The per diem rate calculation is based on individual company policy. The per diem is a daily allowance for lodging, meals and incidental expenses paid to an employee to cover costs incurred while on a business trip. If a per diem expense is enabled, a user gets paid a fixed amount associated with the travel location instead of a reimbursement based on a receipt. These allowance rates by travelled to city are defined by the US General Services Administration. But each company may have their own version of per diem rates per location.

If per diem expense is enabled, when adding a per diem expense line to an expense report, a user must provide the following details:

For Lodging and Meals Per Diem

Travel Location (City) - This is how the system will be able to select an appropriate rate

Additional details based upon the configuration:

Out of Office - this will indicate what portion of the day a user was traveling, specifically on the first and last day of travel, based on a company policy the deduction may apply. The values in the drop down may vary, and in some cases you may be required to indicate the actual time of the day the travel has started or ended. This helps the approvers and the administrators understand if your travel began/ended at the start of the day, the middle of the day or the end of the day.

Meals Provided - Check boxes to indicate if any meals throughout the day have been provided by a third party and the user is not claiming the reimbursement for that meal. As an example, if during your travel a client has treated to lunch and you did not have to pay for it yourself, you could indicate the Lunch was "Provided", and the lunch portion of the daily per diem rate will be deducted from daily allowance.

Meals Claimed - Check boxes to indicate what type of the meals a user is claiming the reimbursement for in a day. In some cases companies may require the users to indicate the type of meals a user paid for each day, to calculate the amount of the daily per diem allowance to pay for that day.

Sample Per Diem expense entry screen.

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