Professional Travel

Travel Expenses are highly regulated by WashU’s Travel Desk.  Read policies and access forms at Financial Services, Business Expenses

Here are a few basic guidelines:

Key Contacts

Travel expenditures questions can be presented to Patrick Holt. He can answer initial questions and consult with you ahead of travel.

From the start, make sure that your travel and the related costs are approved as expenses by a senior manager.  Please take a moment to clarify with your supervisor whether or not the trip falls under the heading of Professional Development.

Initial Expenses

Often registration fees and travel arrangements need to be paid far in advance of the actual travel to get the best deals and to secure your spot. The typical items in this category are things like conference registration, airfare, and shuttle service. There are basically two ways to get initial expenses paid:

• Pay for them with your own funds and submit the receipts for reimbursement in WorkDay — either before or after the trip.
• Have someone with a departmental procurement card pay for those items — ensuring that both traveler and ProCard holder have receipts.

Kurt Mueller has a ProCard and can manage payment on those initial expenses.  Please arrange a mutually convenient time with Kurt to attend to these items, and be certain to have the pertinent information and websites at hand.  (If he is not available, Galen Harrison will be able to assist.)

If you will be traveling internationally, you are required to register with MyTrips ahead of your departure date.  It is actually good if you do that before any purchases or expenditures occur.  https://mytrips.travelsecurity.com/Login.aspx?ci=UdEstr9t2NU%3d

Hotel Reservations

There are other items that need to be secured in advance, yet are not actually charged against the credit card until later.  Generally, lodging accommodations fall into this category. Using a ProCard is only an option for those who have a departmental ProCard assigned to them. If you are not a ProCard holder, it is required that you secure the hotel with your own credit or debit card. Workday allows flexibility on how you are reimbursed for the travel costs you have paid out of pocket. Submitting a spend authorization via Workday can be done in advance based on the estimated amount. It is the equivalent of what used to be a travel advance.

Rental car reservations or personal vehicle usage

Resource management has car rental contracts with Avis, Budget, Enterprise and National. When renting a vehicle it is important to pay attention to the rental car insurance requirements or personal car usage restrictions as required by Financial Services. Renting vehicles requires the use of the university’s auto insurance and the insurance card can be found here.

Expenses during the trip

It is essential to keep your receipts as expenses occur.  Helpful hint: keep all of your receipts in one place -a digital folder can be really helpful.  The Workday environment uses an upload feature, so you can capture a digital image via a mobile phone camera, a scan (our copiers work well for that) or a receipt that was provided digitally by the vendor. You might also want to make simple notes to jog your memory, i.e. “cab to airport”.  For conferences where meals are provided to participants, you will need to include a copy of the agenda so that it can be submitted to the travel coordinator in accounts payable with the expenses.

Make a note of all expenditures for alcohol, as this allowable expense needs to be recorded separately on the reporting according to the travel guidelines for WashU.  A list of non-reimbursable expenses is listed here: https://financialservices.wustl.edu/wfin-topic/expenses/non-reimbursable-expenses/ Please make a note of the recent change that disallows items charged to a hotel bill that was purchased from an honor bar/ mini bar.

Spend Authorization replaces Travel Advance

During your trip planning, if you find that you would like to have some funds advanced to you to cover any early expenses, Liz or Patrick can help you find that resource is in Workday. The most up-to-date guidance on how to comply on the with the University’s travel policies will be referenced.

Expense Report replaces Travel Expense Report

Travelers will use Workday to report their travel related expenditures. What used to be called a travel expense report, now falls under expense report. Liz or Patrick can help you with that process in Workday. Expenses can be added a variety of ways. For example, some travelers might want to enter some items each day whereas others might want to wait until the entire trip is concluded.

Reimbursement or Payment 

Expenditures that you pay out of your own funds will likely result in reimbursement from the University.  Those who use direct deposit for their paycheck will receive reimbursement into the same bank account via an electronic transfer.  Those who receive a printed paycheck will have a printed check for the travel reimbursement.  If the amount of the expenditures total less than the amount advanced via a Spend Authorization, then a check or money order payable to Washington University would need to submitted when the entire trip is closed out and reconciled.