Travel FAQs

computer helpMany of the questions that are included in this section were received during the travel program pilot phase.

If you do not see an answer to your question here, please contact your campus or Statewide Travel Administration . We will continue to add questions and answers to this section as they arise.

 

Concur

Concur is a user-friendly web-based travel and expense system that integrates the travel request (authorization), booking, expense report, reimbursement and card reconciliation processes. Concur also provides cutting-edge tools for on-the-go trip management as well as a robust reporting system. 

 

  • Request - travel authorization.
  • Travel - book airfare, hotel and car rentals.
  • Expense - reconcile transactions and submit expense report.
  • Mobile apps - used to help manage bookings, itineraries, expense reports, flight schedules and receipts images.
  • Travel card transactions are integrated with concur and reconciled through Expense.

 

You can access the Concur login page from the Concur link on this website menu. The url is www. alaska.edu/concur

Use your Single Sign On (SSO) login in credentials with the university to access the site. You use your SSO credentials to sign into your university computer and email.

 

Concur should work with all current browsers.

If you are trying to access reporting through concur, this can only be done with Internet Explorer.

 

The university recommends that you take one of your campus traveler training sessions.  If you are unable to attend a traveler training session, contact your campus travel administration for guidance.  Your travel coordinator can also be a great resource.

We recommend that you set up your Concur Profile before creating a Request or booking travel.

 

Once you have signed into Concur, you should see a profile icon and menu option in the upper right hand corner of your screen.  When you select the profile option, you should get a dropdown menu with the option "Profile Settings".

You can update your personal information, frequent flier details, travel preferences, expense preferences, delegate assignments and default UA Travel Card information in the profile section.

 

Yes, you can designate a delegate in Concur under your profile.  The Travel Coordinator for your department commonly acts as a delegate for your department's travelers.

A delegate can create and submit a request, monitor the approval process, book travel, and create the expense report for the traveler.

The traveler must submit the expense report.

 

Concur needs to be used to submit your Request and Expense Report. It is recommended that Concur also be used to book your airfare since we only have access to the State of Alaska Contract Rates when booking through Concur.

The university travel regulations state that "the traveler shall use the travel and expense management system to submit the travel request and make reservations to realize university negotiated benefits/discounts, provide electronic records and expedite reimbursements." (R05.02.060(6.b))

 

Concur Expense (Expense Report)

Go to Request>Manage Requests and select the "Expense" link in the Action column on the right side of the page.  This will autopopulate many of the details from the request into the expense report so you do not need to enter them again.

 

 

When you purchase an airline ticket through Concur Travel, the expense will feed into your Concur Account and be viewable in your list of available expenses.

It is best to process the expense for the original ticket at the time that the credit is used.

If the same traveler uses the credit, they can assign the original ticket expense to an expense report until it is time to process the expense report for the trip where the credit is used. 

If the credit needs to be used by a different traveler, please contact Statewide to reassign the original charge.  

Note that the expense will not hit Banner until the expense report is processed. If the expense is transferred to a new traveler, the expense report will be processed with the new travelers department funding information.  The original traveler will not see the expense hit their department.

 

Yes, if you book your airfare through Concur Travel, an electronic receipt should feed to your concur account with the transaction amount. 

 

If you book your hotel through the Concur Travel and pay for it with a UA Travel card, an electronic receipt should feed to your Concur account with the transaction amount.

Other vendors, like Uber, have a business relationship with Concur so you can take steps to receive electronic receipts from these vendors.  A list of Concur vendors that provide e-receipts can be found at this link.

 

Receipts are required for all travel expenses except per diem. 

 

Receipts are required for all travel expenses except per diem.

There is a lost receipt allowance of $75 for all expense types except hotel, rental car and airfare. If you lose your hotel, rental car, or airfare receipt, you will need to work with the vendor to get a replacement.

 

After the Expense Report has been approved the Request needs to be closed out. The reasons Request need to be closed out are:

  • To keep additional Expense Reports from being generated from that Request.
    • If a Request was closed out by accident or if another Expense Report needs to be created for this trip, the Request can be reopened by your Travel Office.
  • To keep the Active Request list reduced to Requests where the trip hasn’t taken place yet or an Expense Report hasn’t been completed.
  • To keep the Concur Report “Request Encumbrance” limited to trips that still need a completed Expense Report. 
  • There are two ways to accomplish this:  Step-by-Step Instructions

 

Concur Request (Authorization)

No, the estimated trip cost will not be encumbered in Banner.

