Travel and Meal Expense Guidelines and Tips | Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Travel Policy

Important Highlights

While we encourage you to read the full Travel Policy, the salient features are:

For reimbursement to occur, travel must be enrolled in Travel Safety Network (TNS) before embarking on the travel.
The export review, triggered when an international trip is logged into TNS, is completed by the University’s export compliance officer.
Employees traveling with technology will need to have an export review completed due to federal rules about technology that can be taken abroad and brought into the country.
When a trip is enrolled in TSN, a notification will be sent to the Office of Risk Management if a destination is on the insurance industry’s list of restricted/dangerous countries, opening a dialogue between the Office of Risk Management and the faculty/staff member to ensure the employee’s safety.
Faculty and staff members leading students abroad, as well as the students traveling with them, will be required to participate in an Emergency Preparedness Workshop run by the Office of Global Programs at least once every two years. The workshop is mandatory as part of the policy for faculty/staff members leading students internationally. University employees not supervising students but traveling internationally for research, conferences or other purposes are not required to participate in the workshop.
For international trips with five or more undergraduate students, at least two faculty/staff members must be in attendance.
Spouses and children of faculty, staff and students will rarely be permitted to accompany an academic trip where students are also present, although there is a process for an exception through the vice provost for Global Programs. This provision is designed to ensure that full attention is given to the oversight of students and does not apply to international travel where students are not present.

Travel Tips

Things to keep in mind while planning, on travel, and after your return.

The following will result in no reimbursement:

Travel expense requests turned in after 60 days from the date of return.
Travel expense reports not submitted within 60 days.

Planning Your Travel

International Travel: TSN Certificate from Travel Safety Network www.tsn.psu.edu

All students, faculty, and staff traveling either in a group or individually for University purposes or with University funding must record international travel in the TSN database prior to departure.
Complete a new travel record for each of your University affiliated international trips at least 30 days before you depart.
This needs to be included in your Travel Reimbursement Report.

Anthony Travel: Call or email anytime (24/7) at 814-258-6111 or pennstate@anthonytravel.com

Flight Comparison ALWAYS must be from State College round trip.
Flight Comparison needed if not flying out of State College and if personal and business travel are combined.
You must request the price comparison as they will not automatically provide.
You may use a 3rd party vendor however a flight comparison will still be needed from Anthony Travel prior to the trip.

Travel Within the States: Travel the day before a conference and come back the day after.*

International Travel: Two days before and come back day after.*

*Anything more is considered personal travel

Clear business purpose of travel: The traveler needs to note how the research project benefited from the travel.
Charging multiple funds: The traveler/PI provides explaination about how the split was determined and how the travel benefited each project charged.
Attended a conference include the title of the talk or the poster presented.
Non-conference travel must include the individual(s) name(s) that the traveler met with, their company and topic discussed/reason for meeting.
Claiming a portion as personal travel must provide a price comparison (flight, hotel, rental car --- ONLY for PSU business days, do NOT include the personal time on the comparisons) from Penn State’s Travel OnLion or Centre for Travel, at the same time you book your actual travel.
Purchasing outside of Penn State’s Approved Travel Vendors (Travel OnLion or Centre for Travel) provide a price comparison through one of the approved vendors it must be completed at the same time you book your actual travel.
Driving Personal Vehical vs. Flying is influenced by distance, time, cost and one’s preference. When flying is the economical choice, but one chooses to drive and the round-trip mileage is 750 miles+, the reimbursement may not exceed the cost of the lowest available airfare from the same points of origin and destination.
- The traveler must provide a flight comparison from Anthony Travel to document the appropriate airfare for comparison (comparison must be at least 6 weeks out).
- Do not charge fuel for personal vehical on PCard.

Upon Your Return

Signed, itemized receipts must be included with the completed Travel Support Form: It is the traveler’s responsibility to provide all required travel receipts for reimbursement.
Travel expense requests turned in within 60 days from the date of return.
Travel expense reports not submitted within 60 days will not be reimbursement.
Filling out the Travel Reimbursement Form, please write a detailed description of your trip. Include on the form: who traveled, to where, when, what they did (if presented or talked, please include the title), and why they traveled.
Meals: Please indicate if meal per diem is being requested or lodging per diem if international. Please indicate on the form the days that a meal was provided.
Complete budget must be indicated (account, fund, and cost center).
Special circumstances must be indicated (rode with someone, stayed in the hotel room with someone, etc.).
Conference itinerary needs to be included in the report, including date and location.
Registration fee: If there was a registration fee, please indicate that on the form even if it was purchased on a PCard and already reconciled. Indicate whether it was purchased on your PCard, another person’s PCard, or on your personal credit card.
Internet connections cannot be charged to research funds.

Receipts are needed for:

Baggage fees (credit card statement is not acceptable) Request when checking bags.
Taxis/Uber/Lyft/Train/Bus
Hotel (needs to be itemized)- DO NOT CHARGE ROOM SERVICE TO YOUR PCARD
Airfare
Rental Car (PSU has a corporate account- you must use in order to receive full reimbursement- https://travel.psu.edu/rental-cars)
Fuel for rental car

Group Meals/Meetings

Requirements to be reimbursed from University funds:

An Itemized receipt: It is the host/cardholder’s responsibility to provide an itemized receipt.
Completed Group Meal/Meeting Form.
Any function over 12 attendees requires a sign-in sheet

Important things to remember:

Per diem (including alcohol) is $51 per person.
You cannot charge the remainder to any other funds and alcohol (including tip) must be charged to unrestricted donor/gift funds (3611 funds).
Tipping over 20% is not allowed and will not be reimbursed.
If you charge it to your PCARD it will either be marked as personal in ERS or you will be required to reimburse Penn State if the charge posts to IBIS.
Any receipts 60 days or older will not be reimbursed.
Reports submitted 60 days or later will not be reimbursed.
If an attendee is a non-Penn State employee, please include their full name, title and employer on the group meal form.
Expenses for spouses/partners at group meal/meetings are not normally allowed and may not be charged to general funds. With specific justification for a business need, spouse expenses at a meal/meeting may be permitted on unrestricted donor/gift funds (3611 funds).
Group meal/meeting expenses are not permitted on research funds.

Invited Speakers

If you invite a speaker to Penn State they MUST complete a Non-Employee Information Form prior to arriving.

Even if the speaker is not paid or reimbursed, if any expenses are covered by Penn State (hotel, flight, meals etc) we are required to have a completed Non-Employee Information Form on file.

For international visitors, we also need a copy of their I-94 Card prior to their departure from Penn State (preferably on the day of their arrival to Penn State).