Starting October 5, 2015, the UW System has enacted many changes to its travel policy. Some of the highlights are listed below. NTP faculty and students must adhere to both the UW System and campus-wide policies as well as School of Medicine and Public Health policies which are often more strict. Students should consult the NTP office prior to booking travel to ensure they are following the most up-to-date policies.
As required by IRS and federal grant regulations, all travel paid or reimbursed from university-administered funds must be in compliance with university travel policies, regardless of the funding source (i.e., federal grants and contracts, auxiliary operations, general operating funds, and restricted funds).
**The UW System has created a calculator tool to determine lodging and meal allowances based on your destination and days of travel. You should use this to determine how much you are allowed while traveling. Please note this calculator is not used to determine meal allowance for things like recruiting dinners that you might pay for. Those allowances are different and will be given to you by the NTP staff.
Below is a list of the most pressing changes to the travel policy that you should be aware of:
- All expense reports be must be completed, documented and submitted within 90 days of trip end date to avoid non-reimbursement of the expenses.
- As with before, itemized receipts are required for NTP to reimburse you for any expenses and alcohol is non-reimbursable.
- All airfare must be booked using Concur.
- Lodging
- Use of internet based lodging “brokers” or third party sites (Expedia, Hotels.com, Kayak, Priceline, Airbnb, Hotwire, etc.) are prohibited. Use of these sites often require full prepayment, don’t offer the appropriate level of receipt information, present risk/loss of funds to the University when rooms are not used or cancelled and, in general, don’t meet the business objectives of the University’s managed travel program.
- When sharing a room with another University business traveler, the expense of a double occupancy room may be incurred, but may not exceed the total cost of a single/standard room rate for the location for each business traveler.
- Several lodging discount plans have been added to Concur and users are encouraged to take advantage of the efficiency in using Concur to make lodging reservations.
- Before booking travel, use the calculator tool to determine the lodging maximum for the destination you are going to. The only exception to this is if you are staying in the conference hotel. Proof of staying at the conference hotel is required
- Meals
- Meals are only reimbursable for the traveler not accompanying parties.
- Meals allowances are now based on your destination so you should use the calculator tool to determine your allowance per day. *Tax and tip are included in the amount it provides!
- Please note this calculator is not used to determine meal allowance for things like recruiting dinners that you might pay for. Those allowances are different and will be given to you by the NTP staff.
- Travel that does not include an overnight stay will be limited to a tax reportable day trip meal allowance of $15 per day when the approving authority expects the traveler to incur meal expenses. No day trip meal allowance will be paid when the traveler receives a provided meal, regardless of amount.