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Travel Status Defined

Travel Classifications Defined:

To be eligible to travel on UNLV business and reimbursed by a travel document the traveler must be traveling 75 miles or more outside of Las Vegas (or their permanent work station) and be classified as one of the following:
     
      a)    Faculty
      b)    Staff
      c)    Student
      d)    Volunteer
      e)    Candidates (Employee & Students Recruitment)
      f)    Invited Guest/Independent Service Provider
      g)    Group travel

Travel Status Time Frame:
Travel status begins two hours prior to departure for domestic flights, and three hours prior to departure for international flights. Travel status ends when the the flight has arrived at the airport for both domestic and international flights.

Reimbursement by TD (Travel Document):

Before travel arrangements begin, travelers categorized as faculty, staff, or student must have received approval from their department head by a signed travel document.

For additional information and instructions, on invited guest, volunteers, candidates, and independent service providers, see definitions below.    

1) Individual Travel: (Faculty, Staff & Students) Effective July 1, 2007, new regulation requires the university to follow the existing federal travel regulations for lodging and meal per diems. Federal per diem rates represent the maximum allowable reimbursement to travelers. Individuals claim per diems and submit individual TD's, along with allowed paid receipts. Individual travel may only request meal per diem unless a hosted meal applies. For more information see the accounts payable website at here.

a) Individual/Group Travel with Invited Guest: (Faculty, Staff, Students and Invited Guest). In this scenario travel includes an invited guest that does not necessarily travel to the university, but is invited to attend a conference in another state; the department has chosen to host meals and prepay other expenses such as registration fees, lodging, and ground transportation, including taxi or shuttle fees. Note: For insurance purposes, vehicle rental and use of state contracts may not be extended to a guest. Vehicle rental may be reimbursed to a guest who has secured the rental with their own credit card.

Requirements: Travel Document must include a letter of invitation to the guest and identify hosted meals.

2) Group (Faculty & Staff Only)/Team Travel (Faculty, Staff & Students): Defined as two or more people traveling to the same destination for the same purpose. Team travel has a designated leader who is responsible for all trip expenses for the entire group and submits one TD in the team leaders’ name. 

Although meal per diem is allowable for individual meals, meal per diem is not relevant for group or team meals as actual receipts may be submitted for reimbursement. Twenty percent tips are allowable for group and team meals.

(See exception in Budgeted Travel)

3) Budgeted Travel: Allowance for the entire trip not to exceed budgeted amount.

Example #1: Department has pre-determined a maximum of $500 for an individual travel expenses. In these cases the traveler may only receive reimbursement of the maximum amount approved, and may spend monies out of pocket that are not reimbursable.

Example #2: The trip is a month in duration. The group consists of one faculty member and four students. The leader is on his or her own on weekends but still in travel status and does not eat all meals with the balance of the group/team.

The leader can give meal allowance (cash) to a designated temporary leader, in which the balance of the group/team will eat together and turn in receipts to the main leader.  The leader can claim these receipts in full along with the eligible meal per diem amount for him/her self.

Or:
 
Request reimbursement for budgeted group meals based on the eligible meal per diem for the area of travel.

This method is common for long trips where advances are requested. An example of this method is as follows:

Five members in the group, meal per diem allowance is $75 per day per the GSA table, trip duration 25 days (total $9,375), the meals have been budgeted at $100 per day for the group (total $2,500) original receipts are still required even though the requested reimbursement cannot exceed the approved meal budget of $2,500. When using this method include the calculated budget on the TD to show how you arrived at the requested amount.
  

4) Volunteer Travel: A volunteer is an individual who performs a service for and directly related to UNLV business, without the expectation of monetary or material compensation. The following defines the different types of volunteers:

Category A – a person who performs a volunteer assignment for three days or less.

Category B – a person who performs a volunteer assignment for more than three days or on a recurring basis. Volunteers in this category must complete the Volunteer Agreement as well as the volunteer worker description form:

http://rms.unlv.edu/workerscompensation/doc/volunteer.pdf.

http://rms.unlv.edu/workerscompensation/doc/Volunteer_Job_Description.pdf.

