Review the trip before you certify the voucher.

This checklist is an independent planning aid, not an official voucher form and not a promise of reimbursement. Military travelers should follow their current orders, the Joint Travel Regulations, the Defense Travel Management Office, and the servicing office. Civilian agency travelers should use their own agency policy and the Federal Travel Regulation. Keep the applicable rules with the trip instead of applying one threshold or exception to every traveler.

Before booking or departing

1. Match the authorization. Confirm the approved purpose, traveler, travel dates, duty locations, transportation method, and any written special authority. Ask the authorizing office about facts that differ from the planned itinerary.
2. Check the rate authority for each destination. For CONUS, verify the GSA locality and fiscal year. For non-foreign OCONUS or military travel, check the applicable DTMO table. For foreign locations, use the Department of State source. Lodging can vary by month and place.
3. Save a copy of the rate and the date you checked it. A hotel search result, an old screenshot, or a nearby ZIP code is not proof that a locality or ceiling applies to the orders.
4. Confirm lodging instructions. Check government quarters, directed lodging, room-sharing rules, contracted rates, and any approved actual-expense limit before assuming a standard cap applies.

During travel

• Keep an itemized lodging receipt that shows the stay dates and charges. DTMO says DoD lodging receipts are required; receipt rules for other items and civilian agencies can differ.
• Record actual arrival, departure, overnight locations, itinerary changes, and any approved leave or personal deviation separately.
• Note meals that were actually furnished by the government or included as part of an event when the applicable rule requires a deduction. Do not mark a meal furnished merely because a hotel offered an optional breakfast.
• Keep receipts and supporting documents required by the controlling policy. For DoD travel, DTMO guidance says other-expense receipts are required at $75 or more; confirm the current rule and any stricter local instruction.
• Record the travel purpose, date, and miles for each privately owned vehicle leg. TDY mileage and PCS MALT use different categories and rates.

Before reviewing the total

1. Lodging: compare actual eligible lodging cost with the applicable ceiling. A ceiling is not automatically a payment amount; exceptions and directed lodging need their own authority.
2. M&IE: check the location and applicable rate for each day. Qualifying TDY first and last travel days generally use 75% of the applicable M&IE rate under DoD rules, regardless of departure or return time. Government meal-rate and other special cases can change the method.
3. Meals: reconcile required furnished-meal deductions with the locality's official meal breakdown. Use the controlling policy where the itinerary, conference, or orders create a special case.
4. Other expenses: include only costs that the applicable authorization and policy permit. Match each line to a receipt, mileage record, or written approval when required.
5. Arithmetic: check nights versus travel days, duplicated mileage, split-rate dates, currency conversions, advances, and any prior payments. Reconcile the resulting claim to the voucher system before certification.

Four common review situations

The public calculator does not read orders, create or submit a voucher, authorize an exception, or decide whether a cost is reimbursable. The approving authority and official travel system control the individual claim.