ConcurGov is the federally mandated E-Gov Travel Service platform most civilian agencies use to manage temporary duty travel, and to use it you move through four phases: set up your profile, submit a travel authorization for approval, book your flights and lodging inside the system, and file an expense report within five working days of returning. The system enforces the Federal Travel Regulation automatically, which means many of the rules about per diem, receipts, and allowable expenses are already wired into the screens you fill out.
Log In and Complete Your Profile
You authenticate through the ConcurGov login portal using a PIV or CAC credential in a card reader. On a mobile device, derived PIV credentials work. Some agencies also allow ID.me for users without a physical credential.1ConcurGov. ConcurGov Cloud
Once you are in, the system will not let you create any travel document until your profile is complete. Get your name exactly right first. It must match the government-issued photo ID you will use at airport security, including middle name and any suffix. A mismatch causes TSA problems that paperwork will not fix at the checkpoint.
The required sections of the profile are:
- Organizational details, including your employee ID number and the name of the approving official who signs off on your travel.
- TSA Secure Flight information. Gender and date of birth are mandatory. Enter your TSA PreCheck Known Traveler Number here if you have one so it prints on your boarding passes.
- Your government travel charge card. The FTR requires federal employees to use this card for all official travel expenses, with narrow exceptions for vendors that do not accept it.2eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-51 – Paying Travel Expenses
- Banking information for direct deposit. Out-of-pocket reimbursement lands in whatever account you enter here, so errors delay your money.
Create and Submit a Travel Authorization
No official travel happens without an approved authorization. The document is your formal request for the trip and doubles as a cost estimate your approving official reviews. Reservations made inside ConcurGov are held but not ticketed or charged until the authorization clears the approval chain.3TTS Handbook. Book Travel in Concur and Secure Approvals
Start a new authorization and enter the trip basics: purpose, destination, departure date, return date. ConcurGov then pulls the correct per diem rates for your destination automatically, which cap your lodging reimbursement and your daily meals and incidental expenses allowance. A standard rate covers most locations within the continental United States; roughly 300 higher-cost areas have individually calculated rates.4General Services Administration. Per Diem Rates
Estimate airfare, ground transportation, and any other expected costs. If the trip involves a conference, training, or anything needing separate advance approval, attach that documentation before submitting. The authorization then routes to your approving official, who either approves it or sends it back for changes.
Book Flights, Hotels, and Rental Cars
After approval, book travel using ConcurGov’s integrated tools, which search contract vendors and government rates for you. The system steers you toward the cheapest compliant option, and knowing what “compliant” means saves trouble later.
Airfare and City Pair Fares
Federal employees must use City Pair Program contract fares when available. The CPP is a GSA-negotiated program that locks in airfare on specific routes for the fiscal year. These fares are fully refundable with no change fees, no advance purchase requirements, and no blackout dates.5General Services Administration. City Pair Program (CPP) When both a capacity-controlled contract fare and an unrestricted contract fare are available on the same route, the FTR requires you to use the cheaper one if it meets your mission needs.6eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-10 – Transportation Expenses
Coach is the default. Any upgrade to premium economy, business, or first class needs specific authorization from your agency head or designee, and the justification bar rises with each tier.6eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-10 – Transportation Expenses
Lodging and Rental Cars
ConcurGov shows hotel options at or below the GSA per diem lodging rate for your destination. You are reimbursed for actual lodging cost up to that cap, plus applicable taxes. If government-rate hotels near your work site are fully booked, you may need actual expense authorization, which is covered below. For rental cars, the system searches government-contract rates.
Every reservation must go on the government travel card stored in your profile. The FTR makes this mandatory for all official travel expenses, not optional.2eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-51 – Paying Travel Expenses The exception is when a vendor genuinely does not accept the card or your agency has granted a specific exemption.
Traveling Internationally: Fly America Act
If your trip goes outside the United States, the Fly America Act adds booking restrictions. All air travel funded by the federal government must use a U.S.-flag carrier, meaning an airline licensed by the Department of Transportation as a U.S. carrier. Booking a foreign airline because it is cheaper or more convenient is not an exception, and a noncompliant ticket will not be reimbursed.7General Services Administration. Fly America Act
Limited exceptions apply. A foreign carrier is allowed when no U.S.-flag service is available on the route, when using a U.S. carrier would add 24 or more hours to your travel time, or when the routing would require two or more additional aircraft changes outside the country. An applicable Open Skies Agreement between the U.S. and the destination country can also satisfy the requirement. On codeshare flights, the ticket has to be purchased under the U.S. airline’s flight number and designator code.7General Services Administration. Fly America Act
Amend Your Authorization When Plans Change
Government travel rarely goes exactly as planned. When dates shift, a destination gets added, or costs run over what was approved, amend the authorization. Do not ignore the discrepancy and hope it sorts itself out on the voucher, because auditors flag mismatches between authorizations and expense reports, and unapproved overages can come out of your pocket.
