Relaunch of Travel

7-19-Relaunch-Travel-powerpoint

Dear Concur User,

In an effort to provide ongoing support to our Faculty, Staff and Students we have scheduled monthly Concur training sessions. We encourage you to take the opportunity to get a refresher or learn more about the system.

Click the links below to register for one or more training sessions based on your preference.

We have two types of trainings scheduled each month (each session is 1 hour long):

Company Billed Statements (CBS) Information Session and Demo – This session is recommended for UConn Pro-Card holders and their Preparer delegates and will go over the Pro-Card reconciliation process in Concur.

CBS – Tuesday, January 19th at 11:00 am
CBS – Monday, February 8th at 1:00 pm
CBS – Thursday, March 18th at 11:00 am
CBS – Wednesday, April 14th at 1:00 pm
CBS – Tuesday, May 4th at 11:00 am
CBS – Monday, June 4th at 1:00 pm

 Personal Car Mileage and Non-Travel Expense reports – This session is recommended for UConn Faculty, Staff and Students seeking reimbursement for UConn Business related expenses such as Personal Car mileage, Non-Travel expenses (such as virtual Conference registration fees) and out of pocket reimbursements in Concur.

Expense – Thursday, January 21st at 1:00 pm
Expense – Wednesday, February 10th at 11:00 am
Expense – Tuesday, March 16th at 1:00 pm
Expense – Monday, April 12th at 1:00 pm
Expense – Thursday, May 6th at 1:00 pm
Expense – Wednesday, June 16th at 11:00 am

As always, training documentation, videos, recordings of previous live training sessions, FAQs and other resources are available at https://travel.uconn.edu/training-and-resources/ .

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback please contact the UConn Travel Team at travel@uconn.edu

Thanks,
UConn Travel Team

Dear Colleagues,

Starting October 1, Concur will become our system for managing student travel and expense reporting. As communicated on September 14, the fiscal officer role in reviewing and approving student travel will be fundamentally unchanged by the Concur implementation. As a fiscal officer you will determine the appropriateness and budgetary capacity for applicable student pre-travel requests and will be responsible for review and approval of post-travel expense reports.

Student travel involves tax considerations specific to the student, and may be taxable to the student in certain circumstances. When travel will be conducted by a nonresident alien student, a Concur approver must complete a “Business Expense Certification” field in the travel request. Concur will prompt the approver to complete this field when required.

Fiscal officers with responsibility for reviewing and approving student travel in Concur are encouraged to attend a training session conducted by the Tax & Compliance Office. This training session will discuss the tax considerations of student travel as well as the “Business Expense Certification” field in Concur.

Concur Student Travel – Tax considerations and Business Expense Certification field guidance

Regards,

The UConn Travel Team

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to announce the launch of the student travel phase of the Concur project and to clarify the role of university fiscal officers in the system.

SAP Concur is the official university travel management and expense reporting system that went live for faculty and staff on April 22, 2020.  Student travel, at that time, remained as supported by existing systems and processes.  The project continued working with student groups and other stakeholders over the intervening period to design an implementation that would best meet the unique needs of students while preserving key parts of existing processes.  Students will be able to take full advantage of the features of the new system.  This includes, but is not limited to, automated approval workflow, use of University cards that will import nightly, and Concur mobile app for receipt capture.  The fiscal officer role will be fundamentally unchanged.  You will determine the appropriateness and budgetary capacity for applicable student pre-travel requests and will be responsible for review and approval of post-travel expense reports.

The Concur implementation of the student travel and expense reporting is tentatively scheduled to go live on 10/1/2020 pending successful testing.  Additional information regarding the implementation is available at travel.uconn.edu.

Please do not hesitate to contact travel@uconn.edu with any questions or concerns.

Dear Colleagues,

 

Per the University travel policy, approved by the Board of Trustees on April 29, 2020, travel that includes airfare, hotel, or car rental, requires a fully approved travel request in Concur prior to departing for your trip.

 

The University will now require travelers to provide a form of payment at the time of booking, rather than allowing employees to book airfare on a centrally billed card.  It is recommended that this form of payment be a University sponsored Individual Travel Card but employees can also use a personal credit card if desired.  As a reminder, expenses charged to a personal credit card will not be reimbursed until after the trip has completed.  In addition, cash advances will not be issued for airfare.

 

In order to allow for ample time to request and receive a Travel Card, the Central Airfare Card being used by our Travel Management Companies (Key Travel and Anthony Travel) will remain in place until August 1, 2020.   Any travel booked in Concur or directly with one of our Travel Management Companies after this date will require a form of payment to complete the booking.   

 

Effective immediately, Sanditz can only be used for Student and Guest Travel until we fully implement student and guest travel in Concur, expected for Fall 2020. 

 

If you have not yet applied for a University Individual Travel Card, you must complete the required trainingand then submit an application for approval.  Once the application is fully approved, it takes 7 – 10 business days for you to receive the card.  Travel Cards will be mailed to the home address you provide on your application for the time that employees are working remotely.

 

As always, please reach out to the travel team with any questions, travel@uconn.edu.  

 

Thank you.

The online portal for AAUP/OVPR Faculty Travel Funding requests is now open.  Funds can be requested for items occurring July 1 – Dec. 31, 2020.

