How Tulane Athletics Left Per Diem Headaches Behind with Teamworks Wallet

“I used to dread Per Diem. It was a pain and you wanted to get away. And now it’s just something you can do twice in your workday, […] click approve and it’s less of a headache. You don’t have to really worry about it.”

— Parker Davis, Associate Athletic Director, Business Operations, Tulane Athletics

“I think it’s wise to move your Per Diem into Wallet, too. I think if you’re still a school that’s using Per Diem and issuing cash, it would be wise to get away from that.”

— Scott Mitchell, Sr. Associate AD/CFO, Tulane Athletics

Those aren’t abstract recommendations. They’re the hard-won conclusions of a three-person business office that spent years managing per diem through a combination of physical debit cards, emailed spreadsheets, and manual bank loads. Tulane Athletics manages a complex operation: 165 full-time employees, more than 410 student-athletes across 20-plus varsity sports, and approximately 30 operating budgets. At that scale, per diem can’t be an afterthought.

Tulane became one of Teamworks’ earliest partners to pilot Per Diem in Teamworks Wallet, and the shift has changed how the business office operates day to day.

The Problem: A Manual System Running Out of Time

Before Teamworks Wallet, Tulane’s per diem process depended on physical debit cards managed through Commerce Bank. The business office manually loaded funds using emailed spreadsheet templates, with money typically becoming available to athletes between 2:00 and 3:00 AM on the day of travel.

The process demanded precision at every step. Per diem was not a flat daily rate but was calculated meal by meal, $10 for breakfast, $16 for lunch, and $24 for dinner, based on travel times. Directors of Operations submitted a specific spreadsheet template to the business office, who then loaded funds through the Commerce Bank portal. Any formatting error, wrong file type, or special character meant starting over.

“It turned into a half hour process if you didn’t get it right in the first five minutes.”

— Parker Davis

Last-minute roster changes made things worse. Coaches frequently submitted requests 24 to 48 hours before travel, and rosters shifted constantly due to injuries, eligibility changes, or sport-specific qualifying metrics. Tulane imposed a mandatory three-day advance window just to ensure funds could be loaded in time.

The entire process also lived within Commerce Bank’s platform, leaving Tulane’s accounting and audit teams with no visibility into the data. And then came the decisive factor: Commerce Bank announced it was sunsetting the product by the end of March 2026. The replacement platform they offered did not support clawbacks, meaning Tulane would have no way to recover unspent funds from a student-athlete’s card. That was a dealbreaker.

The Solution: Per Diem Inside a Platform They Already Knew

Tulane joined as an early access partner for Per Diem in Teamworks Wallet, piloting the feature across their full athletics department in the months leading up to the broader release.

The transition moved per diem directly into Teamworks Hub, the platform Tulane’s coaches and operations staff were already using every day. Directors of Operations could now submit per diem requests from within Hub, linked to a trip or entered manually, with each request flowing through a clear approval chain to the business office.

“The integration with a platform that people are already familiar with has been huge. We’ve got new coaches that have already come in since we’ve started Wallet and they’ve picked it up really quickly.”

— Parker Davis

Large-roster programs like football, track and field, and swim and dive saw the most immediate impact. The same platform used for scheduling, rosters, and travel planning could now handle per diem too. No new system to learn, no separate portal, no spreadsheet templates to format correctly.

Rollout went even more smoothly than the team had anticipated.

“The support we had from Teamworks was excellent. The education to our ops people from Teamworks was really good and the support response has been excellent too.”

— Parker Davis

The Results: From Rigid Lead Times to Easy Approvals 

The most meaningful change was the elimination of the advance notice requirement. The three-day window that had become a fixed constraint of travel planning was gone.

“That’s probably been the biggest change: last minute requests are easier to do. […] Now it’s as simple as logging into a website and clicking a button.”

— Parker Davis

For the business office, the day-to-day workload shifted significantly. The burden of managing spreadsheet formats, chasing correct file types, and building out requests on behalf of coaches largely disappeared.

“Now our job is shrunk to just verifying and clicking approve versus having to build spreadsheets and talk about file types with an assistant coach.”

— Parker Davis

New operations staff now pick up the workflow quickly without the lengthy onboarding the spreadsheet process required. And for the first time, the business office has a clearly documented approval chain that prevents per diem requests from bypassing the proper process.

The broader effect has been a deeper engagement with Teamworks across the organization. Parker, who previously had limited reason to log into Hub, is now in the platform every day.

“Now I’m pushing for our teams to use it more. I’m like, ‘What do you mean you don’t do the trips in Hub? Beach volleyball’s in there killing it.’”

— Parker Davis

Looking Ahead

Per diem was the starting point. Teamworks Wallet now supports a full range of payment types — NIL, revenue share, housing, travel, allowances, and more — giving athletic departments one compliant system for every type of athlete payment. For Tulane, getting per diem right was the proof of concept. The infrastructure is already in place for everything that comes next.

When Parker talks to peers at other institutions, his starting point is simple: gauge how embedded your staff already is in Teamworks. If coaches and operations staff are already working in Hub, per diem fits in naturally. If Teamworks is newer to your organization, expect more onboarding to be involved. On the bigger question of whether to move away from physical cards and manual processes altogether, he and Scott agree: the longer a department stays on legacy systems, the more risk it absorbs and the more time it costs a staff that doesn’t have any to spare. For Tulane, Commerce Bank’s exit forced the conversation. What they found on the other side was a process that actually fits the pace of how a modern athletic department has to operate.

Ready to Simplify Per Diem at Your Institution?

Per Diem in Teamworks Wallet is currently available to select early access partners ahead of a broader release. If you’re ready to leave spreadsheets behind, we’d love to talk.