Travel Policies & Procedures

Macon State College requires certain employees to travel in the performance of their duties and will reimburse these employees for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred while traveling away from their official headquarters or home.  Macon State's travel policies and procedures were developed in concurrence with University System of Georgia and State Accounting Office published policies.

Authorization to Travel

All travel must be approved prior to the date of the travel.  There are three types of approval:

1. Standing Authorization - Used by employees who have a letter on file in the Business Office stating that they will experience frequent travel in the performance of their duties.  Employees with this type of authorization are not required to have each individual trip approved.
2. Instructor teaching a class at a location other than their official headquarters.  An example of this is an instructor based at the Macon campus teaching a class at the Warner Robins campus.  No official approval is required for this type of travel.
3. Authorization to Travel by completing through the form at http://www.maconstate.edu/forms/TravelAuthForm.pdf.

Reimbursement of Travel

Reimbursement for travel includes, but is not necessarily limited to, per diem for meals, reimbursement for lodging, transportation (both personal vehicle and common carrier), parking, taxi, and other appropriate miscellaneous expenses.  The current per diem rates for meals is as follows:

Number of Meals Reimbursed	Meals Reimbursed	Maximum Allowable Expense (1)
3 meals per day	breakfast/lunch/dinner	$28.00
2 meals per day	breakfast/lunch	$13.00
	breakfast/dinner	$21.00
	lunch/dinner	$22.00
1 meal per day	breakfast	$6.00
	lunch	$7.00
	dinner	$15.00

The following areas of Georgia are considered high cost and meal expenses may be reimbursed at a higher amount than those listed above. Please note that both the Travel Authorization Form and the Expense Report will automatically populate the higher amount when one of these high cost areas is listed.

• Chatham County
• Cobb County
• Dekalb County
• Fulton County
• Glynn County
• Gwinnett County

Number of Meals Reimbursed	Meals Reimbursed	High Cost Area Allowable Expense
3 meals per day	breakfast/lunch/dinner	$36.00
2 meals per day	breakfast/lunch	$16.00
	breakfast/dinner	$27.00
	lunch/dinner	$29.00
1 meal per day	breakfast	$7.00
	lunch	$9.00
	dinner	$20.00

Employees may be reimbursed for travel by submitting a completed Expense Report from http://www.maconstate.edu/forms/.   All approved Expense Reports received by Tuesday of each week will be processed on Wednesdays.  Funds can be direct deposited into accounts and available by Friday or a check can be mailed on Thursday.    To enroll in direct deposit of travel click on the link below, print the form and send it to the Business Office.  http://www.maconstate.edu/forms/DirectDepositTravform.xls.

For a complete discussion of travel regulations, follow this link to the Travel section of the University System of Georgia's Business Procedures Manual: http://www.usg.edu/business_procedures_manual/section4/ 

For travel outside the State of Georgia, Macon State uses the Federal per diem rates which can be found at the following site:  http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21287

The per diem rates for foreign travel are located at the following web site: http://aoprals.state.gov/content.asp?content_id=184&menu_id=78