Home Expenses Per diem: daily allowances and the per diem calculator

Per diem: daily allowances and the per diem calculator

Last updated on Oct 07, 2026

Per diem gives your travellers official daily allowances for business trips. Directors, Accountants and Top managers choose how the rates apply, can upload the company's own rate table, and employees use a calculator to fill in the amount of an expense.

Where to find it

  • Settings: user menu → Settings → Expense management → Expense Policy → Per diem tab.
  • Calculator: Expenses → Add expense → Estimate from per diem. It also appears when you allocate a budget.

How to set up per diem

  1. Open the Per diem tab. It has four sub-tabs: Settings, Your policy, Rates and Presence.
  2. In Settings, check your rate source (it is based on your company's country) and choose:
    • Prorate first & last travel day;
    • Pay a percentage of the official rate;
    • Show converted amount. Then save.
  3. Optionally, in Your policy, upload your own per diem policy (PDF, image, spreadsheet or text; export Word files to PDF first). Robert reads it and lists the rates by country, city and traveller tier. Review the rows, edit or add rows by hand, and click Confirm & activate. You can also switch on different rates by traveller tier, for example for Executive travellers.
  4. In Rates, search for a destination to see its daily rate, source and effective date, and use Use official government rates to decide whether official rates stay on.

How to use the calculator (employees)

  1. Go to Expenses → Add expense.
  2. Next to the amount, open Estimate from per diem.
  3. Choose the destination country and city, the trip start and end dates, and the number of travellers.
  4. Check the breakdown, for example "5 days for 1 — 3 full at …, 2 travel at …".
  5. Click Use as the amount. The amount is filled in, and the calculation is saved as a comment on the expense.

Good to know

  • Official rates by company country:
    • US: GSA rates for trips in the US, Department of Defense rates for US territories, State Department rates abroad;
    • UK: HMRC;
    • Germany: BMF;
    • France: official mission rates (arrêté du 3 juillet 2006). Companies based elsewhere can upload their own policy on Your policy.
  • Travel days: in the US and UK the first and last day pay 75% of meals, Germany uses its partial-day rate, and in France lodging, lunch and dinner are paid by time slot at the destination (lunch if the traveller is there for the whole of 12:00–14:00, dinner for the whole of 19:00–21:00). A same-day trip includes no lodging.
  • Pay a percentage of the official rate scales the amount you pay. The official figures themselves stay as published.
  • Rates are shown in the currency they are published in. When your expense or budget is in the same currency, one click fills in the amount. When it differs, the calculator shows the rate and you enter the amount yourself.
  • An uploaded policy starts to apply when you click Confirm & activate. Earlier versions are kept for your records.
  • If a destination has no official rate, enter the amount yourself or add it to your own policy.

FAQ

Our company isn't in the US, UK, Germany or France. Can we use per diem? Yes. Upload your own rate table on the Your policy tab.

Why won't the calculator fill in the amount? The rate is published in a different currency from your expense. Per diem is never converted, so enter the amount yourself.

Why is the first and last day lower? Travel days are prorated under the official rules, for example 75% of meals in the US and UK. Proration can be switched off in the Per diem settings.

Can we pay less than the government rate? Yes. In Settings, use Pay a percentage of the official rate.

Can Travel managers change the per diem settings? Per diem settings are managed by the Director, Accountant and Top manager.

Related articles

Still have questions? Message us in the support chat or at support@travel-code.com.