Expenses

Per Diems

Claim daily meal and incidental allowances on an expense report using your organization's per-diem rates.

Per Diems

Per diems are flat daily allowances for meals and incidentals while travelling for work. Instead of attaching a receipt for every coffee and sandwich, you claim a fixed rate per meal — the amount is set by your organization, snapshotted onto the claim, and added to your expense report total.

Per diems sit alongside purchases and mileage. A single report can mix line items (purchases), per diems (meals), and mileage (travel). Use per diems when your company reimburses meals at a fixed rate rather than against actual receipts.

Why use per diems

No receipts to chase. A per diem is a fixed allowance, so you don't need to keep a receipt for each meal.
Predictable for finance. Rates are standardized across the organization, which keeps reimbursement consistent and audit-friendly.
Fair handling of partial travel days. Departure- and return-time cutoffs decide which meals you can legitimately claim on the days you start and end a trip.

Adding a per diem

Open a report in Draft, go to the Per Diems section, and add a row for each meal or day you're claiming. Each per diem records the following.

Field	What it is	Notes
Date	The day the meal allowance applies to	One row per day (or per meal)
Per-diem type	Which meal(s) the allowance covers	See the type list below
Quantity	How many of this allowance	Defaults to `1`
Rate applied	The per-meal rate used for this claim	Defaults to your org's rate at the time you add the row
Currency	Currency of the claim	Defaults to `CAD`
Exchange rate	Conversion rate for foreign-currency claims	Used when the currency isn't your reporting currency
GST / PST	Taxes applied to the allowance	Added on top of the base allowance
Meal provided	Flag indicating a meal was already provided	If set, you should not claim that meal
Notes	Free-text context	Optional

Total for a per-diem row = rate × quantity + taxes.

The rate is snapshotted when you add the row. Whatever the org rate is at the moment you create the per diem is stored on the claim. If an admin later changes the rates in expense settings, your existing (and previously submitted) per diems are not retroactively changed.

Per-diem types and default rates

Your organization configures these in expense settings. The defaults below follow Canadian Treasury Board–style rates (CAD).

Type	Default rate (CAD)	When it's typically claimed
Breakfast	$26.25	Start-of-day meal
Lunch	$26.25	Midday meal
Dinner	$36.00	Evening meal
Breakfast + Lunch	$40.25	Two-meal combo
Lunch + Dinner	$50.00	Two-meal combo
Breakfast + Dinner	$50.00	Two-meal combo
Full day	$66.75	All three meals on a full travel day
Incidentals	$15.00	Tips, local transport, sundries

Rates are configurable. Admins can change any of these in expense settings. The values above are the out-of-the-box defaults — your organization's rates may differ.

Time cutoffs and eligibility rules

The first and last days of a trip are usually partial, so your organization sets cutoffs that govern which meals you can claim on those days. The defaults are:

Setting	Default	Rule
Departure-time cutoff	`07:00`	You must depart before this time to claim breakfast on the departure day.
Return-time cutoff	`18:00`	You must return after this time to claim dinner on the return day.
Minimum hours	`7.5`	Minimum trip duration to claim incidentals.

Use the departure/return dates and times on the report header so these rules can be applied correctly to your first and last travel days.

Roles

Role	What they can do
EMPLOYEE	Add per diems to their own draft reports and submit them
DEPARTMENT_HEAD	Same as employee; plus approve reports within their department (see expense approvals)
ADMINISTRATOR / EXECUTIVE	Configure per-diem types, rates, and cutoffs; can add items to reports beyond the draft stage

Turning per diems off

The entire per-diems section can be disabled organization-wide in expense settings. When it's off, reports show only purchases, mileage, and receipts, and no per-diem rows can be added.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No Per Diems section on the report	Per diems are disabled org-wide	An admin must enable per diems in expense settings
Can't claim breakfast on the departure day	Departure time is at or after the departure cutoff (default 07:00)	Confirm the departure time on the report header; the cutoff is a policy rule
Can't claim dinner on the return day	Return time is at or before the return cutoff (default 18:00)	Confirm the return time; the cutoff is a policy rule
Incidentals not allowed	Trip is shorter than the minimum-hours value (default 7.5)	Incidentals require a qualifying trip length
A meal shouldn't be reimbursed	A meal was provided	Set the meal provided flag so that meal isn't claimed
The rate looks out of date	Rates were changed after you added the row	The rate is snapshotted at claim time; remove and re-add the row to pick up the new rate

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