What's New

 6/28/06
 5/31/06
 4/26/06

YCAL Airfare Changes for Fiscal Year 2006-2007
Effective July 1, 2006, the following changes to the YCAL program will occur:

• YCAL rates will be available for American, America West, US Air, United, and Jet Blue airlines.
• YCAL rates will no longer be available for Southwest Airlines. If you decide to use Southwest Airlines, you will receive non-YCAL rates.

When we receive the fiscal year 2006-2007 rates, we will send another message to the DaFIS list. More information regarding the YCAL program is available here.

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CTS (includes YCAL) Airfare Reservations
There is a reduction in the number of agencies that the university can use for making CTS airfare reservations. An updated list is available here.

Effective 6/15/06, when making CTS and YCAL reservations, a billing ID and traveler ID will be required. The traveler ID for employees will be their employee ID number. For non-employees, departments will create a traveler ID by completing the Non-Employee Traveler Setup screen; therefore, departments will no longer need to submit an online vendor request form. (Note: When making reservations involving a group leader, make sure the group leader's traveler ID is given to the agency). Billing ID and Traveler ID lookups will be verified by the agencies.

Effective 6/15/06, use of the CTS credit card account number for online booking with any service other than one of the approved agencies will not be accepted. When making such reservations, please use the U.S. Bank corporate credit card.

Modifications to the paper Travel Expense Voucher (TEV)
The section for Direct Charge Advances has been renamed to Pre-Trip Payments. Effective immediately, please use the most current version, available here.

U.S. Bank Corporate Card Convenience Checks
U.S. Bank VISA convenience checks will no longer be valid beginning June 15th. All cardholders will be notified of this change; please share this information with your travelers.

Clearing Advances
All advances must be cleared using a DaFIS Travel Expense Voucher (TEV or TEVH) document. Departments are strongly encouraged to clear existing advances (i.e., object codes 0080 and 0086) by July 6th (June preliminary ledgers). Advances not cleared by that time will be included in the indirect cost recovery assessment calculation for June, and will appear in the June Final ledger as follows:

• Existing non-cash advances (i.e., object code 0086) will appear as expenses in their existing DaFIS accounts, in object consolidation SUB5 - Travel. If the advances are not in the correct expense accounts, they can be transferred using a DaFIS Error Correction (EC) or Year End Error Correction (YEEC) document (for the June Final ledgers).
• Existing cash advances (i.e., object code 0080) will carry forward to the new fiscal year in their existing DaFIS accounts, appearing as "Restore Travel Advance Deferral". They must be cleared via a DaFIS TEV document.

If after reconciling the cash or non-cash advances it is determined an adjustment is needed that cannot be done via an EC or YEEC document, complete the Travel & Entertainment Journal Voucher Request Form. When the form is submitted, it is e-mailed directly to General Accounting for review and processing.

We recommend that you generate the following DaFIS Decision Support (DS) reports to identify advances:

Balance Summary (1) - Use to review the year-to-date balances by account, sub-account, object, sub-object, and project. In addition to the default settings, the recommended parameters are:

• For the Summary Grouping Options, click on the Detail boxes for sub-account, sub-object, and project. Also, in the Subtotal columns, click Account Manager in the 1st column, click Account in the 2nd column, and click Object in the 3rd column.
• Select Fiscal Year 2005-06.
• Select Fiscal Period Range current to current.
• Set the Balance Type Summary to Year to Date.
• In the Chart field, make sure a checkmark appears next to your chart.
• Enter your organization.
• Enter 008% in the Object field.
• Under Balance Summary Options for Pending Transactions click Include.
• Use Output format Spreadsheet and save in Excel format.

Transaction Listing (2) - Use to analyze the travel advance transactions by account. Recommended parameters:

• For Transaction Grouping, Subtotal columns, click Sub Account in the 1st column, Object in the 2nd column, and Project in the 3rd column.
• Select fiscal year 2005-06 for current year advances. Select a previous fiscal year to research carried forward advances.
• Use period July through the current month for the current fiscal year; use July through June
Final for previous fiscal years.
• In the Chart field, make sure a checkmark appears next to your chart.
• Enter your account.
• Enter 008% in the Object field.
• Under Transaction Listing Options, for Document Summarization and Pending Transactions, click on Include.
• Use Output Format HTML.

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Pre-Trip Payments
Effective 5/1/06, the handling of pre-trip payments will change. Prior to this date, all pre-trip payments were recorded as advances. Pre-trip payments will now be expensed as follows:

Registration fees that don't have any travel expenses should have object code 7260. Registration fees that have other travel expenses should use object code 2100. More on registrations »

CTS (including YCAL) airfare charges are recorded with travel object AIRF (Airfare), under object consolidation SUB5. The object code should be changed to another travel object (e.g., 2900 for out-of-state, 2000 for in-state, or 2902 for foreign travel) via the DaFIS Feed Payment Distribution (FPD) or the DaFIS Travel Expense Voucher (TEV or TEVH) document. Note: For existing FPD documents that cite object code 0086, cancel them and if changes are needed, use a DaFIS TEV. If a DaFIS TEV has already been approved and the advance still exists, make the change on a DaFIS Restricted Error Correction (REC) . More on airfare »

Hotel and other pre-payments (except for employee cash advances) should use object code 2000 (in-state), 2900 (out-of-state), or 2902 (foreign travel).

Employee cash advances should continue to be recorded with advance object code 0080 until June 15, 2006. These advances must be cleared on a DaFIS Travel Expense Voucher (TEV) document.

• Effective 6/15/06, the object code for employee cash advances will change from 0080 to 0085, using account 3-1121500. After the trip, cash advances must be cleared on a DaFIS Travel Expense Voucher (TEV) document. (Note: Once your department is using the MyTravel system, you will no longer need to complete a DaFIS TEV).
• Cash advances not accounted for by the traveler in a timely manner (IRS regulations specify 120 days) will be reported as taxable income to the recipient.

Effective 6/15/06, the method for processing pre-trip payments will change. Instead of completing a DaFIS Direct Charge (DC or DCH) document, processors should complete the Create a Pre-Trip Payment screen.

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