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 (multicity 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
- In the Expense Type setup (Expense>Setup>Expense Type), create at least one per diem-format expense type.
- Complete the fields other than those specifically mentioned below in the same fashion as in creating any expense type.
- In the Format Type field, select the appropriate per diem type:
- Select Max Per Diem if you are creating a per diem expense type that covers both meals and lodging.
- Select Meals Per Diem Only if you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only meals.
- Select Lodging Per Diem Only if you are creating a per diem expense type that covers only lodging
- 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.
- In the City Field, select Yes.
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Added in Version 5.5.1 Support Pocket Money for per diem. See Allowance Rule Support meal deduction percentages based on time out of office. See Deduction Rule Added in Version 5.5This 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 field, select Yes 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. Demo of Per Diem tracking actual hours
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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.
Variation
Regions or other values could occupy the city tables, such as High City, Medium City and Low City
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title | Example of Setup of Per Diem Features Added in Version 5.5.1. |
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- 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.
- The ability to apply a percentage deduction per meal provided that is based on the users time out of the office.
- 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 users 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:
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Expense type setup for Meals Per Diem Only format with Hours Tracking enabled |
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.
- Click on Expense to expand the menu.
- Click on Expense Type.
- Click the Add button in the Expense Type window.
- In the ID field, enter an ID for the Expense Type.
- In the Expense Group field, select the expense type group to which the expense type will belong
- In the Name field, enter a name to identify the expense type.
- In the Restrict Access field, select Yes or No
- In the Description field, enter text to further identify the expense type.
- In the Format Type field, select Meals Per Diem Only.
- In the City field, select Yes
- In the Per diem hours field, select Yes. This enable the hours mapping option after the expense type has been saved.
- In the Meals Provided, select Yes if to enable the meals provided option or No if not applicable. For this example the meals provided will be enabled so Step 3 can be demonstrated.
- In the Recurring Charge field, select Yes or No. For example the recurring charge will be enabled.
- Select Save
Once the new Expense type has been saved an additional navigation link will display in the left column named Per diem Hours. This allows entry of the hours mapping for this expense type. For this example the following steps will demonstrate how the "All Day", which is defined in "A" of Allowance Rule Requirements, setup is configured.
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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
- In the Expense Type setup, create at least one per diem-format expense type.
- Under the Expense → Expense Type setup click Add
- 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
- 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.
- 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 See Allowance Rule for managing allowances Multiple City Same Day Travel Meals Per Diem expense types with Per Diem Hours enabled allow 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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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
Example RequirementsAllowance 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 Employee will be assigned ¼ or 25% per diem rate Employee will receive a 20% Pocket Money added to the per diem rate. Per diem rate * .20 = Pocket money amount 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.
These steps would need to be repeated for example allowance requirements B, C, and D to complete expense type hours mapping. This completes the Expense type setup for this example. Next the Allowance Rule will need to be configured. Step 2:
Please note the only change to the Allowance setup is the addition of the "Pocket Money" column. By default the Pocket Money column will be set to "0.00" for all new and existing per diem allowances. Below we have listed the Pocket Money requirements for this example and the steps will show how to set this allowance up for an example Operating Unit name "EUROPE" Pocket Money Requirements Per diem rate * .20 = Pocket money amount
To complete the Allowance rule setup for this example the steps would be repeated cases B, C, and D of the Allowance rule requirements listed above. Step 3:
As listed in example the Meals Deduction Requirements are as follows: 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 The example requirements call for a percentage deduction to be applied per meal that is provided to the user, but as listed above the percentage will change depending of on the users amount of time out of office. For example, if we look at requirement "i" we can see that a 25% deduction is applied for each meal that is provided if a user is out of the office a full day. So, if a user takes 2 meals there would be a deduction of 50% applied to the per diem rate (25% for meal 1 and 25% for meal 2 = 50%)
These steps will need to be repeated for all meals provided options (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) and for all of the out of office options (*% of original rate for full day, % of original rate for ¾ day, % of original rate for ½ day, % of original rate for ¼ day*) to complete the Deduction rule step. This completes the example of the Hours Tracking and Pocket Money Example. Once the setup is completed an additional setup change will need to be made by DATABASICS to allow incidentals, if applicable. |
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