Overview

• All expenses are handled on a reimbursement basis: you pay your flight, hotel, meals, and any other expenses, and then submit receipts for reimbursement after the trip. (Stanford employees, you may be able to arrange a travel advance; talk to Kim Kay for details)
• Expenses are expected to be reasonable. There is no specific limit for reasonable, except for the following: 
  
  • Flight: only economy class fares are reimbursed
  • Hotel: hotel cost should be "near" the government per diem rate
  • Alcohol at meals: reimbursement limit of $15 per person, per meal, before tax and tip. 
  • Tips at meals: Tips cannot exceed 20 percent (unless there is a mandatory charge for a large group) 
  • Stanford will not reimburse the portion of alcohol expenses or tips beyond the limit.

Before your trip

To speed up your reimbursement, get set up in Stanford’s “Payee Request Portal” before your trip. (Stanford employees and those reimbursed by Stanford for previous trips don’t need to do this step unless your address or other information has changed.) Email Kim Kay krkay@stanford.edu with the following information: Name, Email address, Mailing address, Citizenship/Residence status (US Citizen, Non Resident Alien, Resident Alien, or Unknown)

During your trip

Save all receipts, including meal receipts. Receipts should include payment information (e.g., paid by AMEX) and should be itemized. (Stanford does not allow per diem reimbursement for non-Stanford employees. Per diem instructions for Stanford employees below.**) 

After your trip

• Submit itemized receipts for all expenses (economy-class airfare, hotel, food, ground transportation, baggage check, etc.)
• Scan and email to Kim Kay krkay@stanford.edu, or send by postal mail to Kim Kay, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall, Suite 102, Stanford, CA 94305
• You must include “proof of travel” in the form of either a boarding pass or hotel bill with your name on it.
• On meal receipts, indicate the cost of alcohol. If there was no alcohol included, write “no alcohol” on the receipt. (Alcohol expenses are reimbursable up to $15 per person per meal, but are tracked separately in the reimbursement system.)
• List any reimbursable expenses under $75 for which you are not submitting receipts.
• If you added extra days or legs before or after the trip for travel unrelated to the meeting, include a screenshot showing what the roundtrip airfare for just the meeting would have been.

Questions? Contact Kim Kay: 650-723-2015 or krkay@stanford.edu

**Per diem instructions for Stanford employees

• You can choose actual or per diem reimbursement for meals, and actual or per diem reimbursement for hotel.
• Meals: if you claim per diem meal reimbursement please be sure that you list any meals that are provided for you at an event, or paid for by someone else in your group; these will be deducted from your per diem reimbursement. Also note that per diem reimbursement for first and last day of the trip is 75% of the full daily amount. There is no need for you to calculate the 75%; the reimbursement system does it automatically.
• Hotel: if your lodging costs are actually lower than the per diem allowance, please request reimbursements for the actual travel expenditures only.