Reimbursements

Travel Reimbursement InstructionsThe full Duke process, start to finish Reimbursement policyWhat Duke will and will not pay for Your travel foldersReceipts land here, one folder per trip Current Duke mileage rateCheck before you claim a drive

1 Who you are

Your name From the lab roster. Your Duke Unique ID is looked up for you. Duke email You are Set from your position on the roster. Change it if it is wrong. It decides where the finished packet is sent and whether you submit through the student form or Concur.

2 The trip

Year Conference Departure date Return date Destination Fund code Fund type Filled from the fund code. Edit it if Duke asked for different wording. Travel award 1 optional Travel award 2 optional

Receipts will be filed to Lab Member Travel Reimbursement / ... / ...

3 The receipts

Upload a receipt and it gets read for you: date, vendor, amount and category are filled in, and anything that would get the claim bounced is flagged. Check what it filled in before you submit. Add as many receipts as the trip needed; they all end up on the same log.

Total $0.00

Date	Description	Amount
Total	$0.00

The rules that get packets rejected

Before you submit

Travel must have been approved in writing by Dr. Chory in advance. Attach that approval to your submission.
Duke will not accept a travel reimbursement until the trip is over, registration included.
Always ask for itemized receipts. A card slip showing only a total is not enough.

Alcohol

Alcohol is never reimbursable.
If alcohol appears anywhere on a food receipt, the whole receipt becomes non-reimbursable. Ask for a separate check at the table.

Airfare

Coach or economy only, meaning the lowest fare offered. An upgrade is a personal expense and needs its own separate receipt.
The receipt has to show the class of fare and the traveler's name.
Federal grants require a U.S. flag carrier under the Fly America Act.
If you extended the trip for personal reasons, include dated proof of the comparable airfare for the official conference dates. Without it the airfare is not reimbursed at all.

Meals come out of the lab budget

This is the same money that buys reagents, runs the robots and pays the people in the lab. A meal claimed is a meal not spent on the science.
There is no per diem and no fixed cap, which is deliberate: the limit is your judgment. Order what you would order if you were paying, and claim what you actually needed while you were away.
Reasonable claims are reimbursed with no back and forth. If a meal was unusually expensive for a good reason, say so in the justification rather than leaving it to be guessed at.
If this is being abused, Dr. Chory will have a conversation with you about it, and it may affect whether the lab supports your conference travel in future.
Meals should be for you alone where possible. Group meals read as social expenses to an auditor.

Meal times Duke will cover

Breakfast, when travel begins before 7am.
Lunch, when travel begins before 11am.
Dinner, when the trip begins before 5:30pm, or you do not get home until after 7pm.

Lodging

Submit the final hotel folio, not the booking confirmation, and make sure it shows taxes and incidentals.
Lodging must be moderately priced.
Share rooms when several of us are at the same meeting.

Ground transport and mileage

Taxi, Uber and Lyft are reimbursable between home or work and the airport, the airport and the hotel, and the hotel and the venue.
Those receipts must show the payment method and the start and end locations.
Driving instead? Attach a Google Maps route showing the distance and check the current Duke mileage rate. Gas receipts are not reimbursable.

Not reimbursable

Spouse or companion travel.
Anything outside the official conference dates.
Travel insurance, unless Alice or Amberly cleared it first.

1 Who you are

Your name Duke email You are Fund code

2 What you bought

Upload a receipt and it gets read for you: date, vendor, amount and account code are filled in. Check them, then write the justification. That last one is the part the auditor reads, so say what it was for, not just what it was.

Total $0.00

1 Who you are

2 The trip

3 The receipts

On the log so far Open the Travel Receipt Log

1 Who you are

2 What you bought

Logged so far Open the reimbursement sheet