Federal per diem rates

For federal contractors and others who reimburse based on GSA per diem, the Trips module surfaces the official daily rates per location so you can budget and reconcile against actuals.

What per diem is (briefly):
• A daily allowance set by GSA for federal travel — covers lodging + meals & incidental expenses (M&IE)
• Varies by city/county — Washington DC's rate is higher than Topeka's
• Updates annually each October when GSA publishes new rates
• Federal contractors often invoice federal customers at the local per diem cap

To see per diem on a trip:
1. Trips → open trip
2. Per Diem tab — shows each city you're in, the date range, and the applicable lodging + M&IE rates
3. Total per-diem budget for the trip (sum of daily rates across cities/days)
4. Comparison vs actuals — your booked hotel + tracked meal expenses, with delta highlighted

How rates are looked up:
• Live API call to GSA's per diem service when the trip is created (or city is added)
• Cached for the duration of the trip — manual "Refresh rates" if GSA updates mid-trip
• Falls back to "Standard CONUS" rate if your destination isn't in the Special-Rate list
• OCONUS (overseas) rates pulled from State Department feed instead

Use in expense reports:
• When generating an expense report from a trip, line items show per-diem cap alongside actual amount
• Items over per diem flagged for your manager's review
• If your contract reimburses at per diem flat (rather than receipts), the report can be set to "Per Diem Mode" — actual costs are ignored, the cap is the reimbursable amount
• Federal contracts often require this; commercial contracts usually reimburse actuals

What per diem does NOT cover:
• Airfare (separate line item, reimbursed at actual)
• Rental cars (actual)
• Conference fees (actual)
• Personal travel days at the start/end of a business trip — first/last days at 75% by GSA rule, automatically applied