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Travel for Employees

Travel Guidelines

Quick Facts

  • All expenses for an employee should be claimed on their own travel pre-approval and expense report and never on anyone else's.
  • A travel pre-approval must be completed and approved prior to the first day of business travel.
  • Travel expenses for family members of employees are not reimbursable.

Who Is An Employee?

Any faculty or staff member working at the university on a temporary or permanent basis and being paid a salary or wages by the UNCW payroll is considered an employee.

Employee Travel Information

Travel Agencies

UNCW has contracts with two travel agencies to make airfare arrangements that are directly billed to the university.

This is the only way to have the airfare prepaid for an employee, non-employee, student employee, student (not on payroll) or student group.

All University Travelers

Sequel Travel is for university travelers in any department, traveling for any pre-approved reason.

International Program's Study Abroad Only

Fellowship Travel International is only for university travelers participating on the International Program's Study Abroad.

Athletics Team Travel

Anthony Travel is for UNCW Athletics team travel only.

Visit the Travel and Direct Pay Home Page for per diem rates.

Third Party Lodging

Third Party Lodging refers to an establishment other than a hotel or motel where many units are available to rent. Examples of third-party lodging include but not limited to campgrounds, campsites, bed and breakfasts, home-sharing, short-term rentals, apartments, condominiums, and college dorms.
 
Third Party Lodging Requests must be submitted and approved before the trip begins or the traveler risks not being reimbursed or not being able to use their Travel card.

Process to Request an Exception to the Policy

The traveler must provide the following to the Travel Office:

      • Business purpose of having to rent the establishment
      • Lodging Fees of the rental (includes rent and all associated fees such as cleaning fees, etc.)
      • Dates of Stay
      • List of everyone staying on the property and their affiliation with UNCW
      • Six Digit Fund Number
  • Copy of Rental Agreement from the Third-Party Lodging Property.
  • Receipt showing paid or statement indicating why the lodging has not yet been paid.
  • If any documents are in a foreign currency, they must be converted to USD.
  • If any documents are in a foreign language, they must be translated to English.
  • Attestation that there is no conflict of interest (no family members own the property or benefit financially from the rental).
  • Printed comparisons from three hotel/motels in the same geographic area. Comparisons can be from the hotel's website, hotels.com, Expedia.com, etc.

All forms and documentation must be combined into one PDF file and sent to the Third Party Lodging inbox using the following naming convention:

Travelersname_3rdpartylodging_date_location.pdf

Please use the naming convention listed above as the subject line of your email.

Visit the Travel and Direct Pay Home Page for per diem rates.

Per diem rates are for overnight trips only. Per diem is not allowed for day trips.

Employee Travel Info

Breakfast

Depart before 6:00 a.m.

Lunch

Depart before noon or return after 2:00 p.m.

Dinner

Depart before 5:00 p.m. or return after 8:00 p.m.

Information on employee expense policies for bus, train, subway, parking, tolls, transportation to the airport and fuel.

Review Expense Information

Bus, Train and Subway

The University only reimburses for Bus, Train and Subway expenses. These are not prepaid expenses.

Parking and Tolls

Parking and Toll expenses are a reimbursable expense only after the trip takes place. These expenses are reimbursable when incurred while traveling on official state business only.

To and From the Airport

When an employee is traveling to and from the airport there are three options to choose from:

  1. Actual cost of a taxi or airport shuttle
  2. A private car can be used which will be reimbursed at the standard business mileage rate set by the IRS for a maximum of two round trips with no parking charges.
  3. A private car can be used which will be reimbursed at the standard business mileage rate set by the IRS for a maximum of one round trip plus parking charges.

Fuel

Fuel expenses are reimbursable expenses only after the trip has taken place if the traveler rents a car. It is not reimbursed if the traveler requests mileage.

Personal Mileage is a reimbursable expense upon completion of the travel. Visit the Travel and Direct Pay Home Page for IRS mileage rates.

Chrome River will calculate actual mileage on expense reports and upload a map.

Mile is calculated from UNCW or the employee's home, whichever is closer to the destination.

There are three options to pay employee registrations.

  1. Pay with a UNCW Travel Card
  2. UNCW can prepay via an expense report in Chrome River
  3. The Employee can pay and be reimbursed after the trip concludes.

There are three options for a UNCW employee to rent a vehicle:

  1. Reserve a rental car from Enterprise using the online booking tool on the Chrome River homepage.
  2. Reserve a rental car using the employee's UNCW Visa Travel Card.
  3. Pay for the rental car personally and request reimbursement after the trip has concluded.

Taxi, Uber, and Lyft costs are a reimbursable expense only.

Allowable Taxi/Uber/Lyft Expenses

  • Travel to/from the airport at Employee's Duty Station
  • Travel to/from the airport at Employee's Destination
  • Travel involving trips other than to and from the airport will be reimbursed when required for official state business.

Foreign Travel consists of travel to Alaska, Hawaii, and all countries other than the contiguous. All international travel must be authorized by the budget authority, grant officer, supervisor, traveler, and Vice Chancellor/Chancellor before the trip takes place.

If being paid by a grant fund, the Grant Officer also must approve the travel as well, these approvals take place within Chrome River.

About

Foreign Travel status begins when the employee leaves the Continental US and remains in effect until the employee returns to the Continental US. Any expenses that are incurred during the trip within the Continental United States will have out-of-state rates applied to the expenses.

Foreign travel follows normal rules and regulations of the University travel policies.

Foreign travel reimbursements and prepaid items must follow the same guidelines as regular travel - original receipts, explanations for deviancies from policy or unusual circumstances, etc.

Important Information for Foreign Travel

Per Diem and Lodging Rates

Foreign meal per diem is determined by the destination of the trip. Foreign meal per diems and lodging rates can be found on the U.S. Department of State webpage.

Meal per diems are relative to location. If in the US or on a flight into or out of the US at meal time, the traveler will be reimbursed at the appropriate out-of-state or in-state meal per diem.

Payment by Wire/Bank Draft

Wire transfers are the required payment method for foreign individuals or entities. A wire/bank draft form must be completed and attached to the expense report, along with supporting documentation. The form of payment chosen should be "wire."

The information will be forwarded to General Accounting once the expense report is processed by the Travel Office.

The wire/bank draft form can be found on the Controller's Forms page.

Insurance Coverage

All faculty/staff traveling on international university business have the option of purchasing international travel insurance before their trip.

Contact the Institutional Risk Management Office at extension 2-5974 and they will explain to you the differences between the regular state plan and the special coverage for international travel. U.S. citizens traveling abroad should register their travel through the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.

In addition to receiving updates on travel alerts and warnings, you can receive assistance in situations ranging from replacement of lost passports to evacuation during natural disasters.

Additional Information for Foreign Travelers

The University relies on information from the U.S. Department of State for travel warnings issued periodically by the agency and information from the U.S. Center for Disease Control.

Please visit both of these websites to keep up with such matters as health conditions, crime, unusual entry requirements, areas of instability and the location of the nearest U.S. embassy in subject country. The Vice-Chancellor/Provost will also be approving international travel for employees via Chrome River workflow.

Who to Contact for

Export Controls:

Insurance:

Passports: