New travel process now live

Colleagues,

After a year of planning, designing, and testing, the Finance team is excited to announce that a new streamlined travel process is now available to the campus. The primary goal of this redesign was to streamline travel authorizations and reimbursements to make it easier and faster for our campus community.

As we go online with this new process, please keep in mind the freeze on non-essential travel that began on Sept. 12. Per the chancellor’s instructions, you will need to obtain your vice chancellor’s approval before travel will be approved. As a result, we have updated the TA form to add a vice chancellor signature line. No cost TA’s and travel funded with restricted funds do NOT require your vice chancellor’s signature.

The two most significant changes of the new travel process are: 1) travel documents will be be submitted online via a Travel Document Submission portal on the travel website; and 2) travel dollars will be encumbered on the travel budget maintenance line only (Account 740000). Following travel, expenses will be allocated to the correct account travel code when Accounts Payable reconciles the TR-1. These changes will decrease processing time, provide flexibility, improve accuracy, and eliminate the need to increase or decrease travel budget lines.

The travel forms have also been simplified and include improved instructions. In addition, a travel reimbursement form for mileage only has been created, the TR-1M, and will be especially helpful for blanket and vicinity mileage reimbursement requests. You may view and download these forms and their respective instructions at the following links: TA, TR-1 and TR-1M, Travel Advance Agreement.

These are just a few highlights of the new travel process – there are other improvements that we are excited to share with the campus. We invite you to view our presentation introducing the Travel Process Redesign and to visit our Travel and the Travel Redesign Introduction website (which links from the banner at the top of the Travel website). We would also be more than happy to schedule individual training sessions for your department.

If you have any questions regarding the new travel process, or to schedule individual training for your department, please feel free to contact Procurement Services at procurement@ualr.edu or 501-916-3144.

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