Travel

Travel Policies & Procedures

  • All travel on WSU business must be authorized beforehand – reimbursed and non-reimbursed.
  • Travel requests must be submitted through the College of Nursing Travel Request Form.
  • Travel requests for the College of Nursing must be made through the Business Services office at least three weeks prior to the trip for travel within the United States and eight weeks prior to the trip for international travel. No bookings may be confirmed before the Travel Request Form has been submitted.
  • Airline tickets must be purchased using the College of Nursing CTA card. Do not use your personal credit card!
  • Conference registrations must be purchased using the College of Nursing Purchase card. Do not use your personal credit card!
  • All travel must be done by the most economical means. This may mean using a rental car or a vehicle from the WSU Motor Pool. When you submit the Travel Request Form, please indicate if you will require a rental car or Motor Pool vehicle.
  • The contracted partner for rental cars is Enterprise. Vehicles rented using the WSU-Enterprise contract include insurance; rental cars must be booked through Enterprise via Business Services.
  • After receiving your Travel Request Form, Business Services will enter a Spend Authorization in WorkDay, which will then route through the appropriate approvals.
  • You must book and pay for your own lodging. Lodging allowances are determined by the US General Services Administration and vary by location.
  • Per diem for meals and lodging is reimbursed after completion of the trip and as eligible at the rates listed by the US General Services Administration.
  • Upon completion of the trip, paid receipts (showing a zero balance) must be submitted in PDF format for reimbursement of expenses incurred while in travel status. These can include hotel receipts, taxi receipts, parking receipts, rental car fuel receipts, and miscellaneous expense receipts. Please email these PDF files to nursing.travel@wsu.edu.
  • Requests for reimbursement, along with eligible receipts, must be submitted within one month of return. Please note that IRS rules require that employees submit receipts for reimbursement within thirty days of the end of travel and no later than sixty days.
  • If receipts are submitted longer than sixty days after travel concluded, they may not be reimbursed. If they are reimbursed, which is at the discretion of CoN leadership, IRS policy requires that reimbursement be counted as taxable income, and it will be taxed accordingly.
  • If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Geiss, CoN Fiscal Technician, at lisa.geiss@wsu.edu or at nursing.travel@wsu.edu.


Remember!

If you are planning to travel for WSU purposes but are not planning to request reimbursement, you still must complete a travel request. Indicate on the form that you are not planning to submit for reimbursement, and we will submit the SA for the appropriate approvals. These approvals must be in place before travel in all cases.


Mileage Only Travel

  • When traveling includes mileage only, you may use the Mileage Log Form (PDF) rather than the Travel Request Form.
  • For most allowable mileage-only travel, you will be reimbursed at the per mile rate determined annually by the State of Washington. The rate is $0.655 per mile as of January 1, 2023.
  • For mileage-only travel from one College of Nursing campus to another, reimbursement is capped per roundtrip amounts. See Roundtrip amounts (PDF).


Remember!

Expenses incurred during travel to and from the traveler’s official station and official residence are never reimbursable.


International Travel

  • All international travel requests must be submitted through the College of Nursing Travel Request Form a minimum of eight weeks before travel is to begin.
  • Please do not purchase airline tickets or any other travel related items before/without submitting the Travel Request Form. This is especially important with international travel. If you choose to do so, be aware that you may not be reimbursed for those expenses.
  • The CDC and Department of State provide risk assessments and safety ratings for all countries. WSU recommends caution and careful planning when traveling to a country with a Level 3 rating from the Department of State, especially where the rating is due to more than COVID-19. 
  • WSU strongly recommends against traveling to Level 4 countries.  Level 4 is rated as “Do Not Travel” by the Department of State. College of Nursing leadership will carefully evaluate all international travel requests and notify you if there is anything that prohibits travel to an area to which you are requesting travel.
  • WSU has partnered with On Call International to provide WSU employees with emergency and non-emergency related services while traveling internationally.
  • WSU requires employees’ to complete On Call Travelers Orientation before traveling internationally. There is also a program summary available here.

Additional Travel Information