The ASU Travel Guide has been published by Financial Services to help faculty and staff plan, account for and be reimbursed for official university business travel. It is an easy reference to university travel policies and procedures.

For more comprehensive information, please refer to the FIN 500 section of the Financial Services Policies and Procedures Manual.

Our Pledge
We will make our best effort to ensure that all university travelers are reimbursed for travel expenses within ten working days from the time a travel claim reaches the Travel Reimbursement Office. This promise, however, depends on the submission of a complete, accurate travel claim. Please take the time to become familiar with ASU's travel policies to minimize errors and delays in reimbursement.

NOTE: The ASU Travel Reimbursement Office does not make travel arrangements. Travelers must handle all arrangements for airfare, lodging and other necessities.

The ASU Diners Club  MasterCard Corporate Club
ASU can provide travelers with an ASU Diners Club Corporate Card at no cost. The card should be used whenever possible to pay for travel expenses, including air and automobile transportation, hotels and meals.
Need more information? Click here.
Get an application form ONLINE.

To apply for a card, you also can call:
Travel Reimbursement Office (TEMPE CAMPUS)
480.965.3111

Financial Services (ASU WEST)
602.543.6717

What We Can Do To Help
ASU Travel Reimbursement assists university departments by disseminating information, explaining and interpreting travel policies and procedures, issuing travel advances, processing travel claims and keeping accurate travel records.

Specifically, the Travel Reimbursement Office can:

• Issue an advance check for anticipated travel expenses.
• Encumber your anticipated expenses upon your request.
• Provide timely reimbursement when a completed travel form is submitted.

TRAVEL REGULATIONS
What ASU Pays For

Remember that ASU will only pay for travel that is properly authorized. University funds cannot be used for any travel that is not the ultimate responsibility of the university. Travelers cannot be reimbursed for personal travel or travel that could be construed as a possible conflict of interest.

NOTE: State and ASU policy will prevail if they are from the applicable policies of outside funding agencies.

MAKING IT OFFICIAL
Getting Prior Approval

Out-of-state university travel must be approved in advance by the appropriate Authorizing Travel Official (ATO) for your department, with such approval indicated on the ASU travel authorization/claim form.

In-state travel may be approved verbally by your supervisor and documentation submitted after completion of the trip.

GETTING STARTED
Travel Advances & Prepaid Expenses

INSURANCE
When you use a privately owned vehicle for official university business, you must have current vehicle insurance and a valid driver's license.

DAMAGE CONTROL
A traveler's own liability insurance must respond to the limit of the policy if the traveler, on approved travel, is at fault in an accident involving a privately owned vehicle. If the amount of damage exceeds coverage, the state's self-insurance liability coverage will cover the amount over the policy limits.

OTHER CHARGES
Charges for checking and storage of personal baggage and university property related to approved travel are allowable.

TRAVEL CANCELLATIONS
Travelers, not the university, must cancel reservations when necessary. After a trip is cancelled, you must immediately notify Travel Reimbursements if the trip was encumbered and promptly refund all advances to ASU.

THE CORRECT FORM
All requests for a travel advance should be submitted on the travel authorization/travel claim form.
You may fax your request to Tempe Campus at 480.965.8174 or West Campus at 602.543.6712.

ADVANCES
You can receive a travel advance for authorized university travel. When you receive a travel advance, you agree to pay Arizona State University in full and/or submit an acceptable travel claim within seven (7) days after your trip is completed. If ASU has to forceably collect the travel advance, you authorize Arizona State University to deduct the amount of the advance from your paycheck through a payroll deduction. If the issue is turned over to a collection agency, you will be obligated to pay the collection agency's fee.

AIRFARE OR CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
You can receive a 100% advance for airfare and/or conference registration.
Travelers also can use the ASU P-Card to pay for airfare and conference registration.

PREPAYMENT OF REGISTRATION FEES
If you want the university to prepay conference registration fees, you should use an online payment voucher (PV) through Accounts Payable. Reference the PV number on the travel claim.

HOTELS
Travelers are encouraged to use the ASU Diners Club MasterCard Corporate Card for hotel expenses. If the hotel does not accept Diners Club credit cards, a traveler can get an advance for 75% of estimated hotel expenses. Travelers cannot use the ASU P-Card to pay for hotels.
Diners Club MasterCard Application form.

PER DIEM
Per diem estimates may be advanced at 75%. Go to the Per Diem page.

PLEASE ALLOW TIME
Please allow 48 hours for an advance request to be processed. Checks will be processed nightly and available for pick up at the Cashier's area on the second floor of Student Services Building. You can authorize another person to pick up your advance as long as they have an ASU ID.

