11. Description: Enter text to further identify the expense type. This field is limited to 255 characters.
   12. Recurring Charge*:  
       1. Yes- Date Range - If you want to enable date range copy of the same charge, for example, hotel room for 5 nights.
       2. Yes- Number of Units- If you would like the users to enter a number of units, i.e. the number of days instead of a date range
       3. No - If a date range for the expense is not available.
   13. Template Expense Type: This is used for OCR matching. If the receipt can be scanned and recognized as the category selected in this field, it will select the expense type. 
   14. Online Help - Connect a website to the application through the help button at the bottom of the screen.

   15.  Tax Included - Allows users to indicate if tax should be auto calculated or manually entered. This is dependent on Tax 1 Code and or Tax 2 Code field to be selected. If auto compute is expected, a rate will need to be set up in the Tax Rate set up.

       1. No - If users do not have the option to choose how the taxes would be computed.
       2. Yes - If users have the option to have application auto compute the taxes based on the business amount if the Tax set up is completed, or users have the option to manually type in the tax amount.
          1. With this option, the users will see the "Tax Included" box that will be checked by default. If this box is left checked, the amount put into the business field will business amount + tax and the application will split it out based on the tax set up.

          2. If the "Tax Included" box is unchecked, then the tax(es) will be auto computed based on the business amount and the tax set up.

          3. Users can uncheck the "Auto Compute Tax" Field to enter in the tax(es) manually.

       3. Tax 1 Code (and Tax 2 field): Indicate whether a tax field will be present for this expense type (set up in Taxes) 
   16. Per diem Hours Enabled: Only shows up if format type is set to "Meals Per Diem Only"
       1. Yes - When Per diem expense type requires tracking of user actual time out of the office.

       2. No - By default the field will be set to No but keep as No if user does not need to track the actual time out of the office.

          Once the field is selected and saved the value can no longer be updated.

   17. Meals Provided: Enter in a label to be shown to user and also check the box "*Meal Provided" if users will need to indicate while meals were provided. 
   18. Meals Provided Label: Enter in a label to be shown to user
   19. Full Day: Enter in a label to the shown to the user and also check the box "Enable" if the option will be available for users to choose from for Out of Office. This is based on the Allowance Rule setup.
   20. Three Fourths Day: Enter in a label to the shown to the user and also check the box "Enable" if the option will be available for users to choose from for Out of Office. This is based on the Allowance Rule setup.
   21. Half Day: Enter in a label to the shown to the user and also check the box "Enable" if the option will be available for users to choose from for Out of Office. This is based on the Allowance Rule setup.
   22. One Forths Day: Enter in a label to the shown to the user and also check the box "Enable" if the option will be available for users to choose from for Out of Office. This is based on the Allowance Rule setup.
   23. Default First Day*: Select the value defaulted for the first day. For example, if the first day gets 50% of the per diem, select the out of office set up for 50%. This could be the half day option depending on the allowance rule set up.
   24. Default 1 Day*:  Select the value defaulted for the days in between. For example, if the second day gets 100% of the per diem, select the out of office set up for 100%. This could be the full day option depending on the allowance rule set up.
   25. Default Last Day*: Select the value defaulted for the last day. For example, if the last day gets 25% of the per diem, select the out of office set up for 25%. This could be the one Forths day option depending on the allowance rule set up.
5. Click Save to save this Expense Type.

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Per diem is used to reimburse employees a flat daily rate (per diem) for meals/incidentals and lodging rather than reimbursing actual expenses. DATABASICS Expense supports three types of per diem: meals per diem, lodging per diem or maximum (combined meals and lodging) per diem. Per diem rates are based on organizational structure (OBS), date, city and currency. Per diem may be reduced in certain circumstances. Expense supports deductions for partial travel days (allowance), multiple cities in the same day (multi city rule) and mixing per diem and meals or lodging expenses on the same day (deduction).

^{Expense also supports validation of actual expenses against published per diem rates and automatic reallocation of overages to unallowable accounts as an alternative to reimbursing employees flat daily rates. This feature is covered in a separate document entitled "Expense WBS Rules".}

Preliminary Steps

Before a functioning per diem structure can be built, the following preliminary steps need to be completed in Admin.

OBS Structure

Per diem rates can be setup based on Operating Unit, Department or Location. The attribute on which this is based on can be setup under T&E Options. The rates can be setup based on one of these attributes only. _{That is, the rates cannot be based on a combination of Operating Unit and Location. Once the attribute is selected under T&E Options, only that attribute will appear in the rate setup screen.}

Per diem-format expense type

1. In the Expense Type setup, create at least one per diem-format expense type.
2. Complete the fields other than those specifically mentioned below in the same fashion as in creating any expense type.
3. In the Format Type field, select the appropriate per diem type:
   • Max Per Diem - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers both meals and lodging.
   • Meals Per Diem Only - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only meals.
   • Lodging Per Diem Only - If you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only lodging
4. In the Category if Other field, you may specify meal per diem expense type deductions to be applied individually towards breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is not required, but may be useful if you prefer to track deductions based on meal breakout.
5. In the City Field, select Yes.

Cities

Specific per diem rates are assigned to cities. The country/state/city structure should be set up before entering corresponding rates. If government rates are loaded (see: Loading Government Per Diem Data ) then cities will be automatically loaded as well so that no further action in this section is necessary.

Go to the City Setup section for information on how to manually add cities to the application.

Expired Cities

When a city is no longer contained within the government file, the application marks that city as "expired" based on the date it was removed from the government's data. If that city is used on a date after its expiration, a zero rate will apply. However, if the city is used on a date before its expiration, the corresponding non-zero rate will apply. If an expired city is selected, a notification will appear explaining that the city is no longer valid. Note: some may have a notation of "Expired" if at one point the city was expired and may be re-enabled. 

Variation

Regions or other values could occupy the city tables, such as High City, Medium City and Low City

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