Open the original authorization from the Authorizations tab and select the option to create an amendment. Enter a brief explanation. Minor adjustments, like shifting times within an already-approved date range or switching to a different City Pair fare on the same route, generally do not require a new approval. Adding travel days outside the original window, booking above the contract fare, or increasing total trip costs significantly will send the amendment back through the approval chain. Each agency sets its own threshold for what counts as significant, so check with your travel office if you are unsure.
File Your Expense Report Within Five Working Days
After you return, you must file your expense report within five working days.8eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-52 – Claiming Reimbursement The deadline is not a suggestion. Late filings lead to late travel card payments, and delinquency on the card carries real consequences.
ConcurGov pre-populates the report with charges already posted to your government travel card and trip segments from your authorization. Your job is to verify those charges, add expenses paid out of pocket like taxi fares, parking, and tolls, and confirm the per diem calculations.
Per Diem and Meal Deductions
The system calculates your M&IE allowance from the per diem rate for each day’s location. On your first and last travel days, you receive 75% of the full M&IE rate. If the government provided any meals during the trip, whether conference lunches, in-flight meals on government-paid tickets, or meals included with a training event, you must deduct those from your per diem claim. ConcurGov has fields for marking government-furnished meals and adjusts the allowance automatically. Skipping this step is a compliance violation, and approving officials are trained to catch it.
Receipt Requirements
The FTR requires a receipt for lodging regardless of cost, plus a receipt for every other authorized expense over $75.9eCFR. 41 CFR 301-11.25 – Must I Provide Receipts to Substantiate My Claimed Travel Expenses Your agency may set a lower threshold. Some require receipts for anything over $25, so know your agency’s policy before you leave. Receipts must be itemized. A credit card summary showing a total charge without line items will not satisfy the lodging requirement.
Upload receipts directly in ConcurGov by attaching them to the corresponding expense line. The system accepts scanned images and phone photos, which is worth remembering when you are staring at a crumpled taxi receipt at the airport.
If a Receipt Goes Missing
If you lose a required receipt, contact the vendor first and ask for a duplicate. Most hotels and rental car companies can reissue one. If that fails, the FTR allows a written explanation acceptable to your agency describing why the receipt is unavailable, typically documented on a lost receipt statement with the date, amount, vendor name, and a brief explanation. This is a last resort, not a routine workaround, and agencies can reject expenses that lack both a receipt and a convincing explanation.9eCFR. 41 CFR 301-11.25 – Must I Provide Receipts to Substantiate My Claimed Travel Expenses
After verifying everything, digitally sign the expense report to certify that all claimed expenses are accurate and were incurred during official travel. Falsifying a travel voucher is a serious federal offense. Do not claim expenses you did not incur or inflate amounts.
When Per Diem Will Not Cover Your Costs
Sometimes the standard per diem rate does not match real-world costs at your destination. A conference hotel that runs $280 a night in a city with a $180 per diem cap is the classic case. The FTR allows agencies to authorize actual expense reimbursement when lodging or meals must be procured at a prearranged location like a conference hotel, when costs spike due to special events or natural disasters, or when mission requirements justify the higher spending.10eCFR. 41 CFR 301-11.300 – When Is Actual Expense Reimbursement Warranted
The important part is timing. Actual expense authorization has to be in your original travel authorization or a pre-trip amendment, not requested after the fact on your voucher.
Getting Paid and Split Disbursement
Once your expense report clears the approval chain, it is released for payment. Out-of-pocket amounts go by direct deposit to the bank account in your ConcurGov profile. Most travelers see the deposit within a few business days after final approval, though the exact timing depends on your agency’s payment schedule.
For charges on your government travel card, many agencies use split disbursement. Instead of sending the full reimbursement to your personal account and trusting you to pay the card, the system automatically routes the travel card portion directly to the card issuer and deposits only the out-of-pocket balance to you. Military service members are required to use split disbursement; civilian employees are strongly encouraged to.11Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Split Disbursements Either way, ConcurGov’s audit trail on the expense report shows when payment was extracted for processing.
Travel Card Rules You Cannot Ignore
The government travel card is not a personal credit card. It may only be used for authorized official travel expenses. Personal use, or use while not on official travel, is prohibited and can lead to disciplinary action up to and including removal from federal service.12Defense Travel Management Office. Government Travel Charge Card Program
Delinquency is the other trap. You are expected to pay the travel card statement in full by the due date whether or not the government has reimbursed you yet. That surprises a lot of people. The card bill does not wait for your voucher to process. Once an account goes delinquent, the card gets suspended, your supervisor is notified, and for longer delinquencies the card issuer can initiate salary offset to collect the balance from your paycheck. Accounts that reach 210 days past due are typically written off and reported to the IRS as taxable income on a Form 1099.
The best defense is filing your expense report inside the five-day window and using split disbursement so the card issuer gets paid automatically from your reimbursement. If reimbursement is delayed for reasons outside your control, contact your travel office and the card issuer proactively rather than waiting.