Note: If settlement of a previous travel advance is more than thirty (30) days delinquent,
an additional advance may not be issued.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

TRANSPORTATION AND ROUTE
Travel reimbursement is limited to travel expenses incurred using the most direct, frequently traveled route. If your transportation and subsistence expenses are more than they should be because you take another route or method, you must pay the difference yourself. If a chosen alternative route requires additional time, you may have to use vacation leave time for the extra days you are gone.

PURCHASING TRANSPORTATION TICKETS
For your convenience, you may purchase transportation tickets with your ASU P-Card or through the university's contracted travel agency. If you purchase tickets this way, the airfare will be billed directly to the university.

You also can purchase airline tickets from the university's contracted travel agency, which is now ADTRAV. To get started, you first must complete a personal profile online on RezProfiler.
You can contact ADTRAV at 1.866.862.3953 or at asutravel@adtrav.com.

Traveler's using the ASU P-Card are required to submit a copy of the approved Travel Authorization form to the designated departmental person who maintains Purchasing Card records. The approved Travel Authorization form should be filed with the Purchasing Card Memo Statement. You also may charge your transportation to your ASU Diners Club Corporate Card or any other personal credit/charge card and then be reimbursed for expenses.

BY AIR
Commercial airlines. The lowest available fare—which is usually coach fare or the equivalent—should be selected. Tickets should be purchased in advance to take advantage of available fare discounts such as the 21-day advance purchase discount. Airfare cost savings can sometimes be obtained if you extend your trip to include a weekend stay.

Additional lodging and per diem expenses are reimbursable if the weekend stay occurs in the city where the conference/meeting was held and if the additional expenses are less than the costs that you would have incurred if you traveled on a weekday.

BY LAND
You may travel by train or bus, but will need advance approval from your vice president if standard air service is available.

AUTOMOBILES
State owned
State-owned vehicles are available and should be used for university-related business. For details, contact your Business Operations Manager or ASU Fleet Service. Parking fees, highway tolls and other related items are allowable expenses.

Privately owned
When you use a privately owned vehicle for official business, you will be reimbursed for mileage. However, if you take your car when you could have taken a plane, you cannot claim more than the airfare plus incidental in-town transportation that would have been allowed for the same trip by public transportation. Moreover, when you use a privately owned automobile, you cannot claim a subsistence expense greater than the amount you would have claimed if you had taken public transportation.

Rental Cars
ASU has agreements with several different car rental companies. When reserving a car, request a standard vehicle. You will pay for the rental and then be reimbursed by the university because ASU does not accept billing from car rental agencies. Make sure you have receipts to be reimbursed for gasoline purchases.

IMPORTANT INSURANCE NOTE: University employee business travelers are covered by State of Arizona Risk Management liability insurance and should decline any additional insurance offered by the car rental agency.
This rule does NOT APPLY in foreign countries.

Local transportation
Local transportation by bus, streetcar or taxi will be reimbursed.

Other
Approved expenses for any other conveyance or travel situation will be reimbursed upon approval of your vice president.

Mileage rates
Use of a private automobile for university business will be reimbursed at the rate of 40.5¢ per mile (updated September 28, 2005) whether or not a state vehicle is available.
NOTE: For all travel after NOVEMBER 15, 2006, the mileage reimbursement is 44.5¢ per mile.

NEW PER DIEM RATES There are new per diem rates for all travel after NOVEMBER 15, 2006.

VIEW THE NEW RATES. (.pdf)

QUESTIONS? Call Travel Reimbursements 5-3111

REIMBURSEMENTS

Subsistence Allowances: Lodging, Meals and Incidentals
In general, reimbursement for meals and lodging expenses for travel is based on published rates.

Meal per diem for domestic travel
All meal per diem allowances include incidental expenses. Receipts are not required. The amount expended on one meal of a full day's allowance is at your discretion and the total daily reimbursement cannot exceed the maximum meal allowance.

Seven different per diem reimbursement rates have been approved, depending on the travel destination.
See FIN 509, or our online per diem chart.

Breakfast (Prior to 6am)	$7.00	$7.00	$7.50	$8.00	$8.50	$9.00	$9.50
Lunch (Prior to 11am and after 2pm)	$7.50	$7.50	$8.00	$8.50	$9.00	$9.50	$10.00
Dinner After 8pm	$15.00	$15.50	$16.50	$17.50	$18.50	$19.50	$20.50
Daily Maximums	$29.50	$30.00	$32.00	$34.00	$36.00	$38.00	$40.00

Meal per diem for foreign travel
Meal and incidental expenses are reimbursed up to the maximum rate allowed, at the established rates published in the U.S. Department of State Standardized Regulations.

