Costpoint Online Help

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Create and Update Per Diem Schedules

Government-provided per diem files can change monthly. These files can contain a few thousand locations. Thus, it is important to update your schedules regularly. There are 3 major steps.

To create and update per diem schedules, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Per Diem Schedules screen, create the schedule and set its options.

    When you finish, the system searches the Per Diem Master table for records that meet the source and contents criteria. If it finds any records, it copies them into the newly created per diem schedule. If it finds no records, as would be the case when you are setting up a new system, it creates the per diem schedule without records. In that case, you populate the schedule by downloading the government per diem files and either posting them to the schedule using the Per Diem Preprocessor utility or importing them using the Import Console.

  2. Post per diem information from the Per Diem Preprocessor or import directly from the import files.

    Once you have used the Per Diem Schedules screen to create a per diem schedule that uses government per diem amounts, it is recommended that you use  the Per Diem Preprocessor utility to import, review, and post the per diem amounts to the per diem schedule. Using the utility has several advantages over importing data directly into your schedules. For more information, see Per Diem Preprocessor.

    If you instead decide to import information directly from import files into your per diem schedules, first make sure the files you downloaded from the government Web site are named correctly and located in the correct import folder. When you run the import process using the Import Console, the system reads those files and updates the Per Diem Master and any per diem schedules that, based on the import file name, have the correct source and location type.

  3. Edit the per diem schedule.

    At any point, you can enter manual records into any per diem schedule. Manual entries take precedence over any imported record. For example, you might edit a per diem schedule if your company has negotiated a special lodging or meals rate for a specific location.