travel.dod.mil 1 December 2023
INFORMATION PAPER
What is a Valid Receipt?
Per the DoD Financial Management Regulation (DoD FMR), Vol. 9, Definitions, the DoD’s
official definition of a receipt is:
“A legibly written/printed/electronic document (or facsimile thereof) provided by a service
provider or vendor to a customer, which provides documentary evidence that the service
provider or vendor has been paid for services or goods, provided to the customer. To be
considered valid, a receipt must contain the name of the entity providing the good(s)/service,
the date(s) that the good(s)/service was/were provided/purchased, the price of the
good(s)/service, any tax levied, the total monetary amount due, and must indicate that the total
monetary amount due was paid.”
The text below provides the key points translated into simple English:
Table 1
Ref.
The Statement …
… Means …
1
A legibly written/printed/electronic
document
You must be able to read it.
2
(or facsimile thereof)
It doesn’t need to be the original;
it can be a copy.
3
provided by a service provider or vendor
to a customer
The vendor or their agent* must
create it.
4
which provides documentary evidence
that the service provider or vendor has
been paid for services or goods, provided
to the customer.
It must prove that you made a
payment and what that payment
was for.
5
To be considered valid, a receipt must
contain:
A receipt MUST show …
the name of the entity providing the
good(s)/service
… the vendor’s name …
the date(s) that the good(s)/service
was/were provided/purchased
… when you bought the goods or
used the service …
the price of the good(s)/service
… the base amount you owed for
each item you paid for …
any tax levied
… the taxes on that base amount …
the total monetary amount due
… the total amount you owed …
and
… everything on this list must be
shown; no exceptions ...
Definition and
Meaning
INFORMATION PAPER: What is a Valid Receipt?
Defense Travel Management Office 2 December 2023
Ref.
The Statement …
… Means …
must indicate that the total monetary
amount due was paid.
… it must show that you paid the
full amount you owed.
*An “agent” sells goods or services for a vendor. For example, when the Travel Management
Company (TMC) sells tickets for an airline, they are acting as the vendor’s agent. On the other
hand, the Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) vendor makes payments at your request, and
you reimburse them, so in a way, they are your agent, not the vendor’s. Keep that in mind. It’s
important.
Table 2 shows items Travelers frequently provide as receipts, and points out why they are not
valid receipts. The reference numbers listed in the second column equate to those in the first
column of Table 1.
Table 2
Item
Any document you received before you made the final payment, such
as a reservation/booking confirmation, a contract/agreement, or an
estimate, itinerary, deposit, or pre-payment
Any document that is not fully itemized, such as a GTCC statement,
credit card summary receipts, online booking confirmations
Any document produced by anyone besides the vendor or their
agent, such as a bank or GTCC statement
Screen shot from any DTS screen
*These are minimums. Any of the listed items may fail to meet the criteria of more reference
numbers than those listed, but that doesn’t matter. Failure to meet even ONE of them renders
the item unusable as a valid receipt.
The following things are all true about receipts:
1. You must provide an itemized receipt for all lodging expenses and any single purchase of
$75 or more* (the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR), par. 010301-A). You only need to provide
receipts for multiple purchases that total $75 or more if you combine them and claim them
as a single expense. Consider these examples:
a. You bought gas three times on your trip, spending $30 each time, and claimed them as
three separate gas expenses. Even though the total of those expenses is $90, they were
not a single purchase, so no receipt is required.
Definition and
Meaning
(continued)
Types of Invalid
Receipts
Other Important
Things to
Remember
INFORMATION PAPER: What is a Valid Receipt?
Defense Travel Management Office 3 December 2023
b. You bought gas three times on your trip, spending $30 each time, but totalled them and
claimed a single gas expense of $90. Even though there were three separate
expenditures, because you claimed a single $90 expense, you must supply the three
receipts that support that $90 claim.
c. You parked your car in an airport parking lot for 12 days at a cost of $10 per day. Upon
your return, you paid the full amount – $120. Even though each day only cost $10, you
paid for all the days all at once, so this is a single purchase and a receipt is required.
*This is true regardless of the payment method. If your airfare was paid by a centrally-billed
account, you must still provide the required receipt. (DoD FMR, Vol. 10, Ch. 12, par. 5.5)
2. If you lose a receipt, you must provide a statement that explains the circumstances of the
loss and contains the same information as the lost receipt. (JTR, par. 010301-B) You can
provide this on any document and in any format that your local or Component business
rules allow.
3. Although you do have to show that you paid the full amount you owe, there is no
requirement that your receipt also show a zero-dollar outstanding balance.
4. Although there is no DoD-level regulatory requirement for your receipt to be written in
English, check your Component or local business rules on this point. After all, it’s clear that
the certifying officer must be able to review all provided receipts to validate the accuracy of
your expense claims. (DoD FMR Vol. 9, Ch. 5, par. 2.2) If the certifying officer cannot read
the receipt, they will not be able to do this, so they may legitimately reject the claim.
5. Reimbursement to a traveler for paying another traveler’s expenses is strictly forbidden.
(DoD FMR, Vol. 9, Ch. 8, par. 4.1.8)
6. All receipts must be retained for 10 years after the final payment. (DoD FMR, Vol. 1, Ch. 9,
Figure 9-1) Although the system retains electronic copies of all submitted receipts, travelers
should consider retaining the originals for the same length of time.
Remember that it is not sufficient merely to provide a valid receipt. You must also ensure that in
EVERY case:
1. Combining expense types on a single receipt is a common hotel practice. Even so, you must
only submit a claim for reimbursable expenses, even if your receipt shows both
reimbursable and non-reimbursable expenses.
2. You must always claim the precise amount shown on the receipt for those reimbursable
expenses – no more, no less.
Finally, please keep in mind that the rules stated throughout this info paper apply regardless of
the travel system (DTS) that you used to create your trip.
Final Words
Other Important
Things to
Remember
(continued)
INFORMATION PAPER: What is a Valid Receipt?
Defense Travel Management Office 4 December 2023
The more familiar you are with travel regulations in general, the better your odds of adhering to
them. Here are the URLs of some handy resources. They are selectable links if you are viewing
this information paper in an electronic format.
1. The DoD FMR: http://comptroller.defense.gov/FMR.aspx
2. The JTR: https://www.travel.dod.mil/JTR
3. The Government Travel Charge Card Regulations: https://www.travel.dod.mil/GTCC-Regs
4. The DTS Regulations: https://www.travel.dod.mil/DTS-Regs
Useful Links