Travel Best Practices

Travel Procedure – Admin Meeting 11/22/19

Travel Best Practices

 

Travel Requests:

Travel requests entered directly by an employee will be ad-hoc’d to their Admin. The Admin will add the travel # to their personal travel worksheet and follow it through to completion. They will check the request for completion and approve.

Encourage travelers to add their Admin. as a Travel Assistant in Concur (benefits of being a Travel Assistant in Concur is that we are able to go in and act on the employee’s behalf, and we will receive a copy of their airfares if they purchase them without our knowledge)

If one of our employees is invited to give a talk – lately the travel office wants an email showing the invitation attached to the request. Please email a copy of these requests to physicsbusinessoperations@osu.edu as they are not part of Travel Policy.

When to edit a previously approved travel request:

  • The travel dates have changed
  • One of the amounts has changed by such a degree that it would require an exception if we didn’t change it up front

 

Travel Comparisons:

Travelers should be adding a comment if they are taking any personal travel as part of their trip. Travel comparisons should be done up-front and attached to the travel request

 

Transportation:

  • Remember that a travel request should list all estimated costs associated with a travel, regardless of whether OSU or a third party is paying them
  • No longer put “Taxi, Uber, Lyft” in the “other” category, pick the dropdown under “Transportation”

Lodging:

  • Need to know up-front who is sharing a room with whom. This should be noted in the comments section of the Travel Request, include name and T# of person they are sharing with.
  • Air BNB – this is considered a non-standard option, problematic for a number of reasons
  • If the traveler is attending a conference, it is preferred that they get the conference rate for lodging. If they stay elsewhere – a justification for not securing the conference rate is required regardless of cost
    • You can go up to 1.5x without any additional justification
    • If you go over 1.5x the per diem rate, you need to provide a justification and comps
    • If you go one penny over the 2x per diem rate, you will need an exception

In-state travel:

  • Generally no per diem for same day travel
  • Subtract the normal daily round-trip commute from overall mileage
  • Have the traveler consider renting a car for liability reasons

Supplemental Insurance for International travel:

  • Supplemental Insurance must be purchased for all students (grad or undergrad) traveling internationally
  • Email goes out to OIA, OIA then gives the costs to us
  • Admins fill out the eRequest – use account code 64404
  • Admins then reference the PR# in the comments section of the travel request
  • Students must fill out the application themselves – direct them to https://oia.osu.edu/health-and-safety/traveler-insurance.html

 

Cash Advances:

  • Cash advances may be submitted two weeks prior to the departure date – students should follow up with Admin to submit.
  • Prepayments cannot be included in cash advance amounts. We really want to avoid the situation where travelers owe the University or OSP money. Admins should ask travelers what their actual hotel costs should be. Know what the per diem amounts allowed by the PI’s will be for the trip (full or partial). Any estimated “incidental” costs that were in the Travel Request (i.e. taxi, Uber, incidentals) should not be included in the cash advance amount.
  • BSC has been asking for prepaid CTP airfare invoices to be attached to cash advance requests, please send incidences of this to physicsbusinessoperations@osu.edu since is not part of policy.
  • Travel requests cannot simply be closed when a cash advance is involved, even if the traveler “doesn’t need reimbursement”. A Payment Request is required to document the cash advance expenses within 30 days of return date. Make sure you are tracking these travels with this date in mind.

 

Travel Reimbursements:

  • Separate any meals from registration payments, same goes for hotel receipts
  • Travelers are responsible for including their final CTP receipt with their reimbursement request, although Travel Assistants may have already gotten a copy via email at time of purchase.
  • If the reimbursement turns out to be negative (prepaid expenses reimbursed by 3rd party, cash advance higher than expenses, etc):
    • Add a comment in the payment request indicating it will be recovered after the BSC has reviewed and approved the amount.
    • Once it’s been approved – send the traveler an email letting them know the amount due should be reimbursed via check made out to “The Ohio State University”, referencing the T# in the comments and delivered directly to Keith if UNIV funds or Tanya or Jean if OSP funds. Please, no cash repayments.
    • Front office will then deposit and attach a copy of the redacted check along with the deposit slip to the travel reimbursement.

 

Third Party Payment:

  • Document all knowledge of third-party payments up front – should be in the comments. If no third-party payment is expected – a comment stating that should be in the comments
  • Admins must address third-party payment before closing a travel. If there were pre-paid expenses and the traveler is not asking for reimbursement due to third-party payment, they must provide a copy of amount of third-party payment with a breakdown of what it covers on the travel request prior to closing the travel.
  • Verify the amount and what’s included in it
  • BSC has been asking for itineraries of the trip to be attached even if paid for by third party – please send incidences of this to physicsbusinessoperations@osu.edu.