Faculty and staff traveling on Vanderbilt University business after July 1 may opt to use a per diem rate to file expenses for meals.
Currently, faculty and staff must file itemized receipts for all meals costing $25 or more through Concur. Under the new policy, they may choose to file a $51 a day per diem expense instead, if they meet the criteria. Per diem filing is only for travel with funding that is fully nonsponsored and unrestricted, and the $51 daily rate includes all meals, snacks and incidental expenses (such as baggage and porter tips) for the entire day.
“The topic of per diems is part of our continuing discussions with faculty and staff to improve our travel program,” said Tony Grayson, director of disbursements, travel and payment cards for the university Finance division. “It can be easier to just file one expense per day instead of keeping track of lots of receipts. We listened to their concerns, researched our options and the result is this updated policy.”
The per diem method cannot be used in all cases. People traveling on restricted grants must continue to use actual receipts for meal reimbursements. Travelers who pay for group meals must use actual receipts to file all their meal expenses for that trip. Travelers must choose just one method — either per diem or actual receipts — for each trip.
If you have further questions, please contact concurexpense@vanderbilt.edu.