Best Practices for Grant-Funded Travel

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Thank you for participating in this training on grant funded travel best practices presented by the Office of Sponsored Programs. 

 
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MSU provides many training resources around travel policies, allowable costs, and the Chrome River system used to submit expense reports. 

 
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We won't try to duplicate those trainings here. 

 
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Rather, we'll be highlighting some areas we commonly see people tripping up on who are traveling for grants. 

 
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Travel expenses are a common focus area for audits, so it's worth diving into some of the common problems we see with these expenses. 

 
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Thanks for joining the session today. 

 
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Here's our agenda for today. 

 
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We'll do a quick review or a reminder of a few general travel guidelines for grant funded travel. 

 
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And then we'll review what we'll call OS, PS, Top ten expense report gaps and mistakes. 

 
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Let's start with some general travel guidelines. 

 
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Pre-approvals are always required for any out of state travel and of course when there is a mix of in state and out of state travel as well as any international travel. 

 
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This includes MSU students who are traveling on grants, and the pre-approval should always be included when you are submitting an expense for each student traveling. 

 
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It's helpful and will likely speed up processing of your report if you use narrative notes generously in your expense report. 

 
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We very rarely see people providing too much detail. 

 
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Some examples of where notes are needed when a personal car is used instead of a rental or even a flight. 

 
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Valid reasons for this might include no rental cars were available, you were traveling in the winter and needed snow tires for a safe journey. 

 
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You were carrying equipment you couldn't take on a plane, and in cases where it was simply less expensive to travel by car than plane. 

 
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Another example, when you were traveling to multiple destinations or cities in one trip. 

 
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Provide a business purpose for each destination and when a business receipt doesn't match the amount being requested for reimbursement, maybe there was a personal element to the expense that you'll want to call out to explain the difference. 

 
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When tipping, whether it's a meal or a taxi or other service, a good general guideline is to tip between 15 and 20%. 

 
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This range will generally not be questioned or require extra explanation on an expense report. 

 
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Now we'll move to our list of top ten mistakes or gaps in expense reports.  

Number 1: Personal travel. 

 
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Often researchers will add personal travel days to a business trip. 

 
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This is perfectly acceptable as long as it doesn't add incremental cost to the business trip. 

 
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You should provide documentation to show that this is not the case by providing flight comparisons for your flights with and without personal travel. 

 
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If there is additional expense by extending your trip for personal reasons, then be sure to pay that difference as a personal expense on your expense report. 

 
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Be sure to indicate the date and time that your personal time started and ended so that per diems and other costs can be calculated appropriately. 

 
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#2, student travel. 

 
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There are often occasions when researchers will travel with students for grant related purposes. 

 
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If this is the case and you are paying for all or part of their travel and your P card and then submitting expenses accordingly, please indicate whether or not the student is an MSU student and what their name is. 

 
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This is important because each MSU student will require pre-approval for out of state and international travel, and you'll need to submit that on your expense report  

#3 Hotel bills. 

 
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When submitting your hotel expense receipts, please submit receipts that represent only the hotel room and associated taxes. 

 
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If you have other charges, such as incidentals for meals or laundry, please have the hotel isolate the room and tax on a separate folio and pay for your incidentals separately. 

 
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#4 Lowest cost lodging. 

 
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There may be cases where you consider staying in an Airbnb instead of a hotel when looking at the cost comparisons. 

 
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To ensure you are choosing the lowest cost option, be sure to include the service and cleaning fees in the Airbnb expense calculations. 

 
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This means that if the Airbnb nightly rate is shown to be $100 for one night, but there are cleaning and service fees for an additional $100, the nightly rate is actually $200.00 and should be compared to the other options using that amount. 

#5 Record driving times when driving is your method of transportation. 

 
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Please document the start and stop time of your travel so that per diems can be assigned accurately. 

 
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#6 Meal per diems versus Hospitality 

 Meal per diems are the required expense method per state travel policies. 

 
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We sometimes see people using hospitality forms as a way to bypass per diem rates. 

 
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This should happen very rarely and is only allowed when a business meeting is taking place during the meal and there is at least one non MSU attendee at the meal who is participating in the meeting. 

 
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When this takes place, a per diem for that meal won't apply. 

 
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This may sound obvious, but it is sometimes forgotten. 

 
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In case you were not aware, per diems can be pooled to buy groceries. 

 
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We see this in places where restaurants don't exist, such as places where researchers are camping in the field. 

 
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When pooling funds for groceries, be sure to provide documentation and justification in Chrome River in your expense report. 

#7 No paid seat upgrades or other flight add-ons. 

 
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Paid seat upgrades or other add-ons such as early check in fees and TSA pre-check are not allowed on flights except in rare cases where there is a documented medical need. 

 
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Now if you're a frequent flyer and are upgraded for free, that is just fine. 

 
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Enjoy the ride #8 Taxi Documentation When travelling via Uber or Taxi, Please ensure your receipt indicates the starting location, your destination, and time of travel. 

 
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This is a source of evidence that the trip is business related and could be useful in an audit. 

 
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#9 Friend Transportation  

In some cases, you may have a friend or relative picking you up at the airport, which saves you from having to hire a taxi or paying for parking. 

 
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You can submit the mileage for this service In those cases  

#10 Fly US Flag Air Carriers. 

 
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We are required to select US Flag Air Carriers when flying or when transporting cargo by air. 

 
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You can view the list of US carriers at the link shown on the slide. 

 
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Some of them are not obvious. 

 
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Before we conclude, a few reminders to you. 

 
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Before you finalize your expense report. 

 
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Do a double check to make sure all of your receipts are attached. 

 
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Also, double check to make sure you haven't included any unnecessary receipts that could confuse an approver and may cause delays in your report's approval. 

 
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Finally, make sure you've chosen the correct account icon so that your expenses are charged accurately. 

 
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Often we see mistakes in in state versus out of state travel accounts and OSP versus non OSP accounts. 

 
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There are abundant training and policy documentation resources available related to grant funded travel. 

 
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We've listed a few on this slide but we have many more. 

 
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For a more specific question or need, this brings me to my last slide. 

 
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OSP is ready and happy to assist you with questions and education on grant funded travel expenses. 

 
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If you have questions or need additional resources, please let your fiscal manager know. 

 
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We are happy to help. 

 
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Thank you for participating in this session.