All Financial Processing/AP group personnel should be checking the FP/AP box in the mailroom at least twice a day.  At this time, all requests should be date stamped as received.  If there are pieces of information required but not received on a travel request form, then a log should be kept either on a separate sheet of paper or on the back side of the main summary page as to what is missing, when it is requested, and when it is received.  This will show due diligence if a reimbursement or order is not completed in the usual timeline. 

Travel Guidelines/Reimbursements

For general travel guidelines, see the UH MAPP policy, section 04.02.  If the fund code on a cost center is 1XXX, then use the Travel with state appropriated funds.  Those policies, however, does not cover the business process involved (continue reading).

Forms and References

Effective immediately, please begin using the updated Travel Expense Report located at: http://www.uh.edu/finance/pages/AP_Travel.htm

Export Control and Travel Embargo Form

Travel Forms in Reimbursements and Purchasing Guidelines

Travel Totals Quick Reference.

UH Accounts Payable Travel Site

Continental Class Codes: http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/Marketing/CustComm/Promotions/Pages/continental.aspx

Flowchart to Back out Foreign Hotel Taxes

UH Travel and Entertainment Policy Changes effective May 11, 2009

Purpose/Benefit Statements

All purpose and benefit statements should specify:

• Each destination and the purpose for visiting each destination for the entire period of time spent at that location.

• Each destination's purpose should include at least one of the name of the person visited, the name of the University, or the name of the conference.

• The benefit to the cost center (research, teaching, student learning, new faculty setup, administration and operation, etc.).

• The name of the sponsoring cost center.

Purpose and benefit statements on projects should be in the format:  "To attend and present at National Science Foundation Annual Conference at Washington, DC and to collaborate with F. Lastname in Paris, France, on a book project to benefit research sponsored by the <sponsor name> project being charged."

Purpose and benefit statements on non-projects should be in the format:  "To attend and present at National Science Foundation Annual Conference and to collaborate with Georgetown University on modeling methods at Washington, DC to benefit research sponsored by <cost center name>."

If a traveler is only presenting at a conference, then they must only stay for the day of their presentation.  Otherwise, a purpose for staying longer must be specified on the TR.

Timeline for Business Office Completion of Travel Tasks

Travel Requests:  1 day from AP box to DBA for approval

Domestic travel expense reports:  3 days from AP box to DBA for approval

Foreign travel expense reports: 5 days from AP box to DBA for approval

SDOL entries/uploads:  by the dates published by UH T-card Administration

Travel Request (TR) Guidelines

The NSM Travel Request can be created in and printed directly from FMP. 

The following is full backup, and thus a part of every travel request.  The backup should be attached in this order.

• Travel Request completely filled out.

• If applicable, foreign traveler's signed statement.  This could also be just a detailed P/B at the top of the TR with the traveler's signature at the bottom of the TR.

• If applicable, foreign travel approval of both the Dean of the college and the Provost or Provost's designee.

• If applicable, airfare itinerary with arrows to the traveler name, amount paid, coach/economy class on each leg of the trip, and the airline name on each leg (if a grant is supporting the trip).

• If applicable, proof of coach/economy class if the itinerary doesn't indicate it.

• If applicable, conference website printouts for each conference the traveler will attend, showing the dates and location of the conference.

• If applicable, any additional statements of the traveler or staff member to justify anything pertaining to the travel.  This includes late justifications presented to the Dean or answers to questions upon the approval path.

• PI approval must be on the travel request prior to turning it in for DBA approval.

• If applicable, the Request to take Computers and Software out of the United States  (Export Controls and Travel Embargo Form).

Upon approval of the Travel Request, a copy of the full approved Travel Request should be scanned to the email address of the traveler as confirmation that they are approved for travel.  In order for the certifying signatory to approve the Request to take Computers and Software out of the United States (Export Controls and Travel Embargo Form), the answers should be compared with a review of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/ear_data.html. 

For general travel reimbursement information, please see the Travel Reimbursements sub-section of the Reimbursement and Purchasing Guidelines in the Math Business Manual.

Travel Expense Report (TER) and Voucher

Travel voucher required backup (needs to be uploaded in this order)

• Approved Travel Expense Report (all required signatures)

• Approved travel request completely filled out (If applicable, foreign travel approval of both the Dean of the college and the Provost or Provost's designee)

• Foreign Travel Trip Report   (.pdf)

• Airfare itinerary showing price

• Hotel receipt with daily rates broken down in date order if multiple receipts are presented

• Itemized daily meal receipts in date order

• Traveler paid transportation receipts (taxi, bus, shuttle, etc) in date order

• Registration receipt

• Conference website printouts for each conference the traveler attended, showing the dates and location of the conference.

