REGION 3 TRAVEL POLICY
FOR TRAVEL PLANNING AND REIMBURSEMENT

Necessary and authorized travel expenses associated with Region 3 Member and Geographic Activities will be reimbursed in accordance with the policy and limitations specified herein.

Necessary and authorized travel includes travel that is required in support of regional activities and objectives and that has been authorized by the Region Executive Committee in the approved budget.  Members are required to get travel pre-approval from the Region Director before incurring any expenses.

Reimbursement, as covered below, must be made through the official IEEE Volunteer Expense Reimbursement Platform (Concur) within 60 days of the incurred expenses. The following link provides access to Concur for creating an account, training, support, and usage. Smartphone applications are also available. Expense reimbursements are made via direct deposit to the bank account associated with the user’s Concur account.

https://ieee.org/expense which currently links to:

https://corporate.ieee.org/resources/travel-medical-and-insurance/ieee-expense-report

Concur expense reports require evidence of incurred expenses, such as hotel statements, travel ticket stubs, etc., on the following basis:

  1. Receipts must be submitted for any single expenditure in excess of $25.00.  Receipts can be scanned and attached in Concur – phone pictures are accepted as well, as long as they are legible.  The Concur smartphone application facilitates scanning in receipts and placing them in the expense report.   Electronic receipts are acceptable and are also attached to the Concur report.  NOTE:  Credit card statements are NOT acceptable alternatives to receipts; submissions including these will be rejected.
    1. Explain any expenses that are being shared with others.
    2. There is a missing receipt affidavit process if the original receipt is not available – this is not accepted for certain expenses, such as hotel and airfare.  This process is available in the Concur application when you click on “Add Receipt”.  You will see this prompt, simply follow the instructions:

  1. Personal Car Usage:  the reimbursement for personal auto use is the smaller of the round-trip mileage reimbursement (rate set by IRS and built into the Concur tool) or the round-trip Economy or Coach airfare.
    1. If choosing to utilize your personal car, you must submit evidence of the round-trip cost of air fare for the same trip as part of your Concur submission.
  2. Car rental:  IEEE will reimburse for car rental, fuel, tolls in lieu of airfare.
    1. Per IEEE policy, you must rent Compact or Midsize vehicles.
    2. If 3 or more people are sharing a vehicle or you are transporting sizable equipment, a full-size rental is allowed.
    3. IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you rent a car in the US, additional insurance is NOT reimbursed by IEEE (this is often designated CDW/LDW, Collision Damage Waiver / Loss Damage Waiver).  Do not accept this insurance when you rent (this has occurred in the past and the Concur auditors will NOT approve this expense).  In lieu of this insurance, while you have rented a car and are travelling on IEEE business, IEEE has a business auto liability and physical damage insurance coverage.  More information on this coverage can be found here:  https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/ieee-business-auto-liability-and-physical-damage-insurance-coverage-highlights-2018.pdf
  3. Air fare: Must purchase Economy Class tickets and should purchase 21 days in advance.  Exceptions MAY be granted for extenuating circumstances but MUST be preapproved before booking.  Per policy, IEEE does support reimbursement for baggage fees and preselecting a seat. For further details, consult the IEEE Travel Expense Reimbursement Guidelines (“Section 9. Airfare” in the link below).
    1. NOTE – car rental is not reimbursed at the destination if air travel is used to attend the event, you must utilize other ground transportation.
    2. If there is a special requirement to utilize a rental car in conjunction with air transportation, this MUST be preapproved by the Region 3 Director.  To be reimbursable the cost must be reasonable.
  4. Ground Transportation:  the reimbursement for ground transportation is limited to the cost of public transportation (bus, train, etc.), necessary taxi service, or other ground transportation (e.g. Uber, Lyft, etc.)
  5. Lodging: The reimbursement for lodging is no more than one night’s lodging for each day of the meeting as required for attendance at the meeting, at the IEEE single occupancy rate, and at the IEEE contracted hotel if any. 
    1. SoutheastCon – attendees must use the conference hotel unless a pre-approved exception is provided by the Region Director.  In cases where no vacancies are available in the contracted hotel, further instructions will be provided by the Region or Conference coordinators.
  6. Meals: Individual daily meal and beverage expenses are limited to US$100. 
    1. This is not to be interpreted as a per diem amount. Expenses that exceed the US$100 daily threshold require a written explanation and Region Director approval.
    2. Where meals are provided by IEEE, the hotel, or the meeting, the daily limit will be reduced by $23 for breakfast, $27 for lunch, and $50 for dinner.
    3. SoutheastCon attendees – meals are provided for the Region designated attendees during the conference; meal reimbursements will be approved only for meal times for which there are not meals provided, or with pre-approval (e.g. travel to the conference and the night before it starts, travel home after the conference, dietary restrictions not met by the meals provided, etc.)
  7. SoutheastCon specific items:
    1. Section Chairs or delegates MUST attend the Region meetings and ensure their attendance is recorded by the Secretary in order to be reimbursed by the Region.
    2. Voting Region ExCom members will be reimbursed to attend SoutheastCon but must also meet the above attendance requirements.
    3. Additional attendees will be reimbursed ONLY if the Director has requested that you attend to contribute to the Region meetings as a speaker.  Do NOT assume you are a Region funded attendee unless you have this in writing from the Director.

Spouse expenses are not reimbursable.  

Under extenuating circumstances, the Region 3 Delegate/Director is authorized to approve expenses which vary from the above provided a written request showing justification for such variance is submitted in advance of incurring the expense.

All members authorized to travel on any IEEE activity are asked to seek the support of their employer for travel expenses and to request reimbursement from IEEE only when such support cannot be obtained.

Tips and hints

  • Include as many receipts as possible; this helps streamline the approval process with the Concur auditors.
  • Make sure all Concur entry dates match receipts exactly – this is an automatic rejection by the auditors
  • For expenses below the $25 limit, you MUST include all of the vendor information in the concur item – this will be automatically rejected as well.
  • Concur report levels for Region 3:
    • Level 1:  Regions
    • Level 2:  Southeastern USA – Region 3
    • Level 3:  (R3) Southeastern USA – Region 3
    • Level 4: <depends on expense reason; SoutheastCon is 5.20.5; ask Treasurer if unsure>
  • Do NOT purchase CDW/LDW car rental insurance – this was a source of problems for several volunteers in the past who had to absorb this cost.  NOTE, this policy applies to students traveling on IEEE business as well (i.e. travel to SoutheastCon or other conference on IEEE’s behalf)

Note:  The current reimbursement rate for auto mileage used in Concur is set by the Internal Revenue Service and can be found at https://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals/Standard-Mileage-Rates.  The same web site shows a history of reimbursement rates.  Concur will automatically calculate this when you enter mileage.

According to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publication 463, expense reports must be submitted within a reasonable period of time. The IRS defines a reasonable amount of time as adequately accounting for your expenses within 60 days after they were incurred. 

Please note, failure to submit travel expenses within a reasonable amount of time as defined by the IRS may result in non‐payment.

See IEEE Travel and Expense Reimbursement Guidelines at the following website for additional information including travel advance treatment:  https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/travel-expense-reimbursement-guidelines.pdf

Updated: January 2025 – Joe Pennisi