Travel and Expense Service Level Agreement Last revised July 5, 2011

Transcription

1 Travel and Expense Service Level Agreement Last revised July 5, P age

2 Table of Contents General Information Roles and Responsibilities Defining Success Metrics P age

3 General Information Purpose The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to establish a cooperative partnership between Campus Administrative offices, the Division of Finance and Administration at UM, and the Division of IT that are tasked with supporting the Travel and Expense (T&E) reimbursement process and travelers, supervisors, fiscal approvers and grant project managers as customers using the process. T&E changes include a July 1, 2011 kickoff of the PeopleSoft T&E module in conjunction with substantial policy changes related to University employee travel. This document will outline: Need The roles and responsibilities of each participant in the T&E reimbursement process. Outline the training plan for implementing the T&E module. Articulate definitions for a successful implementation. Describe metrics that will be used to measure the success of T&E reimbursement process enhancements. The University of Missouri currently uses a paper-based process to manage travel expense reimbursement. Compliance with existing travel policy is enforced by the Accounting Offices through manual review of expense reimbursement requests. Therefore the process lacks automation and requires manual intervention for ensuring policy compliance. Goal The goal of the T&E project is to implement the PeopleSoft 9.0 T&E module while streamlining the creation, review and approval process for processing travel reimbursements. Further, the implementation of T&E process changes should: 1. Speed up reimbursement to the traveler. 2. Reduce the time it takes to prepare an Expense Report by the traveler and/or their delegate. 3. Leverage electronic work flow to get rid of paper. 4. Achieve more accountability and transparency from departments perspective. (e.g. Where is the voucher and how long before it pays?) 5. Provide an opportunity to reevaluate travel policy and consistently apply policies throughout the UM System. 6. Optimize data for budgeting, planning, optimize grant proceeds, leverage vendor relationships, etc. 7. Integrate with our current PeopleSoft Financials environment. 3 P age

4 Roles and Responsibilities The HR Supervisor/Administrative Superior assumes the responsibility to: Review and authorize travel requests for employees under their supervision. Verbal authorization to travel is sufficient. Review and approve Travel Authorization for employees under their supervision if using the Travel Authorization functionality in the T&E module. Review and approve Cash Advance requests for employees under their supervision. Monitor travel and related expenditures on a regular basis. Reports will be sent via on a monthly basis for all approved travel for the month. These reports can also be run from the PS Web Application menu. If the HR Supervisor/Administrative Superior assigns a Delegate to approve on his/her behalf, the Delegate assumes: All responsibilities listed under the HR Supervisor/Administrative Superior. Responsibility to act in an ethical manner regarding any personal information that can be seen while acting as the Delegate. The Traveler assumes the responsibility to: Obtain authorization to travel from an administrative superior or other administrative official. Complete all necessary information on the Expense Report and electronically attach any required receipts. Submit the Expense Report in a timely manner. Submission more than 60 days after the last day of travel may result in no reimbursement or the reimbursement may become taxable to the traveler. Certify that the expenses were necessary for University business, were personally paid for by the traveler, were not reimbursed by any other person or entity and, to the best of their knowledge, are correct and eligible for reimbursement under University policy. Understand that if assigning a Delegate for entry purposes, the delegate is authorized to act on your behalf but does not release you, the traveler, of the responsibility to act ethically and in accordance with University policy. If the Traveler assigns a Delegate for entry purposes, the Delegate assumes the responsibility to: Complete all necessary information on the Expense Report and electronically attach any required receipts. Submit the Expense Report in a timely manner. Submission more than 60 days after the last day of travel may result in no reimbursement or the reimbursement may become taxable to the traveler. Submit, to the best of his/her knowledge, only expenses that were necessary for University business, were personally paid for by the traveler, were not reimbursed by any other person or entity and are correct and eligible for reimbursement under University policy. 4 P age

