Travel Guidelines

Business Meals

  • A business meal is any food or beverage purchased for a valid business purpose involving two or more individuals with one being an employee.  Examples include discussing work with a client, candidate, vendor, or employee. To qualify, the expense must be considered "ordinary and necessary".
  • Business meals are not allowed on state funds.
  • Business meals should use expense object code 6340-Business Meal (nontravel report) or Business Meal (travel report).
  • Business meals occurring during overnight travel are not counted as part of the employee’s meal total for the day.
  • Business meals will require a receipt as documentation regardless of the dollar amount.
  • All business meals require the substantiation of those who attended and the business purpose/discussion in addition to the receipt.
    • The “business purpose” may be a summary of the A&M-relevant topics discussed at the meeting.  This can come from an agenda or be in bullet-point format. 
    • A list of attendees, both employees and non-employees, should be included as well. 
  • The IRS requires that all food purchases for consumption document the business purpose and who attended per above.  This may be done on the payment request or OneCard transaction. The receipt normally provides the where, what, and when, but if it does not, that must also be documented. If this is not sufficiently documented, it will be considered tax-reportable income to the employee as the IRS will see this as a fringe benefit to the employee.   
  • Sales Tax
    • Tax-exempt if paid by direct bill or OneCard.   Present sale tax exemption formprior to payment.
    • Employee can be reimbursed for sales tax if the business meal was paid with a personal form of payment.
  • Individuals working alone through lunch or dinner are not allowed to have personal meals paid; they are not considered business meals.  Daily meals for employees may not be provided; only for employee appreciation, retirement, longevity or other special employee recognition events. See Section 3: Other Food Purchases.
    • Individual meals outside of travel are not an allowable expenditure and are a violation of Texas A&M System Policy 33.04: Use of System Resources and Texas A&M System Policy 07.01: Ethics.
  • Alcohol is only allowed when purchased and consumed as part of a business meal, or if there is a business reason for the purchase. Alcohol is not allowable as part of regular travel meals, even when using an account that allows for the purchase of alcohol.  If alcohol is purchased, it must be identified and coded 6341-Alcohol (nontravel report) or Business Meal-Alcohol (travel report)

 

Other Food Purchases

All consumable food purchases must be made on local funds and must include the business purpose for the food and who will consume the food.  Events when an entire department, office, or college is invited may be generically documented instead of listing each individual attendee.

  • State funds may only purchase food used directly in teaching or research and must be documented on the payment request. Expense object code 4050 should be used.
  • Business Meals: Meals as defined in Section 2 above and meals purchased to celebrate employees or entertain non-employees should be coded 6340-Business Meal (nontravel report) or Business Meal (travel report)
  • Catered food: To consider a food purchase catered, the vendor must serve the food. A meal that is catered in by a caterer should be coded 6338-Catering, but the requirements of business purpose and attendees still apply. 
  • Direct Food Purchase: General snacks and drink purchases for office visitors, conference rooms, or other meetings should be coded to 6339-Food

 

Expenditures for food and/or refreshments from local funds are authorized to the extent such expenditures enable the state agency to carry out their educational function, serve to promote education in the state of Texas, and provide an important public service.

Texas A&M System's interpretation of Texas A&M System Policy 21.01.12: Purchase of Food and Refreshments states that food and refreshments that are provided for the office for employee consumption are considered a form of recognition for providing service to the university. This is not an entitlement and these purchases are still at the discretion of each department.

Expenditures on local accounts for food and/or refreshments must comply with one or more of the following direct purposes:

  • The recognition or promotion of academic achievement, athletic achievement, scholarship and/or service to a component of the Texas A&M System or the state;
  • The promotion of the communication of intellectual ideas among students, faculty, staff, administrators and/or representatives of the public;
  • The support of student events and activities which are sponsored by a component of the Texas A&M System;
  • The recruitment of highly qualified faculty, staff and students;
  • The promotion of the exchange of ideas with community leaders regarding the role of a component of the Texas A&M System in the community;
  • The assistance of the Regents, accrediting agencies, officials from other universities and/or public officials in inspecting and reviewing the facilities and programs of a component of the Texas A&M System;
  • The support of a program of continuing education sponsored by a component of the Texas A&M System; or
  • The conduct of staff conferences and receptions or other events designed to recognize and honor employees.

 

The following categories of funds may be used to purchase food and/or refreshments for the purposes listed above:

  • Balances in accounts funded from student service fees, bookstore allocations, and university/college concessions may be used to purchase food and/or refreshments to the extent that such funds have been budgeted
  • Donated unrestricted funds and funds received as registration fees for continuing education conferences and short courses may be used to purchase food and/or refreshments where provisions have been included in the registration fee
  • Funds raised and/or earned by student organizations may be used for the purchase of food and/or refreshments
  • Other locally generated income not restricted to administrative, education and general, research, plant expansion, loan, endowment, and/or scholarship programs may be used to purchase food and/or refreshments

 

Meals while traveling

  • Meals covered while traveling refer to meals consumed by the employee while on overnight business travel out of the headquarters city.  Meals are not reimbursable unless the trip includes an overnight stay and are purchased outside of an employee’s designated headquarters city.
  • Actual expenses up to the GSA rate for state and local funds may be claimed. Receipts are not required except for any single meal greater than $75.00. The GSA rateis determined by the destination city and if that city is not available on the table use the "Standard Rate" for that state.
  • Local funds only – actuals over the GSA rate are allowed but will require receipts or other substantiation (if OneCard was used, the transaction in Emburse provides the required substantiation, so an actual receipt is not required) for total amount claimed for that day.
  • If out of pocket, meals should be documented as a total per day in Emburse.
  • Business meals are NOT counted as part of the meal total for the day.  Please see Section 2 on Business Meals.
  • Alcohol is not allowable as part of regular travel meals, even when using an account that allows for the purchase of alcohol.