Faculty and staff who travel on university business will have a more convenient, efficient and paperless way to record their information and receive payment, with the introduction of the Concur eTravel system in January 2019.
The implementation of Concur is a result of the university's Travel Redesign Initiative, an outcome of President Soraya M. Coley's Listening Tour. During her tour, she received feedback about the current travel reporting and reimbursement system.
"Continual improvement is a hallmark of Cal Poly Pomona," Coley said. "The introduction of Concur is emblematic of efforts across campus to give faculty, staff and students the tools they need to succeed."
The Travel Redesign Initiative will result in a number of positive changes, including:
- Streamlining the workflow associated with processing travel
- Anticipated faster approval and processing time for reimbursement
- Options to minimize out-of-pocket costs requiring reimbursement
- Elimination of the requirement to submit a boarding pass for air travel reimbursement
- Implementation of the Automated Clearing House system, which deposits checks within three business days and eliminates the risk of payments being lost in the mail, misplaced or stolen
Training on the Concur system will take place in several stages with an open forum, divisional and group sessions, and open hours to practice on and process claims, said Michelle Cardona, director and controller for University Accounting Services. There will also be videos on requesting travel expense reimbursement, with step-by-step instructions, as well as how-to user guides and access to an updated travel website.
"We understand that there will be a learning curve, and we're committed to ensure that faculty and staff have the resources and training they need to use the new system," Cardona said. "The end result will be a streamlined workflow that allows users to check on the status of their requests in real time."
Announcement of training sessions will be made well in advance, and there will be several dates to choose from to ensure that faculty and staff can schedule around their commitments.