FIN 508: Travel Advances

To provide university travelers with travel advances and travel advance options

Financial Services

Individual travelers

Travel advances are available from Travel Reimbursements for employees who travel and expect to have reimbursable expenses that cannot be charged on the university-sponsored travel card or a personal credit card. When necessary, the traveler can obtain a travel advance for 100 percent of airfare and/or registration fees and 75 percent of other estimated expenses.

The preferred method of purchasing airline tickets is through use of an internal purchase order (PO) with the ASU-contracted travel agency. A traveler who chooses to make flight reservations and purchase tickets from a non-contracted agency must purchase the tickets with personal funds, a credit card, or a travel advance, and then claim reimbursement on the Travel Authorization/Claim Form. A credit card payment may, in some cases, become due before trip expenses can be claimed and/or reimbursed. In those cases, the traveler should consider using an internal purchase order to the contracted travel agency or a travel advance.

If an approved Travel Authorization/Claim form and required documentation is submitted in a timely way, advances for airfare and registration fees are issued to the traveler in time for the payment of airline tickets or registration fees, and advances for lodging, per diem, car rentals, and miscellaneous items are issued approximately one week before the time of departure. An approved Travel Authorization/Claim form and required documentation received by Travel Reimbursements less than 48 hours before the trip cannot be processed and will not result in a travel advance.

Generally, advances are not needed for in-state travel; however, if needed, an employee traveling in-state may request a travel advance by submitting an approved Travel Authorization/Claim form.

Travel advances are not issued for estimated expenses of less than $100.

Travel advances are issued by Travel Reimbursements as university checks.

Travel advances issued for authorized travel in an ensuing fiscal year are charged to the agency/org that will be paying the expense in the ensuing fiscal year when the travel claim is completed and processed.

Any unused travel advance must be repaid no later than seven work days after an employee returns from a trip. If an unused travel advance is not repaid, it is the university’s policy to seek repayment of travel advances through payroll deduction. Further travel advances may be withheld or reduced and applied to an outstanding travel advance.

The employee must mail or fax a copy of an approved Travel Authorization/Claim form to Travel Reimbursements, mail code 0301, fax 480/965–8174 for the Tempe and Polytechnic campuses, or mail code 0150, fax 480/543–6712 for the West campus (see FIN 505–01, “Out-of-State Travel Authorization”).

The employee or employee’s coworker (anyone, including a student worker, employed in the same department) must present his or her ASU ID card and pick up the travel advance checks at Travel Reimbursements.

Employee:

1. deducts advances on the “LESS TRAVEL ADVANCE” line of the Travel Authorization/Claim form
2. submits a completed Travel Authorization/Claim form (copy1) to Travel Reimbursements, along with the appropriate receipts and documentation, no later than seven work days after returning from the trip, to account for expenses

   and

3. repays any unused travel advances.

Travel Reimbursements reimburses employee for expenses, less any amounts advanced or paid directly by ASU.

For information on group travel advances, see FIN 507, “Non-Athletic Team/Group Travel.”

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