Travel
Travel Expense Reimbursement
Overview
Employees will be reimbursed for all reasonable and necessary expenses incurred as a result of approved travel. Travel must be approved in advance through a Walker requisition and Out-of-State Approval Request (if appropriate). All claims for reimbursement should be submitted on the Out-of-District Travel Expense reimbursement form within 10 days of completion of travel.
Travel Expenses:
The district will allow the use of its procurement card for the employee's hotel. The declining-balance card will be activated for the specific dates of the trip and will have sufficient credit available to cover the estimated hotel charges. Personal funds are required for all other expenditures. A detailed hotel receipt must accompany the reimbursement form.
In Texas and Oklahoma, TPS is exempt from state sales tax and the state portion of hotel occupancy tax when using the procurement card. Advise all vendors of this exemption.
The travel card, along with the approved Out-of-District Travel Expense reimbursement form and supporting documentation must be returned within 10 days of completion of the trip. Supporting documentation is required for hotel charges, taxi fares, parking charges, rental car, etc. Receipts are not required for per diem (meals &incidental expenses) since this is reimbursed based on a standard daily rate.
Travel Arrangement Instructions
For Out-of-State Travel, the employee completes an Out-of-State Approval Request (OSTAR) and submits for approval. The form is located on the intranet under forms online-District Forms-Out of State Travel Request. Please submit as soon as possible since no travel arrangements can be made until approval is received and a PO issued.
Create an RQ on the system to request the travel. A separate RQ is required for each individual traveler. The RQ will have a separate expenditure line for each travel element (i.e. airfare, ground transportation, lodging, meals, registration, other). The detail description associated with the trip such as destination, travel dates, conference dates, title/subject is input on the comment screen (TXN 008). A template (R66666LX052000000) has been created which can be copied to easily create the new RQ (see instructions below).
Complete the registration form for the conference you are attending.
Note: If any charges shown on the registration form will be paid by the employee (i.e. membership dues, costs for spouses), a personal check is to be included with the registration forms when sent to Accounting. Any membership dues paid by the District must be clearly identified as "Institutional Membership" on the membership form.
Call the hotel and rental car company (if needed) to make reservations and confirm with the personal credit card of the employee traveling. Request the hotel to fax a confirmation of the reservation.
Send the completed conference registration form, and hotel reservation confirmation to Randi Foster in Accounting.
Accounting will issue a purchase order for the entire trip.
Call World Travel at 743-8856 to book the airfare. They are required to have the purchase order number before completing the reservation. There may be a service charge of $15 for individual or $30 for group reservations. Verify this with the travel agent when booking. World Travel will email the reservation to the employee traveling. Forward this to Randi Foster in accounting (fostera@tulsaschools.org).
Note: Advance airfare arrangements are less expensive. The district
will only pay up to the cost of a 14 day advance ticket.
Accounting (Randi Foster) will issue payment for the registration using her corporate procurement card (or check if vendor does not accept credit cards).
Accounting (Alicia Srader) will load the hotel expense as an available balance on a travel credit card to be issued to the traveler. The Travel ProCard Employee Agreement must be signed by the person traveling before the travel card is released. This form is located on the internet under departments/Accounting/forms. The current practice of issuing a procurement card to each employee traveling out of the district for an overnight stay requires that the employee sign in person to accept responsibility for the charges on the card. As an alternative, the following options are available:
*One employee may pick up cards for all members traveling to the conference. In order to do that, a Travel ProCard Employee Agreement must be signed for each employee receiving a card. Since the agreement provides for a payroll deduction for unauthorized or unsubstantiated charges on the card, we will require either a notarized signature or that a copy of the employee’s drivers license accompany the agreement when the employee is not present.
*One employee may assume responsibility on a single card for all traveling employees in a particular group.
Questions regarding this procedure may be addressed to Randi Foster at 746-6242 or Janet Jamison at 746-6167.
Be sure to obtain a copy of the detailed hotel receipt which is
required for reimbursement of miscellaneous travel charges as well as
support for the hotel expenditures on the travel card.
Accounting will reconcile the airfare charge when it appears on the
ProCard statement for the dedicated World Travel ProCard.
To be reimbursed for employee travel:
Complete an Out-of-District Travel Expense Report Form. There are 2 sheets within the Excel form. On sheet 1, complete the green sections. If a TPS procurement card was used, go to sheet 2 and fill in the credit card charges. Go back to sheet 1 and be sure to fill in the account number to which travel is to be charged. In district travel is charged to object 5810 and out of district is charged to 5820. If registration is included in the Form, it must be charged to function 2213 for Instruction and 2843 for Non-Instruction. The object must be 8600.
When the Out-of-District Travel Expense Form is completed, attach the itemized hotel receipt and all other miscellaneous receipts that support the reimbursement.
Obtain appropriate approval. Principal must be approved by their director. Teachers must be approved by their principal and director. If it is funded by Governmental or Vocational, it must be approved by the coordinator for the grant.
Send the approved form to Accounting. Payment will be made within four business days of the receipt of the approved form in the accounting department.
You can contact Randi Foster at 746-6451, Alicia Srader at 746-6542, or Fran Heirich at 746-6242 in the accounting department should you have a question.
Contact us:
Phone: 918-746-6105
Fax: 918-746-6557
Email:
Jamisja@tulsaschools.org
Address:
3027 S. New Haven
P. 0. Box 470208
Tulsa, OK 74147-0208