Invoicing of travel expenses

Register travel expenses invoice in DFØ

Travel expense form

Access to giving tips

• Tips shall not be paid at the state's expense in Norway.
• Normally, tips shall not be paid at the state's expense abroad, except in certain countries where tipping is standard practice and where tips are considered to constitute a significant portion of the service staff’s wages. In such cases, it is accepted to give tips according to the country’s established custom.
• Permission to give tips at the state’s expense according to point b must be approved in writing by a person with budgetary authority, and this approval must be attached to the payment voucher (invoice/refund claim). Any tips to be covered by the state must be documented or reasonably justified.
• There is nothing preventing individual employees from choosing to give tips themselves, but this must then be covered personally by the employee.

How to fill out a travel expense invoice

Employees with a fixed salary shall have access to the employee portal. The simplest way is to use the DFØ app on your phone. Alternatively, the employee portal can be used.

Employees that do not have access to the employee portal must fill out a travel expense form

1. Start and end times: date and time must be filled out
2. Destination (“Reisemål”): where you have been must be filled out
3. Regulation (“Regulativ”): “Regulativ Tjenestereise” indicates overnight stay at a hotel.
4. Reason/purpose (“Reiseårsak): Fill out why you have been on a trip
5. Overnight allowance (“Nattillegg): Only applies to private overnight stays in Norway.
6. Meal deductions: If you are claiming allowance for board, you must deduct included meals (for example hotel breakfasts).
7. Start and end location: when using your own car, you must state address of start and end location.
8. Submit the travel expenses invoice for approval: Choose Save and submit for approval.

When is a paper receipt necessary?

• Expenses for hotels, flights, taxi, rental car, long-term parking, course and semester fees must be documented with receipts. When using your phone (DFØ app), the easiest way to do this is taking pictures of the receipts and upload the pictures as attachments. If you use the employee portal ESS, the receipts must be scanned and enclosed with the travel expenses invoice. For travel expenses invoice involving allowance for board at course and seminars, the programme for the course/seminar must be enclosed with the travel expense invoice. For flights, documentation that proves that the flight ticket was actually used must also be enclosed, either by enclosing boarding pass or by obtaining a receipt marked with “flown” from the travel agency after the trip has been done.
• The following expenses are refunded without the need for a paper receipt:
  • Train
  • Ferry
  • Bus
  • Tram/underground railroad
  • Short-term parking
  • Road tolls
  • Luggage storing

Mileage allowance

The driving distance between the campuses is 90 km round trip (45 km each way).

The toll road on the E18 between Kristiansand and Grimstad has been removed. There is only a toll ring entering Kristiansand.

The state's rates for mileage allowance have been updated on Difi's website.

How to register: 

DFØ app:

1. Travel expense claim
2. Tap the + sign

DFØ online:

1. Travel and expense reimbursement
2. Create travel and expense reimbursement

Visit the state's travel regulations for details and rates for other modes of transport.

Meal allowance

Rates for meal allowance can be found in the state's travel regulations.

Please note that a prerequisite for receiving a tax-free per diem is that you are on a business trip that results in additional expenses for food and drink.

For UIA employees in Kristiansand on official assignments in Grimstad (or vice versa), this will not be the case. For such trips lasting more than 6 hours, a meal allowance can be claimed, but it will be taxable.

When submitting a travel expense claim for these trips, you must select the regulation called "Domestic day trip, taxable".

Dividing the trip into several destinations

This is necessary if you have

• spent some nights at an hotel and some at a private location during the trip.
• had a personal stay during the trip.
• been to places which have different rates in the travel regulations.
• had parts of the trip covered by stipend/grant.

See dates for travel expense reimbursement payments