Personal time may be added to university business travel at the department’s discretion. Travelers must obtain written approval through email or a spend authorization prior to booking travel arrangements.

Personal expenses and business expenses must be separated when booking. Personal expenses cannot be paid or reimbursed by the university. Additional personal time cannot be added to the business cost of travel. Employees accept all liability during personal travel. Personal travel days cannot be used to calculate expense reimbursements.

Supervisors are responsible for determining and communicating the preferred mode of transportation for each trip to their direct reports.

The preferred mode of transportation should be:

  • The one that is the most cost-effective
  • Least expensive
  • Adhere to the

  • As soon as the business trip and personal time are approved, determine the business travel costs using only the dates/times of the business portion of the trip.
    • Obtain estimates for business travel cost
    • Estimates will be used as a base for business travel expense reconciliation for airfare, lodging, car rental (if needed) and any other travel expense.
    • Business travel estimates must be obtained as far in advance as possible to ensure the university expenses are favorable.
  • Keep a copy of the estimates to attach to the spend authorization before the trip

  • Compare each of the total costs for airfare, lodging, car rental and parking with the cost of the corresponding business-only travel costs.
  • If the extended trip costs are higher than the business travel estimates, reduce the expense report by those amounts. airfare, lodging, and/or car rental plus applicable taxes and fees accordingly on the expense report.
    • Attach business travel estimates to expense report.

Example: If a traveler is going to a conference in Hawaii and wishes to add personal time in another city before reaching their conference destination, the lower airfare portion of the trip will be reimbursed. Either from Las Vegas to Hawaii or from the additional city to Hawaii. The airfare submitted on the expense report must be reduced to reflect the lower cost portion.

  • Create an expense report from the spend authorization for the trip.
  • Attach a copy of the comparison quote(s) to the expense report.
  • Place a comment on the expense report header memo to indicate the trip is a combination of business and personal travel – and indicate which days are personal.
  • Meal per diem and incidentals:
    • Meal per diem and incidentals reimbursement is only available for the business portion of the trip.
    • On expense report lines, select the "Personal Expense" button to identify personal costs.
  • Parking: Include only the costs incurred for business dates
  • Lodging: Check 'personal day' for non-business dates.
  • Airfare: Enter only the business comparison cost dates of travel.

If the amount owed to UNLV exceeds the amount due to the employee, the employee must reimburse the university.

  • Employees can pay by check, cash, or credit at UNLV Cashiering and reference the Spend Authorization (if cash advance was received) or the Expense Report.
  • Attach a digital copy of the validated Cash Receipt Form to the expense report to document the payment to the University and include the receipt number in the header memo of the expense report.