Partial allowance/Meals provided
Items such as lunches paid separately by the university must be deducted from per diem. Meal per diems are not allowed when meals are provided at no cost at a conference or by an airline.

Long-term travel
If an employee is on official university business in-state for longer than 30 days at a location outside the 35-mile radius from their residence and duty post, no more than $20 per day may be reimbursed for per diem and no more than $39 per day for lodging and per diem.

Lodging allowances
Lodging reimbursement amounts include room charges and applicable taxes. Lodging must be the lowest available rate at a commercial establishment limited to the published index rate.

Original receipts are required. If the conference lodging rate exceeds the index, a copy of the complete conference announcement or program that shows the lodging rate must be submitted with your travel reimbursement claim. Lodging rates for individual cities and counties are available in FIN 509.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE LODGING RATE
ASU President Michael Crow has give Authorizing Travel Officials (ATO) the authority to approve lodging reimbursements at the federal rate on a case-by-case basis when the ATO has decided that compliance with the State of Arizona lodging rates is impractical under the circumstances for a particular trip.

Impractical under the circumstances means that if you need to stay within a lodging rate, you would either be out of pocket for a portion of the lodging costs or would need to stay at a hotel farther away or at one that is of a lower level than is normally approved for travel on university business.

To implement this exception procedure the traveler needs to indicate on the Travel Authorization form that the "Traveler is approved for federal lodging rate maximum for this trip" and then submit the Travel Authorization form to the ATO for approval.
View the current federal lodging rates.

NOTE: Current university policy states that all other lodging exceptions must have VP approval.

REIMBURSEMENTS EXPLAINED

The university will reimburse travelers for the following expenses:

Subsistence
• Meals, lodging and incidentals (M&IE), to specified maximum amounts.
• Transportation
• Airfares, car rental, private car mileage, emergency repairs to university cars, parking fees, etc.

Miscellaneous Business Expenses
When approved in advance and when they are related to university business, the university may cover expenses not specifically outlined in the FIN 500 section of the Financial Services Policy and Procedures Manual.

Special fees for foreign travel
Reasonable costs associated with or required for travel in a foreign country (for example, currency exchange fees).

Registration fees
For conferences, conventions and meetings of professional or learned societies.

WHEN YOU RETURN
The Necessary Paperwork

What form should you use?
Please use an In-State Travel Authorization/ Claim Form to submit a claim for travel expenses incurred on official university business in-state.

For travel expenses incurred on official university business other than in-state,
please use a Travel Authorization/Claim Form and attach detailed explanations when required.

What receipts do you need?
Original receipts for airfare, lodging, telephone calls, parking, registration and vehicle rental. Ground transportation that costs more than $50 requires an original receipt and must be attached to the Travel Authorization/Claim Form. All receipts must be taped or stapled to an 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper.

When should you submit claims?
Claims should be be submitted no more than seven (7) working days after you return from a trip.

Can you submit expenses incurred on behalf
of another member of the ASU faculty or staff?
You are not usually allowed to submit expenses incurred on behalf of another faculty or staff member.

What is the  certification procedure?
You—as the traveler—must sign the claim form.

What are the exceptions to this process?
All exceptions to travel policies and procedures must be approved by the president, campus provost or area vice president in writing prior to the travel.

How soon should you submit your claim form?
The sooner you submit your Travel Authorization Claim form, the sooner you will receive a reimbursement. It is especially important to travelers who use Diners Club corporate cards. Since many of your expenses might have been charged to the corporate card and will be billed to you directly, you will want to receive your travel reimbursement before you have to pay the bill.

Remember that it usually takes between two and four days for your claim—and subsequently, your reimbursement check—to go to and from the Travel Reimbursement Office in the mail.

What if you owe ASU  money?
Whenever the total amount of your advance exceeds your total expenses, you must submit a check payable to Arizona State University with the Travel Authorization/Claim form.

Finally, when can I expect reimbursement?
If the Travel Authorization/Claim form is complete and accurate, reimbursement (if applicable) will be made in approximately ten (10) working days from the time the claim form reaches the Travel Reimbursement Office. An incomplete or inaccurate voucher will delay processing while the necessary information and/or documentation are obtained. Again, variances in the above steps notwithstanding, you should physically receive any reimbursement for travel expenses within ten (10) working days from the date forms are RECEIVED by the Travel Reimbursement Office.