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Whitman College Travel, Meals and Entertainment Policy
Whitman College is changing its internal policies and documentation
requirements regarding travel, meals/food and entertainment.  The
changes are driven by heightened scrutiny from the IRS in this area.
The College appreciates on-going faculty and staff care and attention to
spending.  It is hoped that these changes will strengthen controls and
provide the necessary documentation without adding too much
additional burden.   Appropriate documentation is necessary to ensure
expense reimbursements are not taxable income to employees.  This
document is meant to highlight and explain these changes.
Travel, Meals and Entertainment Expenses
Employees incurring costs for travel, meals and entertainment can be
perceived to be receiving to a personal benefit from this activity.  The
standard of care and attention must be high in order to withstand
scrutiny and to keep reimbursements for such costs out of the
employee's taxable income.  The following documentation standards
need to be met:
Expenses should be clearly linked to the business purposes of the College.
The costs must be reasonable, not lavish or extravagant.
A breakdown of costs by general category per day is available for
travel and entertainment.
The employee must certify that they have not been reimbursed by any other
entity and that all costs were incurred in order to promote the business
purposes of Whitman College.
This type of spending should be approved by both the department head and
a budget officer.
The following list of items fall into this sensitive area and need to be
reported on a Travel, Meals and Entertainment form.
Travel Expenses
Travel expense incurred on behalf of the College including airfare,
registration fees, lodging and ground transportation (personal mileage,
car rental, taxi, shuttle, etc.) are eligible for reimbursement by the
College.  Such costs can be incurred by employees, prospective job
candidates, speakers, students, and visiting artists.
Mileage reimbursement does not cover the cost of tolls and parking fees
but does cover all other costs to operate the vehicle such as fuel and
insurance.  It is recommended that employees use rental or College
vehicles whenever that is the lower cost option or students are being
transported.  The IRS reimbursement rate for the use of a personal vehicle
is posted on the Business Office website.
Whitman College does not pay for personal expenses.  Costs that are
considered personal include spousal and family travel, in-flight movies,
hotel movies, flight insurance, and traffic and parking tickets.  If
personal costs are charged to a College credit card, the employee must
reimburse the college from personal funds for those costs upon return.
While on trips requiring overnight travel, the traveler is entitled to have
reasonable meal costs covered by the College.
Meals, Food and Entertainment
In this area it is doubly important to document the identity of the
person(s) or group being fed or entertained and that the cost achieves a
valid business purpose.  For example, if there are one or two diners
simply providing their names and the purpose of the meal would
suffice.  If it is a group of twenty students, providing information such
as "ECON 114A – 20 students plus the instructor" would be ample.
Business Meals
Business meals are those taken with students, colleagues, alumni or
donors where College business is a significant element of the
conversation. Also, meals provided by the College for employees
working beyond their normal working day qualify as business meals.
Other Meals/Food Expense
Meals or food expense for award or anniversary recognition, holiday
parties etc., should be reasonable in amount.  Office coffee and candy,
food and/or beverages provided at office meetings on campus are all
examples of reimbursable meal (food) expenses.  The business purpose
for most of these items is generally to promote morale and increase
goodwill among students, faculty and staff of Whitman College.
Entertainment
"Entertainment" includes any activity generally considered to be
entertainment, amusement or recreation.  Entertainment expenses must
be ordinary and necessary to carrying on the business of Whitman in
order to be reimbursable by the College. It is very important to
document the identity of the person(s) or group being entertained to
clearly establish that the cost is reasonable and show a link between who
is entertained and a valid business purpose.
[NAME]
Use of alcohol for business entertainment purposes should be kept to a
minimum and never charged to federal grants.
Forms
The following forms (available through the Business Office web-site) are
to be used to report travel, meals and entertainment expenses:
JPMC MasterCard Documentation – this form is to be used for all
expenses charged to the JPMC card.
Travel, Meals and Entertainment Expense – this form is to be used
for all expenses paid out of pocket, charged on personal credit
cards or to pay other vendors by check.  So it can be used to
reimburse an employee or pay an external vendor.  Besides the
forms available via the web-site, the old travel advance form is
also available on 3-part NCR paper (used mainly by the coaching
staff).
Bon Appetit Charges
Bon Appetit charges would ordinarily be run through the same process
detailed above.  Because the College writes a check directly to [NAME]
Appetit a different process has to be set up.  The Business Office is
working on a report that will satisfy documentation issues noted above.
That report will be given to respective budget officers for review and
approval on a monthly basis.