A travel and expense policy has to fit the rules its industry works under: client billing rules in professional services, per diem and safety rules on job sites, Open Payments and the industry codes in life sciences, the Uniform Guidance for nonprofits, the FAR for government contractors, trust account rules in property management, Medicare's cost data rule and the miles between visits in home health. ExpenseOS™ is Agentic Travel & Expense Management with a policy pack for each of eight industries: each category's limits, how far over each city's market rate a hotel may go, and a starting travel policy for the clients you bill travel to. Admins change any of it on screen or in a sentence, and see every change before it applies.
Rules and figures checked 1 November 2026 (property management, home health and home care on 3 November 2026), each with its source on its industry's page.
Billable travel inside each client's rules, a receipt for every billed item, expenses at actual cost.
Subscriptions and equipment under control without a sign-off on every purchase, and travel kept planned.
Per diem inside the IRS rules, lodging near the job, and trucks, fuel and tools bought on site.
Meals with healthcare professionals inside the codes, every guest recorded, and long trips to sites and conferences.
Grant travel inside the Uniform Guidance, funders' own rules, and donor meals kept off grants.
Contract travel inside FAR 31.205-46, alcohol and entertainment kept off contracts, and records an auditor can follow.
Owners' money kept apart, every repair traced to a property, and no hidden profit on what owners pay for.
Mileage between visits at the IRS rate, records an auditor can follow, and nothing improper to patients or referral sources.
Start from the pack closest to your work, or from your own policy, and change any limit on screen or in a sentence.
Talk it through with us →On day one the pack sets each category's limits, how far over each city's market rate a hotel may go, and a starting travel policy for each client you bill travel to (for a nonprofit, each funder; for a property manager, each owner).
Admins change any limit on screen or in words, like “Raise Chicago hotels to $350”, and see every change before it applies. The controls log keeps the sentence and each change.
People ask before they book or spend, and the agent answers against the policy with the rule named. Anything out of policy goes to a person first, with the reason.
Whatever the industry, US travel and expense policy sits on the same IRS and GSA rules. Each industry's page adds the rules and market figures of its own.
| Rule | What it requires | What it means for your policy |
|---|---|---|
| IRS substantiation, Treas. Reg. §1.274-5 | A receipt for every lodging expense, whatever it costs, and for any other travel expense of $75 or more, with the amount, date, place and business purpose. | Keep the hotel bill for every night, and receipts for anything else at $75 and up. |
| Accountable plans, Treas. Reg. §1.62-2 | Reimbursements are tax-free when expenses are accounted for within a reasonable period (60 days is the safe harbor) and excess advances come back (120 days). Otherwise they are wages. | Set a submission deadline inside 60 days. |
| Meals, entertainment and gifts, IRC §274 | Business meals are 50% deductible when they aren't lavish and an employee is there; entertainment isn't deductible; business gifts are deductible up to $25 a recipient a year. | Log who was at a business meal and why, and keep entertainment and gifts apart from meals. |
| Per diem substantiation, Rev. Proc. 2019-48 | A per diem counts as substantiated only up to the federal rate for the place; anything above it is taxable pay. On the first and last days of travel the meals rate is prorated, at 75% under the federal travel rules. | Cap a per diem at the federal rate for the destination. |
| GSA per diem rates, FY2027 | From 1 October 2026: $113 a night for lodging and $68 a day for meals and incidentals in most of the continental US, with higher rates in 295 areas and meal rates from $68 to $92. | The federal rate for the destination sets the tax-free ceiling, and the limit on federally billed travel. |
| IRS high-low method, Notice 2026-60 | From 1 October 2026: $329 a day in high-cost places and $230 elsewhere, of which $86 and $74 are meals and incidentals. | A simpler alternative to city-by-city rates. |
| IRS business mileage rate, 2026 | 72.5¢ a mile from 1 January to 30 June 2026, and 76¢ a mile from 1 July 2026 (Announcement 2026-11), raised midyear for fuel costs. | Use the rate in force on the day of each drive. |
A suggested expense policy for an industry: each category's limits, how far over each city's market rate a hotel may go, and a starting travel policy for the clients a company bills travel to. A company starts from its pack on day one and changes any of it, on screen or in a sentence, seeing every change before it applies.
A limit and a rule for each category. The professional services pack, for example, starts airfare at $1,200 a round trip in Economy, hotels at each city's market rate plus 15%, meals at $75 a day and client meals at $150 a person; the nonprofits pack starts airfare at $600 at the least expensive unrestricted fare and meals at $68 a day, the federal standard rate. Each industry's page lists its pack.
Eight: professional services (consulting, legal, accounting and agencies), software and technology, field services and construction, life sciences (biotech, pharma and medical devices), nonprofits and foundations, government contractors, property managers, and home health and home care agencies.
Yes, every line. Admins change limits on screen or in a sentence, such as “Raise Chicago hotels to $350”, and ExpenseOS shows every change it would make before anything applies. The controls log keeps the sentence and each change.
The rules each industry works under and the market figures to measure a policy against, each with its source: IRS substantiation and per diem rules and GSA rates for everyone, client billing rules and the FAR for professional services, state reimbursement laws for software companies, OSHA and prevailing wage for job sites, Open Payments and the PhRMA and AdvaMed codes for life sciences, the Uniform Guidance for nonprofits, the FAR's cost principles for government contractors, state trust account rules for property managers, and Medicare's cost data rule and the Inspector General's gift limits for home health.
Yes. Start from the pack closest to your work, or from your own policy, and change any limit on screen or in a sentence.
A short walkthrough mapped to your policy: what the pack sets up, what you would change, and how every request is answered before the money moves.
Rules and figures as published on 1 November 2026 (property management, home health and home care on 3 November 2026). These pages summarize public rules and published figures for general information; they are not legal or tax advice.