Travel & Cash Advance

Managing travel at UT can seem a little daunting, especially if you're new to it.

If you handle travel fairly frequently in your role, you'll soon develop a rhythm that leads to an efficient process. The main concepts are straight forward:

1. All UT travel needs to be authorized - no surprises, no mysteries, rogues & mavericks need not apply.
2. UT travel needs to be arranged compliantly - and there's plenty of help to make this happen.
3. Finally, reimbursement of UT travel expenses also needs to be handled compliantly. This gets much easier to do when compliance starts with authorization phase and carries right on into the arrangement phase!
    

• Authorization
• Arrangement
• Reimbursement  --It's not a coincidence they're in that order.
  One of the biggest areas of concern is: AUTHORIZATIONS. This is the first step before making arrangements and is required before reimbursement can take place. 
   
  • If you're responsible for handling travel in your unit, whether only for research purposes or more, consider emailing to your faculty and students a regularly-occurring reminder that briefly recaps travel requirements, with emphasis on advance authorization. In this typically busy environment, consider a brief, bullet-point message that folks will glance at within a few seconds. Consider the following:
    
    --
    To Department Personnel
    We appreciate your continued awareness about traveling on university business.
    (Please forward this message to your respective groups)
     
  • All university travel must be authorized in advance of making arrangements
         (NOTE: Domestic & International travel have differing requirements)
  • Requests must include sufficient detail to document purpose, dates, etc. 
     --Missed class & disposition of duties by qualified instructor must be identified
     --Personal travel must be made clear and separate from UT travel
  • Arrangements must meet reasonable and allocable standards
  • Reimbursements must be processed (meaning finalized) within 60 days
    For more about UT Travel, HBP Chapter 11.
    And check out this CoLA Research Travel Requirements resource!
    Any questions, let us know!
    
    (feel free to copy the above and send it out regularly)

To learn more about each of the 3 aspects of travel, click on either of the travel links above.

Who is responsible for Travel at UT? The overly simplistic answer: All of us. As with anything at the university, there is a governing body that is responsible for travel:

Travel Management Services (TMS)

Because of how compartmentlized the university seems, it's not always clear how they fit into the bigger picture and what they do, so in their own words:

• 'Travel Management Services is a central service supporting UT Austin colleges, schools and units, providing travel expertise and collaborative consulting to assist with all of the university’s unique business travel requirements. We help connect you to the right resources and tools to streamline efforts, and we work closely with Payment Services to ensure policy and processes are communicated effectively.'
   

TMS doesn't set travel policy, though they do play a role in its oversight and interpretation to ensure compliance. They liaise between university offices and units, and they manage the relationships with the authorized travel agencies that are contracted to handle much of the travel needs of our university.

Additionally, TMS oversees:

• Review and approval of exceptions to travel policy
  • Requests for business/first class airfare
  • Non-UT vendor rental car use/reimbursement exception
• Travel planning tools and options
  • The university's travel credit card program
  • Motor Coach Connection Program
  • Austin Airport Parking Guidance
• Direct billing process
• University travel agency fees

 

Reaching out to TMS will help you land compliantly with university travel. You can also start with the CoLA Research Support Office to get answers a little closer to home. Often, colleges and units have additional parameters around university guidelines (See: CoLA Travel Wiki). Always check with your unit, unless you ARE the unit, then check with us. :)

With Travel, it can be tough to separate policy from process from procedure.
But we can at least help you get the answers you need.
   --if you get stuck, just holler and we'll help!

If you're dealing with domestic travel
(continental U.S, Alaska, Hawaii & U.S. territories) check out Domestic Travel Policy.

For international travel
(including Canada & Mexico) head to International Travel Policy.

The Cash Advance Desk payment team reports to the Director of UT's Tax Office because, at its heart, the Cash Advance Program is a tax consideration. 

When UT personnel are in travel status, conducting official UT business, the costs they incur and are reimbursed for are not treated as taxable income -so long as reimbursement is processed within 60 days. 

Same goes for cash advances. Because the university maintains a Cash Advance Program that is compliant with federal tax guidelines, the loans the university extends to people in official travel status are exempt from taxation -so long as reimbursement (in this case it's called reconciliation) is processed within 60 days. Click on the link above to learn more.

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