Travel expense reports

This produces a travel expense report the way federal travel is reckoned. Lodging is nights at the rate on the hotel bill, because lodging is always a receipt line. Meals and incidentals are a daily rate: full days at the whole rate and the first and last day of the trip at three quarters, which is how the GSA tables pay it. Mileage is miles at a cents per mile rate, fares are what was paid, and any advance comes off at the end. Every rate is an input; the defaults are the published federal figures with their sources below.

Per diem is a rate, not a stack of meal receipts

A per diem for meals and incidentals replaces the receipts for those meals with a published daily amount. The GSA standard rate for the continental United States is $68 a day, made up of set amounts for breakfast, lunch, dinner and incidentals, and the first and last day of travel are paid at $51, three quarters of the full day. A business may use the federal rate, a higher city rate where GSA publishes one, or its own lower figure; the tool takes whatever the policy says.

Lodging is the one line that always needs the bill

26 CFR 1.274-5 requires documentary evidence for lodging while travelling away from home at any amount, which is why this report takes lodging as nights at the billed rate rather than as an allowance. The federal lodging per diem exists for government travellers; a private business reimbursing actual lodging needs the folio, and PerDiemDesk Pro attaches it to the line.

Mileage on a trip is the same rule as mileage anywhere

If the traveller drove their own car, the miles are paid at a cents per mile rate and no fuel receipt is needed. The IRS standard business rate is 76 cents per mile from July 1, 2026 and was 72.5 cents per mile for the first half of the year, so the date of the trip decides the default. Airport parking and tolls are fares, not mileage, and go in the fares line with their receipts where they cross $75.