February 2018 

In an effort to control costs and establish guidelines regarding reimbursable travel expenses, the IEEE Board of Directors approved new IEEE Travel & Expense Reimbursement Guidelines. The most significant change that will impact IEEE volunteers is:

• All volunteer expense reports must be submitted to IEEE, approved internally and forwarded to IEEE Accounts Payable within 60 days after the expenses have been incurred. Failure to submit expense reports within the 60 day threshold may result in non-reimbursement
  
  The IEEE Travel & Expense Reimbursement Guidelines were created in response to recommendations from the Travel and Expense audit conducted as part of Internal Audit's strategic plan, as approved by the IEEE Audit Committee.

Benefits of implementing the Travel and Expense Reimbursement Guidelines include:

• Referencing the Guidelines in the FOM raises awareness that there are procedures and controls in place to be followed by IEEE volunteers
• Compliance with recommendations made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• Clearly indicates how volunteers should process and submit T&E related expenses
• Reiterates key policies already established in the IEEE Finance Operations Manual
• Adds additional clarification regarding existing policies and procedures
• Establishes a benchmark regarding the timeliness of expense report submissions

The document can be accessed in two places on ieee.org.

• IEEE Finance Operations Manual section FOM.6 - Business Expense Reporting
• On the IEEE Governing Documents page: https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/index.html

The IEEE Finance Operations Manual, Section FOM.6 - Business Expense Reporting will be modified to reflect the addition of the Travel and Expense Reimbursement Guidelines as IEEE policy.  The Guidelines will be updated when appropriate under the oversight of the IEEE Finance Committee. If future updates are made to the Guidelines, the most recent version of the document will be available in the IEEE Finance Operations Manual on the ieee.org website.

Please feel free to distribute the linked IEEE Travel and Expense Reimbursement Guidelines document to other IEEE volunteers, as needed.

For questions about the new guidelines contact IEEE Accounts Payable at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For general questions about Expense Report submissions contact your Technical Activities or Society staff support person.