Due to the out-of-state travel ban, and in consultation with the UConn AAUP leadership, we have established temporary, special instructions for submitting funding requests during the pandemic.

• Virtual conference or professional development:
  • You may submit a request now
  • Please type “VIRTUAL” in the Destination field.  This, combined with entering a dollar amount only in the Registration field, will serve as clear identification of this type of submission for reviewers.

• In-state conference or professional development:
  • You may submit a request now
  • Please type “In-state” along with city/state in the Destination field
• Out-of-state conference or professional development:
  • Faculty should wait to submit a request until after the travel ban has lifted.
  • Requests will not be reviewed or approved at this time

• Out-of-state essential research travel:
  • Out-of-state essential research travel must first be approved by the Office of the Provost. Each request should include an explanation of why this travel is essential at this time, and how you will ensure your safety and the safety of others in the course of your travel. Each request will be evaluated and a response will be provided.
  • Afteryou have obtained approval from the Office of the Provost, you may submit a funding request.
    • Email a copy of the Provost’s Office approval to research@uconn.edu at the same time as you submit your funding request.
  • Requests for funding for out-of-state travel without an approved exception will not be reviewed or approved.

These special temporary measures will help minimize confusion and cancellation burdens for staff and faculty.  Once the travel ban has lifted, we will send announcement that faculty may resume submitting requests as normal.

Both AAUP and OVPR pools may support virtual conferences.  The AAUP pool remains the sole source for Attendance Only, and the OVPR pool remains restricted to Active Participation (presenting current research).  Requests will continue to be reviewed in the order in which they are received, including after travel restrictions have been lifted.  Trips spanning funding periods or fiscal years will be considered part of the period or year in which the greater number of travel days occur.

Traveling further in the future?

Trips occurring…	Request window will open…
Jan. 1 – June 30, 2021	Nov. 1, 2020 (subject to change)
July 1 – Dec. 31, XXXX	June 1, 2021

Please be sure to review the OVPR’s Faculty Travel Funding Program Guidelines for:

• information about limits and how to use the awards,
• background about how requests are considered and processed,
• confirming required pre-approvals,
• requesting changes or notifying of cancellations,
• reimbursement deadlines,
• online portal access,
• and more!

Requests will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.  Due to the popularity of this program and demand exceeding supply of funds, faculty are encouraged to apply as soon as they are aware of the travel opportunity (after the travel bans have lifted).  Funds are limited, and awards are not guaranteed.

Requests should be submitted at least 10 days prior to departure to ensure adequate time for processing.  Requests submitted fewer than 10 days prior to departure may not be processed, and funding requests cannot be granted once travel has commenced.

For more information, contact: OVPR at research@uconn.edu

The University Travel policy has recently been updated.  These updates were approved by the Board of Trustees and are effective as of April 29, 2020.  The revisions to the policy were necessary to provide clarity, consistency of best practices with peer and aspirant schools, compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, and reimbursement for only reasonable and necessary expenses to accomplish the official business purpose of the trip.  Travelers are responsible for adherence to this policy. 

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to announce the official University go-live of the Concur Travel and Expense system.

As of April 22, 2020, all employees (including graduate assistants, graduate interns, and post-docs) should utilize Concur and Key Travel to book, request, and expense travel.  There is a detailed overview of this transition (cutover plan) on the Travel Website, including how you should handle travel that began before 4/22, the requirements for pre-approval for travel booked prior to 4/22, and how to utilize your Unused Ticket Credits with Sanditz.

If you have not yet applied for a University Travel Card, it is recommended that you do so as it will contribute to a more seamless travel experience.  To obtain a Travel Card you must complete the required training and then submit an application for approval.  Once the application is approved, it will take 7 – 10 business days for you to receive the card.  Because faculty and staff are working remotely due to COVID-19, travel Cards will be mailed to the home address you provide on your application.

We understand that employees are not currently travelling, but we are continuing to offer on-going support through training opportunities, the University Business Solutions Help Desk, and travel@uconn.edu.  For more information, please visit https://travel.uconn.edu/.

As this portion of the Travel and Expense project completes, we still have additional work to do.  In the coming months, you will see more communication regarding student and guest travel, duty of care for our University travelers, and using the Concur platform for your Pro-Card reconciliations.  Until such time, those activities will continue through Sanditz and/or KFS.

We would like to thank the project team, pilot participants, early adopters, and many other University constituents who provided valuable insight, feedback, ideas, and effort over the course of this project.  As always, please reach out with any comments, questions, or concerns.

Regards,

Trish Casey, CPA                                                                                                       
Associate Vice President, Financial Operations and Controller

John Clifford, Ph. D
University Director of Procurement Services

Gregory Daniels, J.D.
Interim Associate Vice President of UBS and Chief Procurement Officer

Michael Mundrane, Ph. D
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer

 

From: All UConn Employees and Graduate Students <UCONN_EMPLOYEES-L@LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU> On Behalf Of Mundrane, Michael
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 7:52 PM
To: UCONN_EMPLOYEES-L@LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU
Subject: [UCONN_EMPLOYEES-L] Concur Go-Live