Creating a trip

The itinerary is the backbone

A trip is a sequence of legs: when you left, where you went, when you arrived, and how you traveled. Modes cover car, motorcycle, train, plane, public transit, taxi, rental car, ship and other.

The itinerary is not decoration. Everything statutory is computed from it: which days get a per diem, at what rate, and whether the three-month rule applies. Get the times right and the numbers follow.

Two rules the checklist enforces:

• The itinerary runs forward in time. No leg may start before the previous one ended.
• The itinerary returns to your home base. A trip that never comes home is an incomplete record, and an open-ended trip has no last day to compute against.

A business purpose

Required. "A business purpose is recorded" is on the checklist, because a trip without a stated business reason is not a business trip, whatever it cost.

Costs

Add what you spent, by category: accommodation, meals, transport, parking, tolls, luggage, communication, hospitality, other.

Each cost records who paid, which matters more than it looks. A hotel your employer booked directly is not money you are owed, and the checklist insists every cost says who paid it.

Foreign currency costs need an exchange rate. The checklist will not let a foreign-currency cost through without one, because a number in the wrong currency on a reimbursement is a number that is simply wrong.

Hospitality costs need a type. Entertaining clients is treated differently from feeding yourself, and the distinction has to be recorded rather than inferred.

Overrides

You can override a computed value, and every override needs a reason. That is the checklist item "Every override has a reason". An unexplained override is the thing an auditor asks about first, and the reason is much easier to write today than to reconstruct in two years.