Accounting

Non-Employee Travel (NET) cards may be issued to an account manager to pay for non-state employees traveling on State University business (e.g. Foundation employees, student athletes, candidates, consultants).

Advantages:

1. Personalized and NET card charges are billed directly to the campus Accounting Office.

2. Travelers out-of-pocket expenses can be reduced dramatically if the card is used not only for transportation costs but for lodging, meals, conference fees, fuel and incidentals.

3. The need for travel advances will be reduced as most costs can be charged on the traveler's NYS Travel Card.

Challenges/Processes to work through:

1 Issuing as many as 500 new travel cards to University employees

2 Travel card and travel voucher reconciliation processes

3 Communicating and coordinating NYS travel card policies and campus departmental travel policies

4 Employees will need to reimburse the campus if they charge impermissible items or exceed departmental authorization or per diems.

University Corporate Travel Card Program & Policies

The State of New York has a Corporate Travel Card Program to provide employees with a mechanism to pay for travel expenses. The card is generally available to all employees who are expected to travel at least once a year as part of their job. Applications should be made through the Accounting Office. Only appropriate travel expenses may be charged to the card.

Advantages to using the corporate travel card include:

- Charges are billed directly to the University.

- The need for travel advances will be reduced.

- Costs in processing vendors' vouchers will be reduced.

- The University and State will be able to capture a true picture of travel expenses to the State.

- Travelers using the card will not need to carry large amounts of cash or use personal credit cards.

- The program provides automatic business travel accident insurance when transportation is charged to the card.

A travel card reconciliation must be submitted detailing all charges on the corporate card. Out of pocket expenses should be submitted on travel vouchers. Accounting will reimburse out-of-pocket expenses and pay the corporate card directly. Both must be submitted timely since they provide information necessary to reconcile the corporate card bill. Revocation of the traveler's card may occur if there are delays in the submission of vouchers or reimbursements.

Improper or unauthorized charges may result in mandated reimbursement to the University by the employee, suspension or loss of privileges related to the card, or disciplinary action.

The University is responsible for recovering any overpayments or improper charges as well as ensuring the bill is reconciled correctly. Improper charges may be recovered from an employee's reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses, paychecks or any other monies owed to the employee.

Employees leaving the University must turn in their travel card prior to leaving. The Accounting Office is responsible for verifying any outstanding charges and canceling an employee's travel card before the employee's final paycheck is issued.

- Non-State employees (e.g., Research Foundation, students (athletes), candidates for employment, etc.) may use the new Citibank Non-Employee Travel (NET) card.

Non-Employee Travel (NET) Program - A NET card is an individualized (embossed) card that will be used for non-employee State travel expenses only. The card must be embossed with the name of the State employee responsible for reconciling the card. Some uses of this type of card include:

- Student travel expenses (including athletic team travel)

- Research Foundation (non-State) employee travel

- Travel for potential candidate for employment

Cards under this new category will be billed separately from employee travel, but again will be billed centrally to each campus.

University departmental travel policies must be followed at all times.

University departmental travel policies and approval will supercede general New York State travel card policies.

Departmental policies may be more restrictive than New York State policies but cannot be less restrictive than New York State policies.

University Travel Card Reconciliation Procedures

1. Every month the State Accounting Office will send the individual traveler's Citibank Corporate Card (CCC) statement and the University at Albany Travel Card Reconciliation Form (Reconciliation Form) to the traveler and the account manager.

2. The traveler or account manager is responsible for transferring information from the CCC statement onto the Reconciliation Form, attaching all pertinent original receipts and submitting this information to the State Accounting Office within 21 days of receiving the CCC statement.

3. In cases where a refund is due to the University from the traveler, the traveler must submit a check payable to the University at Albany with the documentation from step 2 above.

4. If there are out-of-pocket travel expenses related to the trip(s) on the CCC statement, a NYS Travel Voucher must be submitted with the original receipts and the corresponding Reconciliation Form.

5. Copies of all documentation submitted to the State Accounting Office should be retained by the traveler or within the department.

6. Failure to submit all documentation related to the monthly CCC statement in a timely fashion may result in the suspension of the traveler's credit card.

7. The State Accounting Office will audit the Reconciliation Forms and NYS Travel Vouchers to ensure that the all documentation related to this month's activity is reconciled.

8. The State Accounting Office will issue payment to Citibank for all University travelers CCC statements and payment to travelers for all out-of-pocket expenses.