Second Tier Ceilings Overview

With Deltek Expense, you can have several types of "Not to Exceed" ceilings for lodging and meals expenses.

With this feature, you can set up one of the following:

  • Set the "Not to Exceed" ceiling using government per diem locations. The employee selects a location based on how the expense report type is configured, and the ceiling used is determined by government-defined rates.
  • Set the "Not to Exceed" ceiling using company-defined limits. The employee enters the amount spent on lodging or meals, and the system determines the amount over the ceiling and the amount that is reimbursed to the employee.
  • Use both the government-defined location rates AND a higher company-defined rate, which creates a "Second Tier Ceiling." This allows users to spend more than the government-defined rates but still places a limit on the amount that they can spend.

    As an example, let us say that the government per diem rate for lodging expenses in Huntsville, AL is $66.00. Your company policy states that you will reimburse employees above the $66.00, but no more than $100.00. You set the second-tier ceiling to $100.00, and the system will reimburse the employee up to $100.00.

Expense Types

The second-tier ceiling function is available only for those expense types for which the following criteria were selected on the Expense Types screen:

  • The option selected in the Wizard Type drop-down list is Lodging or Meals.
  • Per Diem check box is selected.
Note: You must complete the setup of these expense types before you can use them in expense reports. See the Expense Types screen documentation for further information on setting up expense types.

How to Use Second-Tier Ceilings

If you enter an expense against an expense type for per diem meals or per diem lodging, and that expense type uses the Second-Tier Ceiling function, one of the following situations will occur:

  • If the amount you enter is below the government per diem rate for your location, you will be reimbursed the full amount and the amount will be charged as an under-ceiling expense.
  • If the amount you enter is above the government per diem rate and below the second-tier ceiling, the amount that is below the per diem rate will be charged as an under-ceiling expense. The remaining amount, which is below the second tier ceiling, will be charged as an over-ceiling expense, but will be reimbursed to you.
  • If the amount you enter is above the government per diem rate and also above the second-tier ceiling, the amount that is below the per diem rate will be charged as an under-ceiling expense. The amount up to the second-tier ceiling will be charged as an over-ceiling expense. Both of these amounts will be reimbursed to you. The amount that is over the second-tier ceiling will not be reimbursed to you.