5) Financial Trip Receipts

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Theuniversity pays directly or reimburses individuals for expenses that are necessary and appropriate to conduct university business. Below is an overview of the key considerations and associated processes for business and travel expenses, along with links to information, guidance and limits on specific types of expenses.

All Stanford transactions are subject to review by Financial Management Services (FMS) as well as internal and external auditors for compliance with sound business practices, institutional policies and procedures, and any applicable laws and regulations.

To prevent expenses from being treated as taxable income, a transaction must be prepared and submitted into the Expense Requests system in Oracle Financials with all appropriate receipts or backup documentation within 60 days after the end of travel (for travel expenses), the expense posted date (for non travel expenses), or expected clearing date (for advances). See Topic Overview: Managing Aging and Outstanding Expense Transactions for information on how to manage expense reports, Purchasing Card, Travel Card, and advance transactions with regard to timing.

Travel and business expenses that do not reflect good stewardship of university resources, are found to benefit the individual at the expense of the university and/or are deemed excessive or fraudulent will be subject to further review by the appropriate office (e.g., Office of Chief Risk Officer or School/Unit Office), as outlined in Administrative Guide Policy 3.5.1: Financial Irregularities.

A key consideration in the proper stewardship of university resources is ensuring that the funding source is appropriate to use for the expense. Funding sources such as individual or corporate donors, government agencies, non-government sponsors and tuition have varying restrictions for their use. The federal government has mandated that no alcohol may be charged as either a direct or indirect expense of federally sponsored projects. Consequently, alcohol cannot be charged to a federal grant or contract account under any circumstances.

Business and travel expenses that will be charged to restricted or sponsored awards, including costs of lodging, meals and incidental expenses, must be reasonable, allowable, necessary to the award and consistent with university policies. For example, the use of the per diem method is required when travel meal expenses will be charged to a sponsored award. Certain expenditures, such as business entertainment, alcohol and eligible business-class airfare, may be incurred within policy for university business or travel, and may be charged to an unrestricted account, but may not be charged directly to restricted or sponsored awards.

Per Administrative Guide Policy 5.4.2, university-sponsored travel is defined as when the university pays directly or reimburses individuals for travel expenses that are necessary and appropriate to conduct university business. This includes the use of any funding source for which the university has financial responsibility and accountability, including operating budgets, donor gifts, federally-sponsored grants and awards, and any other restricted or unrestricted fund. Student and postdoctoral scholar travel that is directly related to their individual course of study, or for which academic credit may be awarded, is considered university-sponsored travel, even if the travel is funded via their base financial support.

*The 10-county area includes all of the following counties: Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, San Francisco County, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, Sonoma County, Solano County, or Santa Cruz County.

When travel expenses for Stanford faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars or students will be shared by Stanford University and one or more external organizations, even if only a minority of the travel expenses are sponsored by Stanford, the trip is considered split.

Split travel is considered university-sponsored travel and any portion of travel that Stanford pays for must follow Business and Travel Expense Policies detailed here and in Administrative Guide Policy 5.4.2. Stanford Travel booking channels may be used for travel expenses that are being paid for by Stanford. All booking policies apply, including itinerary forwarding.

If it is not easy to separate out the costs that will be covered by the external party, the Stanford Travel Card may be used to pay for the total cost of the trip, then Stanford must be reimbursed by the traveler or travel arranger for the external party portion. See How To Return Personal Expenses Charged to a Travel Card.

Stanford University resources may not be used to book, purchase or reimburse expenses for fully externally-sponsored travel. In these instances, the use of the Stanford Travel Card and advances is prohibited, and travel arrangements may not be booked via Stanford Travel booking channels.

Costs not covered by the external organization, including extra costs incurred for personal upgrades or to enhance travel options, cannot be reimbursed by Stanford as the trip's purpose serves the external organization.

When a personal component of travel is added to a business trip, the university will only pay for or reimburse the costs of the business component. The charge that would have been incurred without that personal component must be documented through a fare comparison at the time of booking in order to appropriately process the reimbursement.

The Travel Card may be used to pay for trips that include a component of personal travel that may not be easily separated from the booking, but it may not be used to purchase trips that are exclusively personal. In cases where the Travel Card is used to purchase trips with a personal component, the individual is responsible for reimbursing the university for the extra cost.

It is highly encouraged that Stanford travelers use Stanford Travel booking channels when booking flights, hotels, and rental cars for university-sponsored travel. Stanford Travel booking channels automatically register itineraries and any booking updates to the Travel Registry, streamline the reimbursement process, and offer discounts, benefits, and perks to travelers. In addition, the Stanford Travel team can provide specialized assistance as needed to travelers who book through Stanford Travel.

While Stanford Travel booking channels are a great option for most domestic and international travel, there are certain types of travel that need to be booked directly with the airline or hotel. These may include regional air travel offered by local carriers, travel for field research, ticket exchanges or reissues, or certain group reservations. See the Airfare and Lodging pages for more detail on booking and managing those travel arrangements. For information on the booking processes for various types of travelers, see Topic Overview: Planning and Booking Travel.

It is the responsibility of the individual incurring expenses, those who assist others with incurring expenses and those involved in the preparation and approval of advances, reimbursement requests or financial transactions to exercise good stewardship of university funds and to adhere to university policies. The individual incurring the expense and the appropriate administrator must ensure that all costs are in compliance with university travel and business expense policies prior to purchasing. These roles and responsibilities are outlined in Reimbursements and Expense Reports.

A Business Purpose should be written so that someone reading it at a future time (e.g., an auditor reviewing the expense two or three years later) could understand the business connection without question. Refer to Resource: Guidelines for Writing a Clear Business Purpose.

Those responsible for spending university funds on business and travel expenses must use the appropriate purchasing, payment and reimbursement method. Depending upon the type of expenditure and circumstances, primary purchasing and payment methods for business and travel expenses include Stanford purchase requisitions, credit card programs, non-purchase order payments, advances (under special circumstances) and expense reimbursement. For more information about each of these methods, refer to Topic Overview: Purchasing & Payment Methods.

Travel expenses may only be reimbursed after the travel is completed, with the exception of conference registration and expenses for travel documents and fees required to gain entry to a country (such as visa fees).

Stanford travelers may elect to use the per diem reimbursement method for meals and/or lodging. For those trips, the traveler should not use the TCard for these meals and/or expenses. Reimbursing per diem expenses charged to a TCard creates an administrative burden for both the preparer and the university.

As an alternative to using the TCard, personal funds may be used and a request for reimbursement can be submitted after the trip. When personal funds are used, there are different reimbursement options available depending on who is traveling and the funding source:

Stanford uses per diem rates recommended by the U.S. government to take advantage of governmental cost studies and to ensure general equity with grant and contract requirements. The use of the per diem method is required when travel meals will be charged to a sponsored award, except for visitors, who may not use per diem.

When using the per diem method, documentation is required to demonstrate proof of travel, such as boarding passes and conference or hotel receipts to substantiate trip dates. Individual meal documentation or receipts are not required in the Expense Requests System, although individual schools, units or departments may require all receipts.

When creating an expense report in the Expense Requests System, the per diem tab must be used for per diem rates to be automatically calculated and applied based on the city visited. When the trip includes more than one university business stop and the cities involved have different per diem rates, the lodging per diem rate for each calendar day (beginning at 12:01 a.m.) is determined by the location where the lodgings are obtained for that night. When listing multiple cities, add each city in the Details page before selecting Generate Per Diem. Meal per diem rates are determined by where the meal occurred. If the city in which the travel occurred does not have a specified per diem rate, enter the county in which the city is located to apply that rate, e.g., "Santa Clara County."

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