How Should We Handle Travel Reimbursements?

As your church or organization grows, so will opportunities for your staff, leaders and volunteers to travel to conferences, meetings and for professional development. In order to help you steward your resources well, Auxilio lays out several approaches for travel reimbursements. As you consider these options, keep in mind that you may want to adapt your approach for different seasons.

Here are a couple of approaches to providing guidelines for travel expenses:

• Reimburse for all expenses with no limits. Many organizations reimburse for any expenses incurred while traveling. Many feel that if they are asking a staff or volunteers to travel, it's reasonable for the church or nonprofit to cover all their meals, travel, and incidentals. Since most people are mindful that they are stewarding the church or nonprofits's resources, some organizations find limitations are not necessary.

• Use the federal government’s per diem approach including the published report of per diem allowance based on location. Employees and volunteers can be reimbursed up to the per diem amount for meals and lodging. The per diem for meals can be used however travelers would like - all in one meal or spread out over three. Travelers also have the option to spend more or less as they’d like. This way, organizations are providing for travelers’ needs but also providing an overall cap.

• Set your own limits. The ECFA offers a sample policy for travel reimbursements. Their sample policy covers most aspects of travel expenses and can be downloaded here. For meals, it recommends that organizations take a simple approach of setting a certain dollar amount per day or per meal, plus transportation, lodging and incidentals.