Instead, you will be able to view these details in an encumbrance report.

This report can be generated by individuals with a Concur reporting license. If you don't have a reporting license please reach out to your campus Travel Administrators.

The goal is to also have this report also available through UAOnline and Vista Plus. 

 

After your expense report for a trip has been processed, you can change the status of the associated request.  This should be done so that the estimated trip amount does not show up on the encumbrance report.

 

You can select the request that you would like to Close/Inactivate under Request>Manage Requests in Concur.  Once the request has been selected you should see the option "Close/Inactivate Request" in the top right corner of the page.  

 

Under Request/Manage Requests in Concur, select the dropdown menu option "View".  You can choose to see closed/inactivated, canceled, and other request types from the list. 

 

Concur Travel (Booking)

Fly America compliantflight options have an icon of a shield and

 check mark that can be seen above the view fares button.  A list of Concur icons can be seen at the this link.

 

At what point does the rental car reservation and the hotel reservation get booked?

Go into the Travel section of Concur. Open your Trip Library. You should see a list of your trips.  If the trip has not happened yet, you will have a "cancel trip" link in the action column on the far right.

1) If the whole trip is on a rural carrier, the trip can be booked through the CTM Rural Online Request tool.

2) If part of your trip can be booked through Concur Travel, review the documentation at this link to learn how to ensure two bookings are merged into one itinerary.

3) To add a rural booking to an already completed reservation,  use the CTM Rural Online Request tool and make a note to the agent about the two bookings needing to be merged into one itinerary. 

4) As always, you can contact CTM directly for assistance. 

 

Corporate Travel Management (CTM)

CTM is basically the travel agency that the University of Alaska and the State of Alaska use to manage the purchase the of airfare, make rental car and hotel reservation, book rural travel, and support our travelers.

CTM manages the travel booking options in Concur. The rates that a visible are based on State of Alaska contract rates and industry standards.  All travel options that you would be able to see through other travel websites should be visible.

 

Yes, you can make changes directly with the airline that you are traveling with. 

Some changes, like seat selection, can be made through the airline website. Other changes, like trip routing, will need to be made by calling the airline.

CTM is available if you need additional help that the airline can not provide.

 

General phone #: 907-786-0107

Toll Free #: 833-500-4292 (24 hour service)

email: ua@travelctm.com

 

$18 - Full touch fee is associated with services that are provided over the phone like making a booking or changing a ticket.

$19 - Research fee is associated with services like CTM generating a business trip comparison.

 

Yes, if you include anything in the "Notes to Agent" section of your Concur travel booking, the university is charged a $10 partial touch fee.  At this time, the traveler and their department are not responsible for these types of charges.

Please do not use this field unless an agents assistance is required.

It is important to note that the university is charged the $10 fee even for comments like, "Booked rental car outside Concur".  An agent is prompted to review the booking details when anything is added to this section.

 

Email Notifications

You receive this email notification when a card charge has been sitting in your available expenses in Concur for more than 15 days.

This typically occurs when airfare is purchased more than 15 days in advance, but it can also occur if charges on your UA travel card go unassigned. 

To stop receiving notifications about the unassigned charge, go into concur and assign the charges to an expense report.  Do not submit the expense report until the trip is completed and you have all the related expenses in Concur.

All expense reports that have not been submitted will appear in the open reports sections of Concur.

 

Inter-Campus Travel

The typical example of intercampus travel is when an employee from one campus has their travel expenses (or part of their travel expenses) paid by another campus.

 

The normal approval workflow will still occur for this travel. For general funds, the employee’s supervisor is the approver; and for restricted funds, the cost object approver is the approver. The employee’s campus processor completes the final approval of the expense report.

Additional approvers can be added. It’s recommended that expense reports that include another campus’s funding get approved by the appropriate expenditure authority. This approval could be an email in the backup documentation.  It is not the processor’s responsibility to route expense reports to another campus for additional approvals.

