Does your unit incur travel expenses? If so, remember that it is important to code these travel expenses to the appropriate expense account code to ensure compliance with various financial reporting requirements. While this may seem like a simple concept, it’s important to keep these requirements in mind when coding your transactions to avoid audit implications and to help ensure the accuracy of the University’s financial statements.
See below for some general tips to keep in mind when selecting an expense account code to use for your various travel expenses:
- Employee travel expenses paid directly to a vendor must be coded to the proper “Payment to Vendor” account code (not to an employee reimbursement account code);
- Employee travel expenses reimbursed to an employee must be coded to the proper “Employee Reimbursement” account code (not to a vendor payment account code);
- Employee travel expenses incurred within the State of Illinois must be coded to the proper “In-State” account code (not to an out-of-state or foreign account code);
- Employee travel expenses incurred outside the State of Illinois must be coded to the proper “Out-of-State” or “Foreign” account code (not to an in-state account code);
- Non-employee travel expenses paid directly to a vendor (such as those for a consultant or visiting speaker) must be coded to the proper “Non-Employee Travel – Payment to Vendor” account code (not to an employee travel account code); and
- Non-employee travel expenses reimbursed to the non-employee (such as those for a consultant or visiting speaker) must be coded to the proper “Non-Employee Travel – Reimbursements” account code (not to an employee travel account code).
If you need help in selecting the proper account code for your various travel expenses, UAFR’s Account Code Search application (located on UAFR’s Banner Account Codes webpage) is a great resource to use, as you can search our entire catalog of account codes using a key-word search which helps guide you to the proper account code to use for your transactions.
Contact
If you have further questions, feel free to reach out to UAFR’s applicable subject matter experts within the Account Codes section of UAFR’s Who to Ask list.
