Per Diem Schedule Options

Time & Expense with ESS supports multiple per diem schedules. You can define an expense report type as per diem or not.

If you define an expense report type as per diem, you also specify which per diem schedule applies to the expense report type. (See Expense Report Types for further information.) Also, if you create an expense type for lodging or meals, you can indicate whether the expense type is per diem or not and, if so, whether it functions as an allowance or as a ceiling. (See Expense Types for further information.)

When creating a schedule, you have the following options:

• Source — The source of the information in the per diem schedule. The valid options are as follows:
• USER — The schedule is based on user-provided per diem information.
• CONUS — The schedule contains per diem information for continental US locations. (Imported information will include Hawaii, Alaska, and U.S. territories.)
• OCONUS — The schedule contains per diem information for locations outside of the continental US (OCONUS) plus the overseas non-foreign locations.
• CONUS/OCONUS — The schedule includes both the CONUS and OCONUS locations.

Note: You may find it beneficial to create separate per diem schedules for CONUS and OCONUS. You can then create an international expense report type and a domestic US expense report type and tie each to the appropriate per diem schedule. This will cut down the number of locations your employees must search through to find the location they want.

If you instead choose to create one combined schedule, employees can quickly limit the list of locations when they click the State drop down list if the location they want is within the United States.

• Contents — The type of locations you want in the schedule. The valid options are as follows:
  • Civilian — Civilian locations only
  • Military — Military locations only
  • Both — Both civilian and military locations

Note: If your company does not do Department of Defense (DOD) work, you may find it useful to include only civilian locations in your per diem schedules. The Per Diem Committee supports selective use of per diem information by making it available in the following files:

• CONNOW-0X.TXT — CONUS (Civilian & Military)
• CONUSNM-0X.TXT — CONUS (Civilian)
• CONUSMIL-0X.TXT — CONUS (Military)
• OCONUS.TXT — OCONUS (Civilian & Military)
• OCONUSNM.TXT — OCONUS (Civilian)
• Input Options — The location fields the user can provide. The four location fields are as follows:
  • Country
  • State/Province
  • City
  • County

Note: For CONUS schedules, the input options selected should generally be just State/Province and City. That should give enough granularity for user searches. For OCONUS schedules, just Country and City should be satisfactory.