Advance Payments

Travel advances are payments made before a trip takes place. They can be cash to an employee or non-employee traveler or non-cash paid to vendors on behalf of employee or non-employee travelers.

Cash advances are granted when the traveler does not qualify for, or does not yet have, a corporate card. Cash advances are also issued to travelers seeking reimbursement before the trip takes place (e.g., they used a personal credit card to register for a conference and the credit card payment is due before the conference date). The amount requested shall be at least $50 and shall not exceed the estimated out-of-pocket expenses to be incurred on the trip.

UC Davis has programs to minimize out-of-pocket expenses for university business travelers:

U.S. Bank Visa Corporate Credit Card - used for travel advances and travel expenses
Central Travel System (CTS) - for airfare purchases
American Express Business Travel Account (BTA) - for State of California (YCAL) contracted airfares

Departments and travelers are strongly encouraged to use these programs to reduce departmental and administrative costs associated with administering cash advances.

Requesting Advances

Corporate Card holders are expected to use their card if cash is needed. Requests for non-Corporate Card cash advances may be approved under the following circumstances:

The traveler is not eligible to participate in the Corporate Card program
The travel requires special handling (e.g., group leader designations or foreign long-term travel)
The traveler does not currently have an outstanding cash advance

The department must initiate a Pre-Trip Payment, which creates a DaFIS document. Indicate how the advance will be used (e.g., $100 for car rental, $200 for lodging, etc.). Print the last page of the form. If you forget to print the last page, search for the document in DaFIS and print it.

If the payee is requesting cash to pay an out of pocket expense (e.g., airfare charged to a personal credit card) before the trip, submit the information you printed, with receipt(s), to Accounts Payable. If the payee is requesting cash to take on the trip, submit the information you printed to Accounts Payable between 10 and 30 days before the beginning of the trip.