A state agency/institution of higher education must minimize the amount of travel expenses reimbursed by ensuring that each travel arrangement is the most cost-effective considering all relevant circumstances. Texas Government Code Section 660.007.

Travel expenses incurred on behalf of the university and submitted for payment should be reasonable, necessary, and appropriate for the account being charged as determined by the department head or designee.

All travel must be approved prior to travel and provide a business purpose and benefit to Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Travel Requests are submitted and approved through Concur and are required to be documented in the Concur Expense Report.

International Travel Requests must be submitted and approved via Concur at least 30 days prior to departure.

Failure to obtain Concur travel request approval prior to departure, may result in disallowed travel expenses and you having to reimburse the University for those expenses.

A TAMUK employee is considered to be on travel status when a travel request has been submitted and approved through Concur, and the employee is off-campus and out of town, conducting university business. Revised August 2016

Prior to Travel

1. Apply for the University Liability Travel Card
2. Update Concur Profile
   • Travel preferences
   • Travel arrangers and expenses delegates
   • University Liability Travel Card
   • E-Receipt registration
   • Concur Mobile/Expenselt app registration
3. Obtain approval to travel through Concur

Booking Travel

1. Understand funding sources
   • State funds are restrictive when compared to local funds
   • Research funds may have further restrictions when compared to local and/or state funds.
2. Ensure travel arrangements comply with university travel guidelines
3. Secure travel arrangements
   • Concur is the preferred method of booking:
     1. Traveler can book, or;
     2. Request your travel arranger to book the travel
   • Option to book directly with travel providers
4. Payment options to secure travel arrangements
   • University Travel Card (preferred):
     1. In employee's name
     2. University paid
     3. Most efficient process
   • Out of pocket (least preferred):
     1. Will not be reimbursed until after travel has occurred and expense report processed in Concur.

During Travel

1. Ensure any purchases made comply with university travel guidelines
2. Obtain vendor receipts for expenses requiring receipts
   • Receipt must be itemized
3. Capture receipt images using the Concur App to automatically generate expense line items in Expense Report, or use your phone's camera to capture those individual meal receipts that will be submitted separate from Concur.

After Travel

1. Create Expense Report if not already created prior to or during travel.
2. Assign travel card transactions to Expense Report within 30 days of transaction post date. Transactions could be assigned prior to travel (e.g. airfare, registration, hotel deposit), during travel, or after travel, but must be assigned to an expense report no later than 60 days from the post date.
3. Submit Expense Report with required receipts/substantiation within 30 days of travel end date.
4. No later than 90 days - After 90 days, travel expenses will be considered taxable income for the employee.

Itemized vendor receipts are required in Concur for all travel expenses, except individual meal expenses. The individual meal receipts must be kept separately from Concur and presented to the department, if requested.

In the event the itemized vendor's receipt is not available, all elements required on a particular receipt are still necessary to document the expenditure appropriately, according to state of Texas and IRS guidelines. A Document in Lieu of Missing Receipt Form is available from Travel Services upon request and will serve to document the expenditure appropriately. This document requires signature approval up to the VP level.

If a traveler combines personal travel with official state business travel, the traveler is only allowed reimbursement amounts that fall under the Textravel Chapter 660 of the Texas Government Code. Meals, lodging, or car rental that was incurred on personal days cannot be reimbursed or paid. Travel expenses for spouses or family members cannot be reimbursed or paid on university accounts, unless spouse or family is enrolled in a University program.

Overnight meal and lodging expenses incurred while traveling to and staying at a duty point the day before and/or the day after official State of Texas business begins/ends at the duty point are reimbursable. Overnight meal and lodging expenses incurred while traveling to and staying at a duty point for more than one day before official state business begins at the duty point are not reimbursable unless the expenses are incurred to qualify for a discount airfare, or traveling to the duty point reasonably requires more than one day and the expenses are reimbursable.

A state employee who uses a rented motor vehicle for both personal business and official state business may be reimbursed only for the portion of the rental charges that is attributable to official state business. A state employee may not be reimbursed for the rental of a motor vehicle if the rental was necessary only because because the employee combined personal business with state business. If the vehicle is rented using a University Travel Card, only university employees are authorized to operate that rental vehicle.

The university travel card must not be used to fund any costs related to the personal portion of the trip.

Personal charges on travel cards are not allowed and should not be intentionally put on travel cards. Personal charges should be paid out of pocket.

Examples of Unallowable/Personal charges include, but are not limited to -

• Overages on Meal allowable rates at travel destination
• State Hotel Occupancy Tax or State Motor Vehicle Rental Tax that was not credited by vendor
• Entertainment expenses, including optional events/tours for extra charge

In these cases, as well as others, travelers will mark any personal charges as “Unallowable” on the Expense Report.  The Unallowable Charge checkbox was intended to be rarely used, and only when it was truly unintentional or unavoidable.

Any unallowable expense is due immediately.  The cardholder must reimburse the University upon return from trip or immediately upon knowledge of error.  

Contact travel@tamuk.edu for assistance.

Texas A&M University System has contracted with Concur to provide travelers with a best-in-class end to end travel solution. The Software as a Service solution will allow organizations to book travel and track expenses from booking to reimbursement. To learn about Concur, click here.

It is a requirement that all travel expenditures be processed via Concur's expense report module/process. It is preferred that all travel bookings/reservation be made in Concur's Travel booking module, but not required.

Corporate Travel Planners is Texas A&M's contracted and preferred travel agent. Please note that, if booking outside of Concur through another travel agent, the services provided and pricing has to be equal to or less than our contracted provider. Conservation of funds policy, as stated in the general section, also applies to travel agent fees and would be considered an audit finding on state accounts if paying more than the contracted rate with Corporate Travel Planners (CTP).

CTP Contact Information

Full Service    Toll Free - 866-901-3377    Local - 210-524-3391

Email    TAMUtravel@ctp-travel.com

Online Help Desk - 877-727-5188

Group / Study Abroad    Toll Free - 800-810-2695    Email groups@ctptravelservices.com

Athletics    Toll Free - 800-810-2695    Email athletics@ctptravelservices.com

 

All expenses must be adequately accounted for within 90 days or the expenses will be reported as taxable income to the employee and the travel card suspended.

This policy has been implemented to meet the "reasonable period of time" in the IRS accountable plan. Expenses that fall within the IRS accountable plan are not reported as taxable income to the employee.

IRS Accountable Plan

• expenses must have a business connection
• must adequately account for these expenses within a reasonable period of time
• must return any excess reimbursement or allowance within a reasonable period of time

Travel

Submission of expense report within 90 days of travel end date:

• Best practice is to submit within 30 days
• Applies to out of pocket and travel card transactions
• If not submitted within 90 days of travel end date:
  • Travel card immediately suspended until expense report is submitted and approved
  • Expenses become tax reportable income to the employee and a tax withholding form must be attached to the expense report

Unassigned travel card transactions assigned to an expense report within 90 days of post date:

• Documents travel end date, which allows for aging/tracking of expenses
• Best practice is to assign transactions within 30 days
• After 60 days lose dispute rights with the bank
• If not assigned within 90 days of post date:
  • Travel card immediately suspended until transactions are assigned to an expense report and the travel end date can be evaluated.
  • If the travel end date is less than 90 days, the card suspension will be removed.
  • If travel end date is older than 90 days, the expenses become tax reportable income to the employee and card will remain suspended until expense report is submitted and approved.

Third Strike Rule - for cards suspended for the third time:

• Travel Card will be suspended for one year with notification of card suspension sent to traveler, department head, assistant dean and dean/VP.
• No travel advances will be made available to the employee during this time period.