How to Pay for Travel Expenses

It is the intent of the County that all allowable travel expenses shall be paid for by the County’s procurement card. Meals are the exception to this rule. Meals and incidentals are not allowed to be charged on the County’s procurement card. When processing the procurement card bills, the traveler should make sure that the appropriate account codes are used for travel. The procurement card default codes can and should be changed. It is very important that the name of the traveler and the purpose of the trip be documented in the comment section of the procurement card billing authorization process.

There will be instances where the employee will incur costs that he/she will pay for personally; such as taxi fares, bus or shuttle fees, parking charges, etc. These costs will be reimbursed once the employee does an accounting of the travel expenses and obtains supervisor review and authorization. Receipts should always be obtained.

Every employee will be required to account for all his expenses from the trip whether paid for personally or by procurement card. The request for reimbursement must be signed by Department Head or authorized designee.

There may be times when unallowable expenses are incurred on the procurement card during travel. The most common example is charging unallowable items to your hotel bill and using your procurement card to pay the hotel bill. You should avoid charging unallowable expenditures to you hotel bill by using other payment methods. If this cannot be avoided then these items should be identified and adjusted through the request for reimbursement if one is made. If not adjusted through the request for reimbursement or repaid with a personal check/cash, then the unallowable charges will be payroll deducted from the next pay period. The Finance Department reserves the right to question any and all charges made and reimbursements requested. Charging unallowable items to a County procurement card could result in the employee losing the privilege of using the procurement card and disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.