 

Category C – an adjunct or clinical faculty member

Category D – a non-paid board member

Category E – community service workers

Individuals in one of the above categories must complete a Volunteer Agreement form with the Risk Management Department. Volunteers are expected to abide by university policies and regulations. Volunteers may not replace classified employees who have been laid off. Volunteers are not considered employees for any purpose other than worker’s compensation and general liability protection. See the Risk Management website for further details and the Volunteer Agreement form at http://rms.unlv.edu/workerscompensation/wcvolunteer.php.

 

Reimbursement by PV (Payment Voucher): The traveler must be classified as a candidate or independent service provider.

1) Candidate Travel: An invited candidate must travel on open position # and is reimbursed by PV only. The preferred method is to allow the candidate to pay for his/her own arrangements and request reimbursement at after the trip or for the department to make and finalize arrangements with a P-card.
Prior to making any travel arrangement determine whether UNLV needs to assist with visa status for the interview. If so, contact the International Student and Scholar Office at 895-0143. 

Candidates may be reimbursed for travel, lodging, and meal per diem expenses after the visit, and only upon presentation of original paid receipts.
Reimbursement may be made for:

Reimbursement may not be made for:

It is the candidate’s responsibility to inform the department representative at least three working days prior to arrival of any special accommodation needs the traveler may require during the interview process.
LODGING 
Rates are restricted to the GSA rate for Las Vegas. The traveler must coordinate lodging with the department representative.
MEALS
UNLV will reimburse meal per diem when in travel status (no receipt is required) as follows, rates are per the GSA table:

REIMBURSEMENT
To obtain reimbursement for expenses other than meals; the traveler must submit original expense receipts.

1099-MISC/W-2 Reportable Income - there may be tax consequences associated with reimbursements when there are unusual circumstances, such as spousal/companion travel. The candidate should explore these with a qualified tax specialist.

NOTICE: Only interested candidates should accept an invitation to interview. Should a candidate decline a letter of offer, UNLV may opt not to reimburse the candidate for interview expenses (Nevada State Administrative Manual, Section 0256.0).
Candidate Object and Sub-object Codes
Reimburse recruitment expense to candidate or students code as follows. (Do not use Host Category H3, Employee Recruitment or H2, Student Recruitment, see notes on 30 RC).

Use these codes to reimburse the candidate or student for recruiting expenses.

30    CC    Car Rental
30    CL    Lodging
30    C3    Airfare
30    C4    Other (Meals)

30 RC-Recruitment

In addition, we added the sub-object code RC-Recruitment to object 30, which would apply to internally incurred expenses related to recruitment expenses prepaid by the university or a university employee.

 

2) Invited Guest/Independent Service Provider Travel

A complete approved contract is required.  See further instructions here and download the form here. 

The purpose of this form is to be used for contracts with individuals engaged in technical, professional or specialized skills such as guest speakers, athletic officials, consultants, performers and to request honorarium payments to individuals who:

 

Although it is recommended that a traveler make his/her own travel arrangements, the department may prepay certain travel expenses, such as lodging and airfare by request on a payment voucher. Independent contractors may not use state contracts. Vehicle rental and arrangements are the sole responsibility of the traveler.

If meals are included in the contract negotiation, the reimbursable daily allowance is up to $45 per day (breakfast $10; lunch $15; dinner $20) with paid receipts. NOTE: Per Diems are not to be confused with allowances. ISP’s are not paid per diems. If any hosted meal is anticipated, the meal allowance for that meal must not be considered in the allowance for that day. 

Lodging may not exceed $150/night, including any taxes for Sunday – Thursday stay, and $175/night, including taxes for Friday – Saturday stay. These rates may be exceeded on a case-by-case basis, with proper approval from the President, Provost, Vice President, Dean, or Director.