The Per diem · calculated from the bookings block works out the daily allowance for every day of the trip. It uses the trip's flights, trains, buses and hotels to see where the traveller was on each day and at what times.
Where to find it
Open a report in Expenses → Expense reports → the Per diem · calculated from the bookings block. Click How it's calculated for the day table.
Which rate table is used
The table depends on your company's country:
| Company country | Rate source |
|---|---|
| United States | GSA (domestic), State Department (abroad), Department of Defense (US territories) |
| United Kingdom | HMRC |
| Germany | BMF (Bundesministerium der Finanzen) |
| France | Official mission rates (arrêté du 3 juillet 2006) |
For companies in other countries, per diem in expense reports is not available yet. The report says so, and everything else in it works.
What the day table shows
- Each day is a full day, an arrival day, a departure day or a day trip, with the rate that applies.
- Rates are converted into the company currency at each day's exchange rate.
- Meals included in the booking, for example breakfast in the hotel rate, are deducted automatically where the rules require it.
- Meals paid with the company card (a restaurant transaction on the trip) appear as Card: {merchant} {amount} — {meal}. Depending on your per diem settings, the meal is deducted, kept, or proposed to the approver.
- Lodging: if the company booked and paid for the hotel, the lodging allowance is not paid out a second time ("lodging covered by the booked hotel").
- Tax-free per diem and the taxable part are shown separately where the country's rules split them, as in Germany.
When no rate applies, the report says so: "No per-diem rate applies to this trip (destination or dates outside the rate tables)". For example, the destination has no published rate.
Germany: the three-month rule
When an employee works at the same place for more than three months, German rules stop the tax-free meal allowance from month four. A break of four weeks or more restarts the count.
- In the report, days over the limit are labelled 3 months: meals taxable.
- Before the trip, the order page and the approver's trip card warn in advance: 3 months ending soon or 3 months exceeded.
- The count includes every trip to that place: earlier expense reports, booked trips and days added by hand on the Presence tab. See Presence: counting days spent outside the platform.
France: long assignments
For a long assignment at the same place, the exempt allowance drops to 85% from month four and to 70% from month 25, and stops after month 60. Returning to the same place after more than three months away counts as a new assignment.
France: travel days
On arrival and departure days, lodging, lunch and dinner are paid by time slot at the destination:
- lodging for the night;
- lunch if the traveller is there for the whole of 12:00–14:00;
- dinner if the traveller is there for the whole of 19:00–21:00.
FAQ
The report says "No per-diem rate applies to this trip". Either your company's country is not the US, the UK, Germany or France, or the destination or dates fall outside the published tables. Check the company country in the company profile.
Why was a meal deducted from my per diem? Either the meal was included in a booking, such as breakfast in the hotel rate, or you paid for it with the company card and your company deducts card meals. Click How it's calculated to see each deduction.
Why is there no lodging allowance? The company booked and paid for the hotel, so lodging is already covered.
The German three-month warning is wrong because the employee was elsewhere in between. Ask your Director or Accountant to add the missing days, or the trip booked elsewhere, on Per diem → Presence. Open reports are re-checked immediately.
Related articles
- Per diem: daily allowances and the per diem calculator
- Per Diem: What It Is and Where the Rates Come From
- Per diem settings: calculation, payout and accounting
- Per Diem Rates Reference
- Per Diem: Your Own Rate Table
- Per Diem in Trip Budgets and Expenses
- Presence: counting days spent outside the platform
- Per diem report in Analytics
- Expense reports: what they are and how they move
- Creating an expense report: after a trip, from an order or by hand
- Expense reports: who can see and file them
- Card transactions in an expense report
- Submitting and approving an expense report
- Expense report PDF
- Exporting expense reports to accounting: CSV and DATEV
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