Real expenses
Once you hop on the plane, you might be tempted to take a break from trip management issues and relax for a bit, but that would be a big mistake! Budgeting is a daily labour when in-trip. Keep receipts for everything and enter your expenses into the budgeting tool every night or every morning. You know you’re a trustworthy person, but schools don’t mess around when it comes to money. I remember a time when, months after a trip, the Assistant Director called me in to his office to say that our program had overspent its budget by $2,000! After the initial panic subsided, I walked him through every expense until he realized that there had been a clerical error at the school’s end, not mine. (Still waiting on that apology!) So, make sure you know where you’re at with your money at the end of each day and that no expense goes undocumented.