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A one-day trip is defined as a traveler leaving their primary work station and returning to their primary work station in the same calendar day. Expense reports for these trips can include expense types such as car rental, mileage, and meals (if the trip is over 12 hours). For instance, Vice President Smith needed to travel to Nashville for meetings with legislative staff. He left his official station on January 1 and returned on January 1. While at his business destination he claimed parking, entertainment and round-trip mileage to Nashville.
If the trip includes only mileage, it is suggested that the mileage be accumulated and then filed in one expense report with the business purpose Mileage Only. A log of the individual trips with the from and to locations can be attached to the monthly report.
When entering a one-day travel expense report, there are several things that should be paid particular attention.
Travel Start Date and Travel End Date: these will be the same date.
Trip Type: If you leave your official station and return on the same calendar day, your trip type should be ‘In-State’ even if your destination was outside of the state of Tennessee.
Claim Travel Allowance: If your trip was less than 12 hours you are not entitled to reimbursement of any meals. Thus, this selection should be ‘No, I do not want to claim Travel Allowance.’ Expense reports claiming meals for trips lasting less than 12 hours will be returned. If the meal(s) was put on a UT Travel card, the traveler will need to mark the meal(s) as ‘Personal/Non-Reimbursable’. The cost of the meal will then be deducted from any out-of-pocket expenses the traveler may have. If there are no out-of-pocket expenses, a payroll deduction will be initiated upon approval of the report.
If your trip was 12 hours or more and you want to claim meals, select ‘Yes, I want to claim Travel Allowance’. A trip itinerary must be created if you are planning to claim meals, whether it is the per diem or a ‘Meals, Actual’ expense. The itinerary gives the times of departure and return, which allows the system to determine whether the trip is eligible for meal reimbursement.
When the one-day trip is over 12 hours, the system will calculate an allowance that is 75% of the daily per diem. If the trip is less than 12 hours, the travel allowance will be $0.00.
You may now add your expenses to the report. Some of the most common expense types used for one-day trips would be Mileage, Car Rental, Meals Per Diem, or Meals - Actual. There are other types of expenses that may need to be added to the report, but these four are the most common.
If you have questions or need additional assistance utilizing the University’s travel system, please contact travel@tennessee.edu.