Overview
This guide shows how to use Concur to claim Per Diem (Travel Allowances) based on the travel dates and location in a Travel Expense Report and how to reduce per diem for meals provided by conferences. Additionally, you will learn how to offset per diem for meals and lodging by claiming Actual Expense amounts, and how to offset per diem for certain T&E Card charges.
Essential Information
- Per Diem is a daily amount to cover Meal and Lodging expenses for UC San Diego employees traveling on official UC San Diego business.
- Per Diem applies to the following travel situations:
- Travel to a foreign destination of any duration.
- Travel to Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. possessions (like Guam or Puerto Rico) of any duration.
- Long-term travel (30 days or more) in the Continental U.S
- When not using the travel allowance feature in Concur, please attach the Published Per Diem rates for the location.
- Use the Per Diem Rate Lookup Tool and make sure that you filter by Month/Year of travel and the location.
- If you're submitting lodging and meal expenses which exceed the allowable per diem, refrain from utilizing both the Travel Allowance Feature and the Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet.
- ADDITIONALLY: The Central Office Travel Team recommends refraining from using the Travel Allowance and Per Diem Reduction features if there are T&E card charges for meals and/or lodging and attaching the Published Per Diem Rates instead as referenced above.
- For full guidance on completing Travel Requests (trip authorization) and Travel Expense Reports (trip reconciliation), please refer to KB0032013: How to Create a Travel Request in Concur, and KB0032014: How to Submit Travel Expense Report in Concur.
- Either the employee or an employee's delegate can perform the following process.
- To learn how to add a delegate see KB0031969: How to Add a Request Delegate and an Expense Delegate in Concur.
- To learn how to act as a delegate on behalf of another employee, see KB0031975: How to Act as a Delegate in Concur.
Next Steps
How to Claim Per Diem (Travel Allowance)
Once you have created the Travel Expense Report, you can generate the Travel Allowance to claim allowable Per Diem.
1. Log in to Concur.
2. If you are a Delegate, select the Profile of the Payee for whom you are creating the Expense.
3. Select Expense module
4. In Report Library, select the relevant Expense Report.
5. Select Travel Allowance, then Manage Travel Allowance to create a New Itinerary.
6. In Travel Allowances for Report, select Create New Itinerary tab, enter an Itinerary Name for your travel and click Save.
7. In New Itinerary Stop add:
a. Departure City
b. Date and Time
c. Arrival City
d. Date and Time
8. Itinerary Stops, display on left, click Save after each entry, when done entering Stops, click Next.
NOTE: There should be at least two entries for your itinerary in order for the travel allowance to populate correctly, best practice is to enter what is on your airfare receipt.
9. Once the Itinerary is created, Concur has built-in Per Diem rates based on the location(s) entered in the itinerary. The per diem rates are established by The General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Allowances. Click Next and go to Step 10.
10. If no complimentary meals are applicable, click Save and go to Step 11.
a. If a complimentary meal was provided, select Next to display the Expenses & Adjustments tab.
b. Reduce the daily Per Diem for provided meals by selecting the box for the appropriate day and meal, then click Update Expenses.
11. Select Update Expenses and it will auto populate the daily Meal and Lodging Per Diem Expenses for the location(s) entered.
12. Remember to Allocate. If the expense report is complete and all the required documents are given, before submitting the expense report, please ensure all expense lines are allocated appropriately.
- To learn how to allocate expenses, please refer to KB0032337: How to Allocate Expenses in Concur.
How to Claim Actual Meal and Lodging Expenses
NOTE: If you are using a Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet downloaded prior to April 1st, 2024, please download the new spreadsheet available in this KBA, using the old sheet may result in incorrect totals.
REMINDER: If you're submitting lodging and meal expenses which exceed the allowable per diem, refrain from utilizing both the Travel Allowance Feature and the Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet. Please attach the Published Per Diem rates for the location instead. Use the Per Diem Rate Lookup Tool and make sure that you filter by Month/Year of travel and the location.
