Travel FAQs
Travel Training Session Questions
October 3, 2006
Q. How does one obtain their employee ID number?
A. The employee ID number can be located your Payroll Check Stub, Payroll Advice, Leave Reports and on the original budget reports.
Q. What about students and non-employees ID number, where are they found?
A. Students (who do not work for the University) and Non-Employees will not have an Employee ID number. Social Security Numbers will be used for these and should be submitted on a Vendor Profile.
Q. Is a Vendor Profile to be used for students too?
A. Yes, for the first payment.
Q. What form is to be used to reimburse students and faculty that are traveling (student group travel)?
A. The Travel Expense Form should be used for the employee’s travel and attach the Team Travel Account Summary Form for any other employees and non-employees that traveled with the group.
Q. How do you fill out the new travel form to show that the meal cost was a part of the registration fee?
A. List the amount of the registration in the registration area and do not list the meal amount. Select the NE option on the meal code and indicate in location “inc in registration”
Q. Can you supplement Employee Group Meal expense overage from an Agency Account?
A. Yes
Q. Is the Employee Group Meal to be paid with E & G funds?
A. Yes, if the criteria is met.
Q. Regarding Retreats/Conferences, if a faculty member travels the night before to Atlanta for an early morning meeting, can he/she be reimbursed expenses?
A. Yes – if approved by department head and traveling more than 50 miles.
Q. Where on the travel form should you enter your internet fee?
A. This fee should be listed in the Voice/Data Communications area of the Travel Expense form.
Q. Where do you list/attach your determining documentation for the most advantageous mode of travel?
A. Any comments or explanations may be listed on page 2 of the Travel Expense Form in the “Explain any expenses that are unusual or exceed established limits” area or, you may attach a separate sheet of paper to the expense form with this information. You may also use the Vehicle Cost Comparison link and print the calculations.
http://ssl.doas.state.ga.us/vehcostcomp/
Q. Should every trip have documentation for the most Advantageous mode of travel?
A. Yes, unless there are extenuating circumstances. You must also consider the energy conservation, total cost to the State (including cost of overtime, lost work time, and actual transportation costs), total distance traveled, number of points visited, and number of travelers.
Q. What if the trip is short notice/when trying to determine the most Advantageous mode of travel?
A. You should still document your most advnatageous form of travel.
Q. Can Students and/or part-time faculty that are traveling to meetings/etc. drive Fleet Cars?
A. Fleet vehicles from the motorpool may only be utilized by University employeees (includes student meployees) for official business. "Regular" students, interns, and volunteers are not allowed to use university vehicles.
Q. If faculty visiting Practicum students (daily) do they also have to check for fleet car availability each trip?
A. You may still have the opportunity to check the availability of a fleet vehicle, however, in certain situations, this may not be the most advantageous mode of travel once you have considered the energy conservation, total cost to the State (including cost of overtime, lost work time, and actual transportation costs), total distance traveled, number of points visited, and number of travelers.
Q. At what point will the traveler know the rate of mileage reimbursement?
A. At any time you may visit the following useful links: http://www.gsa.gov/pov/ or http://ssl.doas.state.ga.us/vehcostcomp/ . You may also enter the appropriate information onto the Travel Expense Form before you travel and the mileage rate will generate there.
Q. When does the “weekend” begin vs. “normal work week” for some faculty?
A. “Weekend” should be interpreted as a day on which an employee does not do regularly scheduled work. For these employees, do they have scheduled days off that are not Saturdays or Sundays? If so, those would be the days on which they are eligible to claim mileage with no reduction for commuting miles.
Q. If an employee travels to a conference site and is gone for 5 days, does the employee deduct commute miles for each of those 5 days while at the conference? Or is it for day of departure and day of return only?
A. The deduction is applied only on the day of departure and the day of return.
Q. What version of Adobe Acrobat Reader do I need to use in order to fill out the form?
A. You must use Adobe Acrobat version 7 in order to fill out the form. If you open the form and you receive a warning
You will need to contact your Technical support group and request that they install the latest version of Adobe Reader on your computer.
If you receive this warning:
You probably do not want to click 'OK' on this dialog box as this will open a browser and take you to Adobe's web site to download and install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may not be able to do this on your computer, so please contact your local Technical Support group.
If you do not receive the warning, and the form still does not seem to work (by auto calculating the mileage rate, or offering convenient calendars when entering dates), the error message may have been turned off.
If in doubt, you can check which version of Adobe Acrobat Reader you are using by opening Adobe Acrobat Reader (found in: Start - Programs, or by opening a form you may already have on your computer), under the Help menu command is an 'About' command:
About Acrobat Reader, or About Adobe Reader (depending on which version you may currently be using)
Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional are slightly different programs and it is recommended that you talk with your local Technical Support group concerning these applications.
