Travel

The following information is required when creating your expense report:

Business Purpose

You must provide a business purpose and supporting documentation to validate the need for travel, group, business, or hosted meals and entertainment. Describe the business purpose in terms that an internal or external reviewer can easily understand. See the Meals section for more details on requirements for meals.

Cornell Ithaca-based and Cornell Tech campuses reimburse meals using the per diem rate for the location where you stay the night. Domestic per diem rates include $5 per day for incidentals. You are expected to pay for your meals while traveling using your personal resources rather than your university-provided card so that the expense doesn’t appear on the T&M Card, and you will not have to repay the university if the meal cost exceeds the per diem rate.

Cornell will pay or reimburse ordinary, reasonable, and necessary business-related travel expenses incurred in furtherance of the university's missions.

When paying for travel, be mindful of non-reimbursable expenses and required pre-trip approvals.

When approved by the unit, Cornell can reimburse the travel costs of non-employee, non-student individuals (e.g., job applicants, visitors, guest speakers, visiting scientists) under certain circumstances. When possible and appropriate, units should consider using virtual options for meetings during the early stages of candidate interviews and webinars for guest speakers.

For non-employee, non-student reimbursements, except for meal reimbursements, travel for non-employees should conform to all of the same rules required for employees.

Students who travel may be subject to additional departmental, unit, funding source, college policies and procedures, and limits on reimbursement amounts. Processing requirements vary based on the type of student travel. The travel rules for students should conform to all the same rules required for employees except where explicitly stated differently.

See International Travel for specific requirements when traveling abroad.

See Group Travel for details on traveling in groups.

Contact World Travel directly to book group travel. When a trip includes multiple people from the same unit, you should discuss the budget implications with your budget manager or administrative office, as applicable.

Using Concur to book your travel will ensure that you comply with the Fly America Act. When booking your travel in Concur, you will be alerted when a flight is not in compliance. When creating your expense report, you will be prompted to select the exemption reasons for using non-U.S. Flag carriers.

Travel exceeding 30 consecutive days is generally considered long-term travel. Individual colleges and units may use discretion according to the facts and circumstances to determine if a period of less than 30 days should be considered long-term travel.