Keep unallowable travel costs out of your indirect pools
Every voucher screened against FAR 31.205-46 per diem caps. Alcohol and entertainment segregated with the citation attached.
Travel voucher TV-2026-1184, CPFF task order 0007
Hyatt Regency Washington, 3 nights
GSA locality rate: lodging $276 / M&IE $92
- Lodging, 3 nights at $289.00$867.00Partly unallowableFAR 31.205-46(a)(2)-$39.00
- Lodging taxes$129.62Partly unallowableFAR 31.205-46(a)(2)-$5.83
- Meals and incidentals, 4 days (cap $322.00 incl. 75% travel days)$331.80Partly unallowableFAR 31.205-46(a)(2)-$9.80
- Beer and wine on team dinner receipt$46.00UnallowableFAR 31.205-51-$46.00
- Golf simulator outing with program office staff$180.00UnallowableFAR 31.205-14-$180.00
- Airfare, main cabin round trip$412.60AllowableFAR 31.205-46(b)$0.00
- Extra legroom seat upgrade$89.00Needs justificationFAR 31.205-46(b)-$89.00
- Billable
- $1,686.39
- To 7950 unallowable
- $280.63
- Held for justification
- $89.00
The cost principles Phyto Nex AI enforces
FAR Part 31 is specific about travel. Manual voucher review usually is not. Each principle below maps to an automated check that runs on every line item.
| Citation | What it requires | Phyto Nex AI check |
|---|---|---|
| FAR 31.205-46(a)(2) | Lodging, meals and incidentals allowable only up to the maximum per diem for the location (FTR, JTR or State Department). | Locality rate applied per night and per day, seasonal lodging, 75% M&IE on travel days |
| FAR 31.205-46(a)(7) | Documentation must show date and location, purpose of the trip, and name and relationship of the traveller. | Missing elements requested from the traveller in Teams or email before the voucher closes |
| FAR 31.205-46(b) | Airfare above the lowest customary standard, coach or equivalent fare is unallowable unless a documented exception applies. | Fare class and paid seat upgrades read from the itinerary PDF and held for justification |
| FAR 31.205-51 | Costs of alcoholic beverages are unallowable. | Alcohol lines extracted from itemized checks and folios, even inside a single meal total |
| FAR 31.205-14 | Entertainment, amusement, diversions and social activities, and directly associated costs, are unallowable. | Event, ticket, golf and venue merchants classified with associated meals and transport |
| FAR 31.201-6 / CAS 405 | Unallowable costs must be identified and excluded from billings, claims and proposals. | Proposed reclass to unallowable accounts by pool, approved by your cost accounting team |
From receipt to incurred cost submission
DCAA does not ask whether you caught the large items. It asks how you know you caught the small ones. Expressly unallowable costs left in a final indirect rate proposal can draw penalties under FAR 42.709.
Capture
Vouchers, receipts, folios and commercial card transactions arrive read-only from Concur, Navan or your card program, with TDY location and dates.
Classify
Every line is tagged allowable, unallowable or needs justification, with the FAR citation that drove the decision and the per diem rate used.
Request justification
When an exception may apply, the traveller gets a specific question citing the clause, such as a conference lodging block or a medical need for a seat upgrade.
Segregate
Allowable amounts stay on the charge code. Unallowable amounts are proposed as reclasses to the unallowable account for the correct indirect pool.
Prove it
The screening log ties each voucher to its classifications, approvals and accounting entries, ready for DCAA sampling and incurred cost submission support.
Small lines, large exposure
14%
Of asset misappropriation cases involve expense reimbursement schemes
ACFE Report to the Nations
$40,000
Median loss per organization from those schemes
ACFE Report to the Nations
100%
Of Meridian Federal travel vouchers screened, up from a 15% sample
Meridian Federal Systems
$61,370
Unallowable costs segregated before the incurred cost submission
Meridian Federal Systems
Built for the edge cases auditors sample
Three rate sources, one engine
- CONUS
- GSA per diem, by county and season
- Non-foreign OCONUS
- JTR rates for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and territories
- Foreign
- Department of State rates by post
Alcohol inside a meal total
A $148.60 team dinner with two beers is split: food stays allowable up to M&IE, the $14.00 in beer moves to unallowable under 31.205-51.
Lodging above the cap, split not rejected
A $189 night where the cap is $140 keeps $140 billable and proposes $49 plus its tax as unallowable, so the traveller is still reimbursed under your own policy.
Commercial and government work on one voucher
When a trip spans a government task order and a commercial customer visit, Phyto Nex AI applies FAR limits only to the lines charged to the government charge code and your commercial policy to the rest.
“Being able to show a screening log for every voucher, with the FAR cite on each segregated line, changed the conversation with our auditor.”
Gregory Ashworth, Director of Contracts and Compliance, Meridian Federal Systems
Questions from contracts teams
GSA rates for CONUS locations, Joint Travel Regulations rates for non-foreign OCONUS locations such as Alaska, Hawaii and US territories, and Department of State rates for foreign locations, as referenced by FAR 31.205-46(a)(2). Tables sync when each agency publishes updates, and GSA's fiscal year rates take effect every October 1.
Yes. M&IE caps are calculated at 75% of the locality rate for the first and last day of travel, consistent with the FTR, and seasonal lodging rates are applied based on the night of stay, not the report date.
You map each Phyto Nex AI classification to your chart of accounts, typically dedicated unallowable accounts by indirect pool in Deltek Costpoint, Unanet or a similar system. The allowable portion stays on the charge code and the unallowable portion is proposed as a reclass. Your contracts or cost accounting team approves every entry before it posts.
A screening log for every voucher: rules applied, per diem rate used, FAR citation for each unallowable line, traveller justification where one was requested, approver identity and the resulting accounting entry. It exports to CSV and PDF and maps back to voucher numbers so auditors can trace any sampled transaction.
The DCAA module is part of Enterprise because it needs contract-specific policy layers, per diem table sync and unallowable account mapping. Contractors under 1,500 employees can still contract for Enterprise, priced by active submitter volume.
Phyto Nex AI classifies and documents, with the FAR citation on every line, and proposes segregation entries. Allowability determinations and final accounting remain with your contracts and finance team, who approve every reclass and every message to travellers.
Walk into your next DCAA review with a log, not a sample.
Connect your voucher system read-only and see every unallowable line from last quarter, with FAR citations, in under an hour.
14-day free production trial. Read-only connectors. No card required.