Per Diem is the only way to reimburse meals while serving in a ministry role at a Reliant summer program, for 2 weeks or more. You may not submit a reimbursement form itemizing your meals during those two weeks or longer; you must submit a Per Diem form to cover the cost of those meals.
Requesting Per Diem for the weeks during LT can be helpful to offset higher grocery and meal costs you may incur while serving in a ministry location that is not your home. Because you are away from home, you don't have the same conveniences available to you that you are accustomed to, for cooking and meal planning, etc.
If you participate in a meal plan in which you do not pay for some meals during the summer program, please only request Per Diem for meals you will be paying for out of pocket. Because the Colorado LT Trash-n-Tray participants have some meals provided for them by the YMCA, they have an automatic $10 reduction in their daily rate.
Meals during which you actively minister to someone or MTD meals with donors that occur during the summer program can be reimbursed even if you are receiving Per Diem, as long as they are kept to a reasonable frequency and amount (see Reimbursement section below).
Please pull a blank Per Diem form found on the Reliant Template Gallery, on Google Drive. You will need your Reliant email address and password to log into Google Drive. This is similar process to pulling a blank reimbursement form within Google Drive (detailed instructions and tutorial video are found on StaffNet). The Per Diem daily rates have changed for 2015, so an older Excel form may not have updated information.
As the Per Diem form instructs, please be sure to obtain supervisor approval for your Per Diem forms when you submit for reimbursement.
Fortunately, no receipts are needed for requesting Per Diem. Per Diem is a daily rate, or allowance, to cover your meals.
Lastly, remember that only one Per Diem form is submitted for one month. As an example, submit a May form for days at LT in May. Submit a different June form for the days you are at LT in June, and so on. You may submit multiple months of Per Diem forms at one time, and even ahead of time (a month in advance) however, please do not submit any earlier than 30 days in advance. Example: Submit May, June, and July Per Diems on 6/30/15, for payment on 7/20/15. Because we won't pay these until 7/20, we can accept the July Per Diem as early as 6/30/15.
All LT Per Diems must be submitted by midnight, August 31st, 2015.
Missionaries can reimburse (on a normal reimbursement form) travel to and from the Reliant summer program (as long as the location of the program is over 100 miles from where you live). These travel expenses could include a flight out to LT, mileage to LT that is over 100 miles one-way, travel meals along the way, tolls, etc.
Also reimbursable are typical MTD ministry purchases… Stamps, envelopes, prayer letter printing, donor meals, etc. Some examples with ministry purposes are listed below.
Items that can not be reimbursed to missionaries after arriving at the Reliant Summer Program include:
If you need to purchase supplies for the specific LT, you would typically reimburse those through the LT petty cash from the LT finance administrator. See petty cash info for LT staff members. However, some LTs (ex. Adirondack LT) have chosen to have their staf reimburse through regular reimbursements using their Event Fund rather than using Petty Cash. See Reimbursements for the Event Fund for details. |
Examples with Ministry Purposes:
| Mileage Driving to and from LT: | Driving out to Colorado LT in Estes Park, CO to serve in my role as main worship leader for the summer program. This is my mileage for intially going out to LT. Driving out to Colorado LT in Estes Park, CO, to serve as my role in set-up team. I have to drive back and forth between the LT location and my home three times to help set-up the event including housing logistics and stage/music set-up. |
| Travel Meals driving to and from LT: | Driving from my home to Colorado LT, dinner stop along the way. This lists my cost of food for this dinner. The portion that was for my spouse and kids, is listed in the Taxable section. |
| MTD Meal while at LT location: | Met with John Smith, a current donor, while at my LT location in Colorado. I updated him on my campus ministry, along with how LT is going here in Colorado. I got to update him on what activities we are doing at LT. |
| Supplies for LT (asked to purchase by Director): | Purchased flashlights, as requested by my Colorado LT Director, for part of a team-building and encouraging game we played at night with the participants. |
Reimbursements for summer program purchases are submitted on site using petty cash (See Petty Cash during events for more details) with the summer program finance administrator. Petty cash can be used to reimburse summer program purchases only. Unlike normal Reliant staff reimbursements, you must always have a receipt (and it must be an itemized receipt- not a credit card receipt that doe not list the items purchased) for ALL petty cash reimbursements no matter how small the purchase. Your summer program finance administrator will directly reimburse you for your purchases for the summer program. See your summer program finance administrator for questions and more details.