Mastering Verpflegungsgeld: Navan Changes the Game on Per Diem Rules In Austria

If you appreciate beautifully complex German compound words, you’ll love Verpflegungsgeld. Literally translating to “meal allowance,” it also means “per diem” in Austria. (Another term is Taggeld, but the first one is much more fun to say.)

Just like pronouncing the word, budgeting for Austrian per diems can be complicated for companies managing cross-border European travel. So, to make life easier for finance teams and fairer to travelers, Navan has introduced a more precise way to automate these cross-border calculations for Austrian employees. has changed the rules on our automated per diem engine in Austria.

How Austrian Per Diems Work for International Travel

If you think the word Verpflegungsgeld is a riddle, navigating the actual math behind it can be an even bigger challenge. Managing international business travel under Austrian guidelines means dealing with a web of unique regulations:

• The government’s global menu: Austria publishes official, government-mandated allowance schedules for almost every country on earth. Your allowance changes completely depending on which border you cross.
• Counting the minutes: You can’t just claim a flat daily rate. Partial-day trips must be pro-rated down to the exact hours spent traveling or working.
• The 24-hour twist: Depending on the trip, calculations can pivot between a standard calendar day and a rolling 24-hour clock, keeping finance teams constantly on their toes.
• Layers of fine print: What an employee is legally entitled to, what the government considers tax-free, and what is mandated by local industry unions (collective agreements) don’t always match up. To address this, Navan now supports Kollektivvertrag (collective agreements) through per diem by user group, allowing for more precise, industry-specific rate configurations.

Upgrading Austria’s “Midnight Rule”

When an employee travels across multiple European borders in a single day, calculating the correct per diem rate gets complicated fast. To handle travel under Austrian guidelines, Navan’s platform previously relied on a country-specific “midnight rule” (or Mitternachtsregelung, in the vernacular): The system calculated the per diem rate based on whichever country the traveler happened to be in at midnight.

While compliant with local regulations, however, this wasn’t always the best deal for the employee. For instance, if an employee spent the majority of their day in a country with a higher cost than Austria, then flew to Vienna just before midnight, they missed out on the allowance needed to cover their day.

So, as we often do at Navan, we changed our platform logic to better support travelers — while remaining compliant with local tax laws. Now, if an Austrian employee visits multiple countries in a single calendar day, Navan’s system automatically applies the highest applicable per diem rate among all the countries visited that day, rather than just looking at where the traveler happened to be at midnight.

Best of all, once configured, everything happens automatically.

Why This Is a Win-Win

This upgrade removes the friction of multi-stop itineraries while prioritizing the traveler experience.

• For companies and finance teams: It provides total peace of mind. Navan applies the configured calculation method consistently across eligible multi-country travel, reducing manual calculations and helping the organization stay aligned with its Austrian per diem requirements..
• For travelers: It’s a major net positive. Austrian employees automatically receive the highest eligible reimbursement rate for their journey, without needing to perform manual calculations or lobby for adjustments.

Navan’s Growing European Footprint

Austria is the latest milestone in Navan’s mission to localize expense management globally. Our automated per diem engine already natively supports the unique regulatory landscapes of the U.S., UK, France, Germany, and Poland, with more countries coming soon.

By bringing Verpflegungsgeld into the fold with traveler-first logic, Navan helps ensure that no matter how much border-hopping your business requires, your corporate travel program remains efficient, compliant, and stress-free.

Per diem benefits are just die Spitze des Eisbergs (the tip of the iceberg). Explore all the ways Navan can help your business: Book a demo now.