Field Program Mileage and Meals
Field faculty can be reimbursed for travel to meetings, such as Field Faculty meetings at DCHS, or field related events and meetings. Reimbursement for Field related travel must be placed through e-reimbursement, which you can also access through MyUW.
You will need the following things to fill out your mileage reimbursement:
- Dates of travel
- Addresses of locations you traveled to
- Number of miles traveled
- Reason for travel
- Mileage screenshot attachments (use Google, Mapquest, etc.)
Enter trip information when prompted. Be sure to include who/what/when/where/why and avoid the use of acronyms. Remember: this report goes to an auditor outside the school who does not necessarily know what PTP, PDS, and other school acronyms mean, and will send the report back to you if the information is incomplete or not understood.
Important to note:
- Be as detailed as possible; incomplete information may result in your reimbursement request being denied or sent back to you for changes.
- Every Mileage expense line is a round trip. If you visit 12 different locations in one day before returning home, it still goes in one single expense line, with the total mileage of the trip provided. If your trip takes you out for multiple days, it is also still a single expense, until you return to your starting point (or return home, if you started from work). See examples below.
- Your starting point for your trip is your home of record or headquarters city, whichever is closer to the destination.
- If you are being reimbursed for a meal you had while traveling: Use "Meals&Incidentals" if you had an overnight stay. Use "Day Trip Meal Allowance" if you returned home the same day you left.
- Policy 201.B - Privately Owned Vehicle Expenses
- Risk Management - Driver Authorization (required for ALL mileage reimbursement, fleet vehicle rental, or other car rental)
- See the University's information on claiming Meals for more information.
An example of an appropriate comments entry in the Mileage notes box:
- "Started at School Social Work 1350 University Ave at 8am, visited 5 sites before returning home 123 Grove Street, Madison. #1 DCHS 2306 S Park Street, #2 DCHS x address, #3 LSS y address, #4 lunch meeting with student @ z restaurant, #5 same as #1 returned 3pm"
- If you run into the text limit of the box, you can leave out the names of the locations and just include the addresses. Even cities can be left out if it's clear which city they're all in. Zip codes are never necessary.
Some shortcuts:
- One common method for those who travel to the same locations repeatedly is to make a numbered list of the locations and put it in the Report comments (at the top of the main expense report page). You can then just say in the Mileage expense details "Travel from #1 to #2 for student meeting", "Travel for #1 to #7 for Field Faculty meeting", etc.
- If all of your travel is for the same purpose (i.e. visiting students at their field sites), you can just list that in the Report comments instead of listing it on every expense line.
Long distance travel:
- Trips under 300 miles can always be claimed at the "Standard" rate.
- If you travel more than 300 miles in your own vehicle, you must claim your Mileage at the "Turndown" rate.
- IF YOU ARE BASED IN EAU CLAIRE there is NEVER a Fleet car available, therefore you are permitted to claim the "Standard" rate for travel over 300 miles. Please make sure to note that you are Part-Time Program Faculty/Staff based in Eau Claire in your report so that the Appprover and Auditor know to make this allowance. Attaching your appointment letter to the expense report is recommended for this step.