 

The employee or their delegate are responsible for arranging the travel; however, the department travel coordinators may arrange to have the other campus help with some of the travel arrangements. These types of arrangements can be made at the discretion of those involved.

 

Lodging

If you pay for your lodging with the UA Tavel Card, which is university paid, you should receive the tax exempt status in-state.

It is best to communicate the university's tax exempt status when you check in at the hotel.  If you notice on your receipt that you were charged taxes, please contact the hotel to have it corrected.  Your Travel Coordinator can help with this.  Contact your campus Travel Administrator or Statewide if the hotel will not reverse the taxes.

 

The university of Alaska should receive the tax exempt rate in the State of Alaska.  If you have problems receiving this, please use the documentation on our credit card page (under Tax Exempt Documentation) to provide details to the vendor.

 

Meals

Per diem rates will automatically populate in Concur. Rates are based  on the Federal Per Diem Rates, except for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and their surrounding communities within a 50 mile radius.

Per diem rate for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and their surrounding communities are set by the University President.

Employees and students that are using Concur for travel will use the new travel regulation per diem rate in these cities.  The new regulation per diem rate is $70 for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and their surrounding communities within a 50 mile radius.

After November 1, 2019, the entire University will move to the new regulations and will start using the $70 per diem rate for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and their surrounding communities.

 

Instead of basing per diem on time in travel status, the system will simply calculate the first and last days of per diem at 75% of per diem.

The first day is calculated based on where you sleep on the first night of business. The last day of per diem is based where you slept the last night of business.

 

Yes, you can be reimbursed for actual meal costs up to the per diem rate for that location. Receipts are required for actual meal reimbursements. Note that receipts are not required for per diem.

 

This is based on Federal M&IE Breakdown

M&IE Total Breakfast Lunch Dinner Incidentals First and last day
$55 $13 $14 $23 $5  $41.25
$56 $13 $15 $23 $5  $42.00
$61 $14 $16 $26 $5  $45.75
$66 $16 $17 $28 $5  $49.50
*$70 $16 $17 $32 $5 $52.50
$71 $17 $18 $31 $5 $53.25
$76 $18 $19 $34 $5 $57.00

*The $70 rate has been established by the University President for Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and their surrounding communities.

 

Mileage Reimbursement

This type of reimbursement does not need to go through Concur.  Please fill out the Mileage Reimbursement Form and work with your Accounts Payable office to receive the reimbursement.

 

Mobile Apps

 

 

 

Personal Travel

Because university employees receive State of Alaska contract rates when booking travel through Concur, travel that includes personal days can only be booked through Concur if it is an extended stay at the business or intermediate location.

If the traveler would like to go to a separate location for personal reasons, they should book the trip to the separate location outside Concur.  It is not appropriate to ask a university travel coordinators to help with personal travel to a non-business location.

In either case, when business travel includes personal travel, a business only cost comparison is required.  This should be obtained at the same time that the business/personal trip is booked.  It needs to be attached to the Request for travel authorization.  If a business comparison is not provided, our travel agency (CTM) will generate an business only cost comparison and the associated fees will be paid by the traveler.

 

Rental Car

Yes, rental cars can be reserved through the Concur booking tool.  A UA travel card is not needed to make the car reservation.

It is important to note that the reservation is made as soon as the option is selected.  If the airfare portion is canceled before the booking is completed, it will not cancel the rental car reservation.

 

Go to Travel>Upcoming Trips in Concur.  Select Cancel under the action column for the trip that you would like to cancel.

You can rent a car in the economic, compact, midsized, standard or full size classes.

If you need a higher class such as an SUV or 4WD, a justification is required.

 

Travel Account Codes

Yes, the account codes for travel completed in concur will be different from the account codes previously used in TEM and for paper travel.  

 

No, the account code is applied based on three fields that are completed in Concur. These three fields are Trip Purpose, Trip Type and Traveler Type. 

 

Domestic and Alaska travel account codes start with 21XX

Canadian and International travel account codes start with 23XX

Trip Purpose Acct Code Notes
Administrative Activities 2X21 Use this for administrative activities (related to the running of the unit, department, project, or program). for the University or for University programs or projects involving research, instruction, public service or other institutional activities. EXAMPLE: You are a State-wide employee traveling to Anchorage to meet with HR staff at UAA about benefit rates.
Athletic Team Travel 2X40 Use this for athletic team travel. EXAMPLE:  You are a ladies volleyball coach traveling to Montana for a tournament with your team.
Instruction to UA Students 2X60 Use this for UA instructional delivery by University faculty or staff to University students. EXAMPLE: You are a faculty member traveling to the Kuskokwim campus to teach a class.
Lobbying 2190 Use this for influencing legislators or agencies in pursuing policies or programs favorable to the University. EXAMPLE: You are traveling to Juneau to represent the University at an Alaska Senate budget hearing.
Multi-Purpose Trip   Use the “Multi-Purpose” selection if your trip involves more than one of the activities listed on the previous pages. Then assign the correct trip purpose to each expense in the expense report. EXAMPLE: You traveled to a workshop to train for working on unmanned aircraft, then you went to the field to conduct a mapping study. The expenses for the workshop days would be “Professional Development/Training” and the expense for the field work days would be “Research/Program Activities.
Professional Development/Training 2X30 Use this for attending professional conferences, workshops, seminars, trainings and other educational programs for the purpose of job enrichment, career or staff development. EXAMPLE: You are a facilities employee traveling to a training for coal plant managers.
Recruitment of Employees 2452 Use this for travel intended to recruit employees. EXAMPLE: You are a member of a hiring committee that must travel to conduct a hiring interview OR you are a prospective candidate traveling to Alaska to interview for a position.
Recruitment of Students 2440 Use this for travel intended to recruit students. EXAMPLE: You are traveling to high schools in the Salem, OR area to convince students to enroll in UAF.
Research/Program Activities 2X25 Use this for travel that involves research or program activity, including meetings, field work, maintenance or repairs, attending workshops, conferences, and seminars to present research or provide information about the project. EXAMPLE 1: You are traveling to a remote field site to collect samples for your research project. EXAMPLE 2: You work for Facilities and you must repair a boiler in Bethel. EXAMPLE 3: You are a cooperative extension agent giving a canning workshop to local residents.
Student Travel 2X70 Use this for non-employee students traveling for the purpose of instruction, including workshops, internships, student teaching, conferences, non-athletic competitions, and seminars. EXAMPLE: You are a student in the math program traveling to a scholastic math competition.
Other 2x21 Use this only if your travel does not fit in any of the other purpose types. This will be reviewed and changed by the UAF Travel Auditor as needed when the expense report is processed.

 

Yes, the following account codes are assigned through Concur when one of the associated Expense Types is selected.

Expense Type Account Code
Dispute/Fraud 0611
Lift Tickets 3991
Membership 3662
Printing/Copying 3332
Race/Meet Fees 3991
Recruiting Package/Entry Fees 2440
Registration 3661
Representational Allowance 8115
Shipping/Freight 3351
Space Rental (short term) 3118
Supplies 4015
Taxable Mileage 2080

 

Travel Card

The card applications for each campus can be found at this link.

You will need to send the application to your supervisor for approval.

It will then go to your campus Card Program Administrator for final approval.

 

The UA Travel Card may be used for travel related expenditures incurred for the purpose of conducting university business.  Typical purchase on the UA Travel Card include:

  • Airfare
  • Lodging
  • Car rentals, including related gasoline and other expenses.
  • Parking
  • Ground Transportation
  • Meals
  • Conference fees

 

All employees who travel on university business or pay for university travel related expenses are eligible to use a UA Travel Card. This includes student employees but does not include students who are not employees.

Travelers can start using the UA Travel Cards once they start processing their travel through Concur.

 

Once the application is completed, the card takes about 5 business days to arrive.

It will be shipped to your campus Card Program Administrator. They will contact you when it arrives.

 

Contact your campus Card Program Administrator.

A higher limit will need to be approved by a Fiscal Manager in your department.

 

A university paid card program is being recommended because it reduces or eliminates the financial burden for the travelers that use the program (all travel related expenses can be charged to the card). Travelers will receive tax exempt rates in state and they will be able to reconcile their travel expenses with their card transaction in one platform (Concur). 

The implementation of concur integrates the travel expense reimbursement process with the travel card reconciliation process and will limit potential misuse.  

