Receipts/Substantiation of Expenses
Receipts must be provided for all expenses (pdf). Please do not staple receipts as they need to be scanned. ITEMIZED receipts for all meals are required. Typical receipts handed in for reimbursement are:
- Airfare purchased personally - A valid flight receipt will include the travelers name, a ticket number (not reservation number), amount paid and the flight itinerary.
- Taxi or Uber Receipt - Must include date of travel
- Local Business Meals - Must be itemized (the breakout of food and alcohol), taking a picture with your phone is valid. If the meal is with less than 5 persons, the names of the attendees must be listed on the receipt.
- Car Rental
- Car Mileage - requires a map printout with to and from addresses that indicate the mileage
- Hotel Folio/Receipt - regardless of dollar mount
Meal Per Diem While Traveling
There are two options for meal reimbursement from your travel. One is to include every single itemized receipt from the travel OR to keep a food diary that includes date, location, breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack, and dollar amount. You will be reimbursed for the amount recorded in your food diary. The purpose of the per diem rates (both foreign
and domestic) are to set limits and budgets to these expenses but also to make you whole from out of pocket expenses when traveling on University business. A full per diem rate is rarely used.
Note that conferences typically include meals as part of your registration fee. It is important that you specify if you were unable to attend a meal paid for with your registration and are requesting reimbursement for a meal in its place.
Reimbursement Deadlines
Due to varying end dates of sponsored accounts used for travel, all travelers (employee and non-employee) must submit reimbursements promptly (within a week of returning from travel).
Employees may face financial hardships if reimbursments aren't approved and processed within a specific time frame:
- 0-90 days after trip end date - full reimbursement
- 90-182 days after trip end date - processed as additional pay (taxed)
- 183 + days after trip end date - no reimbursement allowed
Student, Visitor and Stipendee Reimbursement Process
Please note that some non-employees (Stipendee Postdocs, Graduate/Undergraduate Students, Visitors) may not have an active record in our vendor database. In order to establish a record, you may be asked to fill out a W9 (pdf) (for U.S. Citizens) or other visa related information (for foreign individuals).
Quick Steps
- Fill out applicable sections of reimbursement forms.
- Sign the form!
- Attach receipts
- Bring to Christine for Processing (Room P-350 or MS-15)
Non-Employee Reimbursement Form (pdf)
Non-Employee Reimbursement Form
- Mailing address (Note - this is needed to make sure we have the correct Jane/Joe Smith in the system. We prefer for all non-employees to register with Zelle for electronic payments of reimbursements. See Christine if you need to register for that.)
Employee Process (Faculty, Staff, Salaried Postdocs)
and sign off is electronic through the Concur website. Reimbursees upload receipts and categorize their expenses in Concur then notify Christine Benoit for the expenses to be allocated to the appropriate accounts and itemized if necessary. When Christine is finished with the allocations, the reimbursee will receive an email from Concur asking them to review and submit their reimbursement report. DO NOT SUBMIT your report without checking in with Christine first.