If the traveler is claiming Actual Meal and lodging Expenses, the daily Per Diem amount must be reduced by the traveler by following the steps below:
1. Verify that you have completed the Add Travel Allowance steps above, once all the Per Diem Expenses have been added, proceed to claim Actual Amounts and reduce Per Diem.
2. Select the desired Expense Report, then select Add expense.
3. In the Create New Expense tab, select Per Diem Reduction.
4. To help you determine the amount to reduce the Per Diem by, download and complete the attached Excel Per Diem Reduction spreadsheet, which has formulas to calculate the amount of Per Diem reduction.
- NOTES: As of 03/28/2024 there is a new Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet. Please ensure your spreadsheet is not outdated as the old sheet may result in incorrect totals. At the top of our new spreadsheet you can see the last date it was updated. The most current spreadsheet was last updated on 03/28/2024.
- The “Per Diem Reduction” should ONLY be used if you used the travel allowance feature to automatically upload the per diem onto your expense report.
- Within the Excel Sheet, there are instructions regarding how to fill this out.
a. Complete the document by filling out the following columns:
- Location Traveled
- Dates Traveled
- Published Per Diem Rates: Meals
- Published Per Diem Rates: Lodging
- Actual Out of Pocket Meals (under the maximum per diem)
- Actual Out of Pocket Lodging (under the maximum per diem)
- T&E Card Lodging & Meal charges (under the maximum per diem)
b. Save as PDF
c. Attach completed document to Expense Report in Step #5.
d. Verify that total published Per Diem rates in spreadsheet match that of generated Per Diem rates in Concur, this process will help to avoid having to add multiple Per Diem reduction entries.
5. In the Expense Details tab, complete all the required fields:
a. Expense Type: Per Diem Reduction
b. Transaction Date: last date of stay
c. Payment Type: Payment to Employee
d. Amount: total amount from spreadsheet e.g. – 907.44
- Please note that this total must be entered into Concur as a negative, then once saved it will appear in parentheses. If this is entered as a positive number, it will not show these parentheses when saved and will have been done incorrectly and pay that traveler the reduction amount entered.
e. Payee Non-employee: if applicable, to a non-employee who is traveling to a foreign location on behalf of UCSD or whose domestic travel is over 30 days.
f. Payee Non-employee Address: if applicable, Pymt ACH 1 or Pymt ACH 2
g. Comment: enter claiming actuals
h. In the Attach Receipt Box, select, upload, and attach the completed spreadsheet document.
Concur does not accept excel format, you must convert it to PDF, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .pdf, .tif, .tiff are the only acceptable file formats in Concur.
6. Once complete, click Save Expense.
7. The Expense Report should reflect this as the Per Diem Reduction amount in parenthesis rather than a negative dollar amount. If there is no parenthesis around this number, then this was entered incorrectly as a positive number and will pay the traveler.
How to Claim Travel Card Offset for Per Diem
REMINDER: T&E card charges for meals & lodging are required to be added to the Expense Report and the Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet to offset the Per Diem reimbursement.
1. Verify that you have completed uploading of the Per Diem amounts (Travel Allowance) in the 1st section of this KBA, and claims for Actual Meal & Lodging Expenses in the 2nd section of this KBA to the Expense Report.
2. In Concur, select the Expense module, then select the desired Expense Report.
3. Select Add Expense
4. In Available Expenses, select an applicable meal or lodging T&E charge, and click Add to Report.
5. On the Details tab, select:
a. Expense Type: Travel Card Per Diem Offset.
b. Amount: the Expense Type, will assure that the amount charged on the T&E card will not be reimbursed to the traveler.
c. Comment: e.g., offset T&E Expense for Per Diem.
6. Click Save Expense
a. The T&E charge in the Requested column is 0 and will not be paid to traveler.
b. NOTE: If you did not add these Travel Card Per Diem Offset charges to your Per Diem Reduction Spreadsheet earlier in the process, you may be reducing the traveler's reimbursement by too much. Please make sure these are included in your spreadsheet's calculation.
7. If needed, add additional Expenses, then click Submit Report.
Questions?
If you need any additional assistance, please submit a ticket here, or call the IPPS Help Desk at (858) 534-9494.