Travel Guidelines

Travel Guidelines for Faculty, Postdocs, Staff, and Students.
We want to take a moment to share with you some helpful tips to facilitate your travel arrangements and reimbursements.  Below, please find a few of these items:

Process:

  • Travel reimbursement requests will need to be submitted through the department’s online order system (via Create New Travel / Entertainment Reimbursement) within 30 days after the end of the trip to allow our staff time to prepare the reimbursement report in Concur for submission to Travel Accounting before the 45-day University deadline.

Complex Travel Arrangements:

  • Please consult with the department staff before any trips, including foreign travel, travel longer than 30 days, or travel incorporating mixed business and personal itineraries.

Travel Reimbursements:

  • Request and retain itemized receipts for all expenses, including registration fees, economy airfare without upgrades, car rental, and lodging.  Many funders require documentation, and if there is an audit after the fact, charges may be deemed unallowable, and faculty would be responsible for all of these charges.   More information can be found here.
  • Additional insurance and collision damage waiver for rental cars is not reimbursable.  More rental information can be found here.
  • Daily meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) are capped at $74 per day.  Lodging expenses must not exceed the allowable federal rate for the city or region.  More info can be found here.
  • Alcohol is not a reimbursable travel expense. Similarly, reimbursement for purchases made on behalf of other individuals is not allowable.
  • Tips are limited to 20% or less.
  • Discounted travel packages through fare aggregators such as Expedia and Kayak require itemized receipts with a detailed breakdown of all expenses for University reimbursement. More information can be found here.

UCLA Travel Accounting Resources: