Travel Authorization Document (TA)

1. Travel Authorization Document (TA) Information Technology Services http://www.nau.edu/its

2. Lesson objectives By completing this lesson, you will learn: • How travel processing works in Advantage 3 • The purpose of the TA document • Required fields for processing a TA Document • Validating and Submitting a TA document

3. Travel Processing in Advantage 3 • Advantage 3 uses two documents for recording travel activities: • Travel Authorization (TA) documents are recorded prior to the trip to encumbering travel funds, reimburse expenses already incurred, and to extend cash advances. • Travel Payment (TP) documents are recorded after the trip to record actual travel expenses. • TA documents are copied forward to TP documents to record actual travel expenses. Vendor and certain accounting line information is copied to the TP document and references are created back to the TA document • Cash Advances require exception to policy approval. If entered on a TA document, they become due from the employee when the trip ends, and are automatically deducted from any employee reimbursement through Advantage.

4. What is a TA document? The TA document creates a record within Advantage authorizing an employee to incur travel expenses while traveling on NAU business. • The TA document has a header section and four detail sections • Vendor lines are added for NAU employees and any external vendors requiring payment prior to trip taking place. • Travel Information lines are entered for one or more travel locations. • Travel Expense lines are entered for estimated travel expenses, pre-travel expenses and cash advances. • Accounting lines are entered to record estimated/actual travel expenses to the appropriate budgetary spending unit (Dept/Unit).

5. Header • Lists general information associated with the TA document.. • Bank Code – Bank code “10” should be entered on all TA documents • Type of Advance – Only one expense type is allowed “Temporary out of state travel advance”.

6. Vendor • Insert New Line - To open up page for input of required fields. • Vendor Customer - The unique identifier assigned to the vendor (Peoplesoft Emplid for employees). • Address Code - The Address Code or ID given to a unique address for a vendor. The address code will automatically infer the default address if a selection in not made.

7. Travel Information • Insert New Line - To open up page for input of required fields. • Enter the Travel start and end dates • Enter Purpose of Travel from dropdown list • Destination – enter the travel destination code(s). Advantage destination codes correspond to the State of Arizona’s lodging and per diem rates by key destination cities. • Refer to the Comptroller’s Web site Travel Policy 501-01 Decentralized Travel Policy Overview for links to determine lodging rates, per diem rates and to look up counties. • Refer to the following schedule for determining the allowable lodging and per diem rates: http://www4.nau.edu/comptr/docs/SAAM-2d06-20041216.pdf • Travel destinations are broken out by state and county. To find the county of a particular populated place, visit the website at: County Lookup • Mode of Transportation – select the appropriate mode of transportation from dropdown list.

8. Travel Expenses • Insert New Line - To open up page for input of required fields. Multiple lines can be entered using insert new line or copy and paste new line. • Date – This field indicates the date for anticipated expenses for the travel advance. • Expense Type – enter the appropriate expense type. • Encumbrance – select this value to enter total estimated travel expenses less pre-travel reimbursement. • Pre-Travel reimbursement – select this value to reimburse employees for travel expenses already incurred, or to prepay an external vendor for travel expenses (e.g., registration fees). • Cash Advance – select this value if a cash advance is authorized – requires an exception to policy. • Estimated Expense – enter total travel expense amounts (estimated or actual) per expense type, in the estimated expense fields.

9. Accounting • Insert New Line -- To open up page for input of required fields. Multiple lines can be entered by inserting new lines or copy and pasting lines. • Event Type - The alpha-numeric identification code assigned to an event type. Three Event Types are available: TR01 – Encumber travel expenseTR02 – Pre-Travel ReimbursementXTR5 – Cash Advance • Accounting Template - The unique identification code assigned to the accounting template.  Accounting templates are used to bring in chart of account element codes for ease of data entry on documents. • Line Description – required description of accounting line (e.g. encumber hotel expense, reimburse registration fee, etc.). • Line Amount - The amount of estimated or actual travel expense • Fund Accounting – Object/sub-object codes associated with the expenditure.

10. Course summary Validating and Submitting a TA document How travel processing works in Advantage 3 Required fields for processing a TA Document The purpose of the TA document