• Additional documents/statements as needed

TER Modifications

TER modifications can be handled like timesheets, with a little bit more flexibility.  If you reduce the amount reimbursed because of a policy issue, then the traveler should be FYI'ed, but it is not necessary to get their approval again--after all, regardless of their approval, the policy gets in the way and they can't be reimbursed the amount taken off.  If you are moving things around on the TER but the amount remains the same.  In these cases, just attach the new TER and the old TER with notes on the signature lines of "see attached."  If you increase the amount being reimbursed for any reason, and the supervisor had to sign or now will have to sign with the new amount (they only have to sign if the traveler went over their TR total amount), then the supervisor will have to sign again, yes, and the traveler should as well.  If there are minor changes, then you can have the traveler initial the TER with the change listed. 

T-Card Administration Guidelines

See also the P-card and T-card Review Process.

I.  Responsibilities of the Tcard Cardholder

In addition to the duties required of Tcard Cardholders in the UH TCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Tcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

1. Please note that the T-card is your responsibility (if items are not proven to be allowable and allocable on university funds, you are required personally to pay the amount back to the bank and/or UH).  For this reason, we suggest that you keep personal copies of your T-card backup for your own personal proof.  Please note the UH consequences for unauthorized transactions.

2. The Department Tcard custodian is responsible for the departments transactions in similar ways, though it is understood that multiple people have access to use it.  However, for this reason, the Department Tcard custodian may make additional requests of employees who use the Dept Tcard in order to ensure their ability to properly administer the Tcard.

3. In order for department staff to meet the deadlines and requirements of the Tcard program, you will need to turn in your Tcard receipts with a purpose/benefit statement and account number within 3 business days of the purchase. This will allow for the staff to get all Tcard information entered in to the system and meet the budget checking requirements by the deadlines set out by accounts payable.

4. If your backup is not received by the cutoff, you run the risk of having your Tcard shut down by AP.

5. Business staff who hold T-cards should scan and upload their transaction backup as soon as possible after the transaction to R:\Backup FY XX\Tcard\<MONTH OF PURCHASE>.

6. In addition to these guidelines, please note that it is possible that airlines will upgrade a traveler's class automatically upon purchase of the airfare.  For this reason, a printout of the same dates, same flights, and quoted price must be made just prior to the purchase, in case proof of economy price is necessary.  Airfare reimbursement/payment has been denied in the past based on this issue.

II.  Responsibilities of the Tcard Business Staff

Enter Transaction Details into SDOL

In addition to the duties required of business staff in the UH TCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Tcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

1. Use the T-Card Work Aid to audit your work before sending it for approval.

2. All Tcard entries should be entered in Filemaker Pro (FMP) and the Check Cost Center button should be used BEFORE getting a certifying signature on your SDOL report. This will ensure that everything is entered in FMP in a timely manner for budget and reconciliation purposes.

3. To assist in auditing, number each SDOL line, and reference that number on all pages of the corresponding backup.

4. If you have to change something in SDOL, make the same changes in FMP.

5. Reference field in FMP: enter the month/year/Tcard. Example: DEC 08 TCARD. Do not type in the whole month, only the first three letters of the month. This will ensure that when finds are done for a particular month all Tcards will be pulled.

6. If the charge is for airfare you must first check FMP for the original travel request FMP entry & make changes to the record that is already in FMP.
7. All staff who handle TR's: scan in your approved travel requests along with airfare itineraries, conference registrations or flyers, etc to R:\Backup FY XX\TR & TER.
8. All staff who handle visitors:  scan in your approval visitor request along with airfare itineraries, hotel or rental car requests, etc. to R:\Backup FY XX\TR & TER.

9. If you run the final SDOL report too early, the billing cycle may not have all expenditures in the report.  Run a working copy quickly, but rerun a new copy at least four business days after the end of the billing cycle to ensure that all items were caught.

10. All completed P-card SDOL reports must be signed by the cardholder and the certifying signature by the 20th of each month (or the deadline published by the UH AP T-Card Administration).  I.e., the SDOL report ending ~ the 5th of the month must be completed and signed by cardholder and certifier by the 20th of that same month. 

11. Keep a scanned copy of the T-card for easy reference on R:\Backup FY XX\Tcard\<BILLING CYCLE MONTH> with a filename in the format Lastname.Tcard.MonYY.pdf.  This will also allow for easy reference.

Clearing T-card Liability

In addition to the duties required of business staff in the UH TCard Guidelines and MAPP Policy on Tcards,  the following are required by the Math Department:

At the end of each month, a Tcard liablity query UHS_TRAVEL_CARD_LIAB_BALANCE should be run in PeopleSoft for the total still listed on T-card liability to clear.  At least semesterly, just in case, the UHS_ACCOUNT_SUMMARY_DEPT query should be run in PeopleSoft with your department ID and account code 20110 to determine if transactions have hit the liability cost centers in the department.

A journal should be created to move all expenses from the department liability cost center to the correct cost center monthly.  Note that if items post to a liability account code (2010), you may use the FMP entry created in the Enter Transaction Details into SDOL header section above (#1), by just changing the type to Journal Entry and adding the journal entry number into the Document # field in FMP.   See the Reallocations section of this business manual.

Note:  if the T-card liability balance is not zero at the end of a fiscal year, the card will be cancelled and may not be reissued at the beginning of the new fiscal year.