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The P-Card
The P-Card
You will receive a VISA Purchasing Card to use for your travel expenses. This P-Card will be used for flights, hotels, rental cars, rental car fuel, and any expenses for receptions. This P-Card should never be used for any personal expenses such as food, entertainment, or alcohol. When using your P-Card, you must keep track of all receipts, physical or digital as these must be included on your final expense report. Money for food while traveling will come to you as a cash advance, which is determined by the in/out-of-state rate for meal per diem, and how long you will be gone for your trip.
Flights
Flights
Always use the flight estimate spreadsheet to estimate cost, then send to Anders and Mike for them to approve. ALL flights must be approved before
When searching for flights for your trip, you should always find the flight that is the most cost-effective. Cost-effectiveness has many aspects to consider when traveling for the university.
Cost of flight: The overall cost for a flight is much greater than just the price we pay for the ticket. There may be options that are $100 cheaper in ticket price, but the travel time is several hours longer, which could potentially lead to a much large expense to MSU for your overtime pay. In these situations, it is often more beneficial for you to take the shorter flight path that is a little more expensive than to take the longer flight path with a cheaper ticket price.
Flight time & OT cost: Everyone gets paid for their time, even while traveling. If you are taking a flight that has a 4 hour layover, when there is another option with only a 2 hour layover, pick the one with the shorter travel time. There may be some unavoidable delays, as there typically are with airlines, but try to keep your travel time as efficient as possible. You will get paid from the time you leave for the airport here in Bozeman, to the time that you land, get your rental car, and arrive at your hotel at your destination. Keep an honest log of your time to ensure that you get paid for traveling, while being mindful of the office's overtime budget.
Safety/accessibility concerns: Is this flight going to land you in a brand new city at 2am when all of the rental car counters are closed? Will you have to take a rideshare to your hotel, then back to the airport in the morning to pick up your rental car? Pick a flight that gets in earlier so you can easily access your rental car and hotel.
When making plane reservations, you can use sites like "www.kayak.com" to view a price range and availability. Before purchasing a flight, Anders must approve the ticket. Email Anders the itinerary or options for flights with a schedule and he will approve from there. Be sure to book the actual ticket directly through the airline and not through a third-party site like Kayak.
After booking, you must save a copy of your flight itinerary that shows your arrival and departure times. This will be required when you submit your expense report.
Hotels
Hotels
As an MSU staff member, you are a state government employee. This means, when booking hotels we always ask for the government rate. Large chains like Hilton and Marriott allow you to input "government rates" as a search option.
The national standard government hotel rate is $110. Many of the areas we travel for recruitment, such as Los Angeles or Chicago, have higher government rates due to the higher cost of living in the area. To figure out the rates you should aim for when booking, search for your destination on the GSA website: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates
Though we always try to get the government rate, sometime it will not be an option or an event (such as a conference) will require that you stay at a specific hotel.
Your hotel is your "home away from home." We expect you to be safe and comfortable. Be conscientious about cost, but not at the expense of safety and comfort.
If you stay with family, friends, etc., while traveling for work, you will be reimbursed $12.00/night.
Rental Cars
Rental Cars
MSU has an agreement with Enterprise and National Car Rental. When renting for Montana trips, it is recommended that you have the car dropped off through Motorpool. If this is not available, you can also pick it up from other locations in town.
When making reservations online, you MUST use the contract code (XZ63MSU) to get the MSU rates. You will need to set up an Enterprise Plus account with your P-Card and cell-phone number attached.
Be conscientious with the use of your rental car. It is intended for business use. Putting excessive miles on the vehicle for personal use is not acceptable.
If you are taking vacation time while on a trip, make sure you do not keep the car and use it for personal travel. You are only covered under MSU car insurance when you are traveling for work.
Your driving behavior is also a reflection on MSU. Think about that in regards to speeding and road etiquette.
Chrome River Pre-Approvals
Chrome River Pre-Approvals
A Pre-Approval must be done in ChromeRiver (https://www.montana.edu/chromeriver/) for each trip that requires a cash advance and all out of state travel. They MUST be done at the latest by 2-3 weeks before your trip to allow time for HR to process your cash advance for meal per-diem before you leave.
**Pre-approvals are mandatory for all out-of-state travel, and technically optional (though encouraged) for in-state travel. Please note that if you do not submit a pre-approval, you will not receive a cash advance and instead would receive a reimbursement after the trip when you submit your expense report.
How to create a Pre-Approval:
After logging into ChromeRiver with your NetID and password, hit the "Create" button next to the Pre-Approval section. You will first need to name and save the approval by filling in the following sections:
Report Name: Season and year, your name, name of location and events happening on trip
Ex. Spring 2026 | Herbert |Southern CA College Fairs
Start Date and End Date: Input the start and end dates of actual travel, not of recruiting events.
Ex. If flying out on April 25th but you aren't doing recruiting events until April 27th, still put 4/25/2026 as your Start Date
Vendor | Last Name | Purpose | Location (as applicable): No vendor needed here
Ex. Herbert | S CA HSVs and Fairs | San Diego, CA
Campus-Department: Select BZ - Student Success
Travel Type: Select In-State or Out-of-State
Cash Advance Amount: You can leave this blank at first, but remember to go back and add it later. There is a handy tool in the pre-approval called the "Per Diem Wizard" that will help you calculate your amount. Here are the 2025-2026 rates for reference:
Breakfast: $11.20 In-State, $16 Out-of-State
If you will be traveling before 6:30am on the first day of your trip, you receive breakfast per diem for that day.
