Please be aware that the Travel Department has updated the Schedule of Allowable Rates to include new and changing fees airline companies, such as Delta, American and United, are charging our travelers at check-in or at the time of exchanges. 

Some important changes include:

First Checked Baggage Fee:  Beginning December 5, 2008, Delta will be charging $15 each way for the first checked bag.  Other airline companies have already implemented baggage fees.  We will reimburse the cost of one checked bag for business trips with the duration of up to 7 days with proper documentation.  Reimbursement for subsequent bags may require additional documentation and explanation.

Change Fee:  Exchange fees have been increased to $150 for domestic flights.  To avoid these change fees, the State Contracted fares may become more appropriate than non-refundable fares, check with our OnSite Agents.

“Churning:”  The airlines allow one 24 hour hold per reservation.  Additional holds on the same reservation are referred to as “churning,” and the airlines are beginning to enforce their rules and are assessing penalty fees of $50 per segment.  The reservation system does not have adequate tools to help us detect prior holds, so we will rely upon the Travel Planners to tell us if a reservation has been previously held, and we will require confirmation if the itinerary still meets the travelers needs.  Penalties for “churning” will be passed on to the department.

Please refer to the Schedule of Allowable Rates for changes as they occur, and as always, our OnSite Agents are our best resource for appropriate business decisions as they relate to airfare.  You may reach our agents with either the new “Ask Us Form,” the “Reservation Request Form,” or when the department is ready to book a ticket, the “Reservation Confirmation Form.”

A new WEB Server now hosts the University Financial Applications (Management Reports, Chartfield Lookups, etc.). This change should be transparent to the End-User.

Please contact someone in Financial and Business Services immediately if you experience any problems. 

Two new FORMS pages have been added to the FBS web presence.  This will enable visitors to have access to all the FBS forms in one place.  The forms are sorted alphabetically and by department.  A FORMS link on the top row of the FBS website has been added.  This will make it easy to find the form you need especially if you are not sure which department to look in for that form.  This is similar to the FORMS pages in the FBS pagelet in CIS.  On September 15, 2008, the FORMS links on the FBS pagelet will be changed to direct users to the new FBS FORMS pages.

Due to rising fuel costs, the IRS has increased the mileage rate to 58.5 cents per mile for business related private automobile expenses incurred after July 1, 2008.  Please refer to the Schedule of Allowable Rates.

During the normal course of business, airfare tickets are exchanged for a different flight time or date, or may even go unused if the trip is cancelled.  Airfare changes or cancellations often result in an airline credit that must be used within one year of issue.  The onsite agents provide all necessary information for the travel planner to “cash in” the value of an airline credit.  Departments must keep track of their own airline credits and redeem them with the next business trip taken by the passenger.  To avoid forfeiture of these credits, unclaimed airline credits and unused tickets issued by our office will be taken as an institutional credit within 10 days of the expiration date.

The IRS has announced a new standard mileage rate effective January 1, 2008.  You may reimburse your travelers 50.5 cents per mile for business miles driven using a private auto.  This rate was increased from the 2007 rate of 48.5 cents per mile.

All Financial WEB systems will be unavailable this Sunday, November 4, 2007, from 2:00 AM until approximately noon. This includes the WEB Management Reports and other Financial links located on the Financial & Business Services Pagelet of the CIS.

Beginning October 1, 2007, Travel Accounting will begin implementing business procedures to more fully comply with the IRS rule which requires travelers to substantiate (close) all open University trips within 60 days of completion of a trip.

We will not be able to accept paper forms after this date, if you need to attend training to gain access to the Travel Online System, please register for our training course.

If an employee-traveler does not file the required paperwork within 60 days, the amount of the Total Prepaid Expenses may be deducted from the employee’s paycheck.

It is our intent to make this implementation run as smoothly as possible over the next several months. Please be assured we will not deduct expenses from the traveler’s paycheck unless we have been unable to obtain the proper substantiation from that traveler.

We use the data within our system to send notifications to the department regarding which trips are subject to this action. So many of you will begin to see emails addressed to both the traveler as well as the preparer of the travel documents.

To “close” trips where there are prepaid expenses, (airfare, conference fees, hotel, cash advances, or early reimbursements) a Final Reimbursement request should be submitted with proper signatures and original receipts.

To “close” cancelled trips, submit the required information on the Close a Cancelled Trip Form.

To avoid notifications to the traveler regarding the 60 Day Rule, submit either the Final Reimbursement or the Cancelled Trip form within 20 days of the return date.

If you would like more information regarding how to close an open trip, or what is required for substantiation, please refer to the FAQ information published on our web page.

Attention Travel Planners:

We have received several questions regarding payment of expenses on behalf of visitors to the University.  If your department intends to prepay the expenses for a visitor, use Travel paperwork, not Limited Purchase Orders, and please keep in mind the following:

1. Airfare:  Refundable fares may be most appropriate, these fares must be booked by our onsite agents.  Please use the Reservation Request form.
2. Lodging: Follow the instructions posted on the visitor web page.  We recommend use of the University Guest House whenever possible.
3. If you anticipate you will be reimbursing the visitor for any out of pocket expenses, you may want to initiate creation of the Vendor Number in advance using the Visitor Vendor Add form.

Please direct any questions regarding these procedures to the Travel Office, 581-7142.

Financial & Business Services Organizational Changes

We recently welcomed a new staff member into our midst – Theresa Ashman, as our Controller/Director of Financial Management. Theresa comes to us from Purdue University where she held a variety of financial administration positions over the past 14 years. We look forward to working with her.

We’ve taken this opportunity to examine our organizational structure and have made some additional changes that we hope will better align our personnel strengths with our mission, vision, and values statements.

Some individuals have been asked to take on additional duties, and others to change either their focus or reporting responsibilities.

Personnel assignment and reporting changes are as follows:

• Kori DeHaan has been given additional responsibilities and now reports directly to Jeffrey West. Kori’s new title is “Manager - Travel, Training & Policy Coordination.”
• Laura Howat has been given additional responsibilities and will continue reporting to the Controller. Income Accounting and Accounts Payable now report directly to Laura. Laura’s new title is “Associate Director – Accounting Operations & Controls.”
• Barbara Nielsen now reports to the Controller, and has been given a new title, “Associate Director - Compliance Accounting & Reporting.” Property Accounting now reports directly to Barbara.
• Jim Parker has been given additional responsibilities. The Support Service Units (Stores/Receiving, Surplus & Salvage, and Central Mail) now report directly to Jim.
• Dave Heaps, Manager of Investment & Endowment Accounting, now reports to the Controller.

Unit name changes taking place in connection with this organizational realignment:

• Purchasing becomes Procurement & Supply Management (Jim Parker)
• Financial Information Services becomes Financial Solutions (Dean Church)
• Governmental Accounting becomes Management Accounting & Analysis (David Beckstrom)
• Research Accounting becomes Grants & Contracts Accounting (Gary Gledhill)

For an overall visual representation of the new Financial & Business Services organization, please view our organizational chart at this link: http://fbs.admin.utah.edu/index.php/home/home-organizational-chart/