Travel card transactions will be tied to each traveler in concur where they can be matched to the exact expense on the expense report.

The reporting functions in Concur provide transparency about the charges that remain outstanding/unassigned.  

It is highly recommended that all employees use the UA Travel Card for their travel related expenses. 

There are many benefits to the new travel card program that will save the university money and reduce the administrative time needed to process travel. 

Because transactions feed directly into Concur and auto-populate fields on the expense report, we have heard many reports from traveler and Travel Coordinators about the time they are saving.

These two travel cards options will no longer be used. The new UA Travel Card will replace the previously used travel cards.

If you currently use a Department Travel Card or an Individual Travel Card, your account(s) will not be closed until you have transitioned to the new UA Travel Card and have started using Concur.

 

Travel coordinators/Delegates will still be able to assist travelers with submitting the travel request, making reservations and completing the expense report.

Airfare booked through Concur or with the travel agency will be charged to a Travel Agency Card.

Travel Coordinators will see efficiencies due to airfare estimates/comparisons, requests, booking and expense reports being handled within a single platform/tool.

Charges on the UA Travel Card will be reconciled by creating/submitting the expense report within Concur.

 

Under a UA Travel Card program, the cardholder must account for every card charge (charges cannot be deleted).

With reporting from Concur, the University can easily identify the status (unassigned/outstanding, submitted/in process or processed) and purpose of those charges (if assigned to an expense report).

 

JP Morgan Fraud Numbers:

USA/Canada 800-316-6056

International 847-488-3748

UA Contact: Alison Hayden

abhayden@alaska.edu

907-450-8060

 

After you report the fraudulent charge to JP Morgan, they should credit your card the full amount.  Sometimes they will process the credit on your replacement card.  Either way, you will end up with a charge and a credit for the amount in the list of your expenses to process in concur.

When you assign the charge and the credit to an expense report, select the expense type "Dispute/Fraud". When the expense report is submitted and approved, the fraudulent activity will be cleared from your Concur account and post to Banner.

 

Overall the administrative effort should be reduced. As travelers use the program, there is less data entry required on the expense report (by the traveler or delegate) as many fields will be pre-populated with the credit card data.

Reconciliation at the cardholder level should also be less effort because all that will be needed is to tie the card transactions to the expense report.

Statewide Finance will complete the monthly general ledger reconciliation.

Email reminders can be configured in Concur to communicate with the traveler regarding outstanding (unassigned or unsubmitted) charges. Reporting from Concur can also be used from an administrative aspect to identify the specific traveler(s) with outstanding charges for more targeted communications.

 

Should a traveler use the corporate card for personal reasons, the first attempt at repayment will be from an automatic deduction on the expense report.

If the traveler owes more than the cash/out-of-pocket expenses on the report (i.e. per diem), the remaining funds owed to the University would be repaid through a payroll deduction.

For example, if the traveler had $50 in personal spend on the card, but had $100 in cash/out-of-pocket expenses (per diem, mileage, etc.), the traveler would be paid $50.

If the traveler had $125 in personal spend on the card and $100 in cash/out-of-pocket expenses, the traveler would have $25 deducted from their payroll.

 

Travel Card Application

The card applications for each campus can be found at this link.

Please note that this is a 'secure link', which means you need to be on campus or using VPN to access the application. If you need a direct application link, please contact your campus card administrator.

 

The orgn code is part of your department's funding information.  Travelers will not always know this information so the field is enterable for the traveler but required for the supervisor.  Please contact a fiscal person in your department to learn more.

 

The orgn field dropdown only lists a couple hundred orgns but it does not list every orgn for the university.  As you start typing your department's orgn into the field, the options will  be filtered to match the numbers that are entered.  If you do not see your department's orgn after typing the entire number into the field please contact your campus card administrator.

 

All cards are delivered to your campus travel card administrator so that they can verify that you have received training before getting your card. 

Please enter your department address or an address you will remember into the Delivery Address fields.  This will be the address that you may need to occasionally provide at the point of sale.  It is also the billing address that you will need to enter in your Concur profile.

 

No, the application only requires that you enter the last 4 digits of your social security information.  It is only used for security purposes.  When you activate your card or if you call JP Morgan for assistance, you will be prompted to enter the last 4 digits of your social security number.