Lunch: $13.30 In-State, $19 Out-of-State
If you will be traveling from earlier until any time after 1:30pm, you will receive lunch per diem for that day.
Dinner: $19.60 In-State, $28 Out-of-State
If you will be traveling any time after 6:30pm, you will receive dinner per diem for that day.
Total: $44.10 In-State, $63 Out-of-State
Example: I leave to head to Denver at 4:00pm on May 1st and will return to Bozeman at 11:00am on May 13th
Day 1: no breakfast, no lunch, yes dinner: $28.00
Days 2-12: yes breakfast, yes lunch, yes dinner: $63.00 x 11
Day 13: yes breakfast, no lunch, no dinner: $16.00
Total Meal Per Diem: $737.00
Allocations: 4S1401-411201-441401 Recruitment Recruitment
Optional: Personal Days
If you are taking any personal days during your trip, check the box and specify when the personal day is occurring.
Note: If you are interested in taking a personal day, you MUST discuss this with Anders and get approval. They are not standard to have but can be done if there is good reason ex. flights are significantly cheaper if you fly out late/early, etc.
Hit "Save" in the top right-hand corner and this will create the beginning of your Pre-Approval. You can now add each expense item individually.
How to Add Expenses to your created Pre-Approval:
Meals: We recommend doing this first!
Meal Per-Diem Wizard:
Specify the times you will be leaving or returning (note that times are in 24-hour military time)
No description necessary
Location: type in the name of your destination and select the appropriate option.
Click Add Entries
This will auto-calculate all your meals each day of your trip. It never hurts to double check!
Once you have a total amount, go back by clicking on the name of your trip and enter the amount in the "Cash Advance" box. You must include this to get the money before your trip!
Save
Air Travel: this section will include both your Airfare cost and baggage fees
Airfare: Input the estimated cost of flights for your trip based on your research, always overestimate slightly.
no description necessary
Baggage Fee: Estimate $45 per bag per flight. If you will be checking two bags (typically necessary on trips that are longer than 2 or 3 days), estimate $90 per flight.
Save
Ground Transportation: this section will include rental car costs, fuel and parking
Car Rental: Estimate $35 per day of your trip, or check on Enterpise and enter an estimate based off the current rate.
Example: Denver Trip May 1st – May 13th – 13 days total: 13 x $35 = $455 total
No description necessary
Fuel - Rental Car: Estimate $50 per day of the trip in the same manner as described above.
No description necessary
Parking: Search for information on the location of any college fairs you are planning to attend. Typically you can find parking cost information there or on the venue's site. If you will be in a larger city, you often must pay for parking at your hotel, if you already have specific hotels in mind, add those in as well. If you don't know this exactly yet, that is ok.
Hotel: this section will be an estimate based upon the base per diem rate for lodging which can be found on the GSA website: https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates. The base per diem rate for lodging both in and out of state is $110/night. Out of state there are many “high-cost cities” with a higher approved rate than $110/night. You should check your cities and rates at http://www.gsa.gov/. Although you will not know the exact cost of your hotels, this website can help you find a good estimate for lodging costs.
If you stay with friends or family, or you lose your lodging receipt you will be reimbursed $12/night, but do not take this into account in your pre-approval. Simply calculate your lodging using the following example:
If staying in multiple cities, take the number of days you are staying in each location and multiply by per-diem in that location.
Example: 4 nights in Denver (4 x $199), 3 nights in Fort Collins (3 x $113), 5 nights in Colorado Springs (5 x $121) - Total $1740
No description necessary
You MUST check the box for "I will request the lowest available rate", because we will always look for hotels at the government rate you find on the GSA website (or less)
If the government rate is not available in at your destination, you will be asked to "justify" why by selecting from a list of options such as "government rate not available" or "specific hotel required for conference/event."
Save
Conference/Seminar/Training
Though Anders usually pays for college fair registrations, you are still required to include this amount on your pre-approval. It will not be required on your expense report. Ask Anders for the amount, and enter it as a registration fee.
Save
Miscellaneous
Add a little here to give yourself a "buffer" with financial services, just in case you go over. It is always best to over estimate our trips than it is to go under and explain why it cost more in the end. In most cases, an extra $200 should do, for longer trips, you may enter a higher amount.
Save
If doing Receptions: Reception costs vary with how many students attend and in which cities they are held. Because of this variability, enter the number of parties you are planning for that trip, and the spreadsheet will multiply that by ~$200 per party and enter the total into the “Pizza” column. Reimbursement requests for Receptions MUST be accompanied by a receipt. Gratuities applied automatically to large group meals will be reimbursed.
Select Miscellaneous: input the amount $200x the number of Receptions you will hold
Write a description of the event.
Save
All your saved items will pop up in the lefthand side of the pre-approval and your total estimated amount for the trip will appear at the bottom (Example 3)
Once complete, give it a final look-over, and select "submit."
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