5 Act in an ethical manner regarding any personal information about the traveler that can be seen while acting as the Delegate. The Project Manager Approver assumes the responsibility to: Check the Expense Report to ensure all expenses are allocable and allowable on the project. Understand that if assigning a Delegate for approval purposes, you are authorizing that person to act on your behalf. The Delegate will replace the Project Manager in all approval roles and the Project Manager will no longer receive notification of any pending approvals. If the Project Manager assigns a Delegate to approve the expense report on his/her behalf, the Delegate assumes: All responsibilities listed under the Project Manager Approver. Responsibility to act in an ethical manner regarding any personal information that can be seen while acting as the Delegate. The Fiscal Approver assumes the responsibility to: Check the Expense Report for compliance with University policies, that all necessary information is completed, and that any required receipts are electronically attached. Verify that the correct ChartField(s) are being charged. The Prepay Auditor assumes the responsibility to: Review exceptions routed to the prepay audit queue. Perform analysis of recurring problems, looking for training opportunities and policy clarification. The Post Pay Auditor assumes the responsibility to: Review exceptions routed to the post pay audit queue. Review sampling of Expense Reports to ensure compliance with University policies. Produce ad hoc reports and perform trend analysis of travel expenditures for the University. 5 P age

6 Training Training materials have been developed for both travelers and approvers. They include on-line training courses, training manuals, and quick reference guides. As a division is brought up on T&E, the Campus Accounting Office will cooperate with the departments and determine the optimal training strategy. Training can be delivered via a hands-on classroom setting, auditorium/lecture style, on-line, or working labs where individuals bring their work and get assistance if needed. Each Campus Accounting Office, with input from divisional stakeholders, will decide which style, or mix of styles, will best meet their needs. Defining Success The team has identified specific criteria that, when achieved successfully, will demonstrate the success of the T&E project. These criteria are broken into five unifying themes/deliverables around successfully addressing previously identified concerns of the current T&E process: A. Increased visibility, tracking and accountability for the travelers and approvers (e.g. Where is my reimbursement?). This will be accomplished through: a. The ability to process and view online from virtually any internet connection. b. The approval process routing through . c. Reducing paper and being environmentally responsible. d. Easier compliance with grant activities including expenses broken out in more detail than today. e. Equitable and consistent policy enforcement. B. Faster reimbursement for the traveler: a. Replace the separate voucher and excel form with one electronic application. b. Ease of input by using pre-populated data c. Increased use of travel card which would automate the posting of travel expenses and reduce data entry. C. Less resources needed to process travel at all levels: a. Traveler By building policy compliance, policy changes, loading University Travel Card transactions for assignment to an expense report, pre-populating mileage rates and foreign currency rates, it will result in easier data entry. b. Departments By building policy compliance, approval workflow and policy changes into the T&E system results in easier review and processing of the request. c. Accounting Offices - By building policy compliance, policy changes and a random pre and post-payment audit results in more consistent application of the policies and reduces the number of phone calls for policy clarification/application. d. By simplifying travel policies a more consistent application of these policies are built into the system. This will have the effect of reducing the number of phone calls thereby saving time for everyone involved in the process. 6 P age

7 e. By restructuring activities around this tool (e.g. more use of self service, aggregating transaction processing for delegates, etc.) departments will reduce administrative resource demands freeing them up for mission critical activities. D. New reporting capabilities for: a. Departmental budget management to identify travel expenses by type (e.g. mileage, hotel, etc.) b. Employee vs. non-employee travel. c. Internal and External audit efficiency E. End user satisfaction survey to measure the success of the project such as: a. Did we achieve a better process? b. Was the level of communication appropriate? c. Did end users receive appropriate training and ongoing support? Metrics The T&E implementation team will use the following metrics to measure the successes articulated above: Description Measure A 1 Estimate reduction of paper used. Compare count of vouchers printed today (estimated 200,000 pieces of paper) vs. electronic T&E process with a goal of 100% paper reduction. 2 Estimate reduction in approval transactions Compare number of approvals received on manual process vs. experience with electronic process with a goal of 1.3 approvals per Expense Report vs. current experience of an average of 2.5 approvals per voucher. 3 Percentage of employee Expense Goal is 100 Percent Reports processed electronically B 1 Time taken for approval Time between the final submission by the traveler, or their delegate, of the Expense Report to when the final financial or PI approval occurs. The goal for approvers in the new T&E process is to average 1.0 business days. 2 Time taken for reimbursement Time between the last financial or PI approval and the traveler receives reimbursement. The goal for reimbursement in the new T&E process is to average 1.0 business days. C 1 Ease compliance burden through automation Benchmark reported 14% in error in the paperbased system compared with ERs identified with problems pre and post audit in the new process with goal of 5% E 1 End user satisfaction survey Has electronic work flow process provided greater accountability for process and visibility as to the 7 P age

8 status of the travel expense reimbursement? 2 Has the time to process an Expense Report increased/decreased/stayed the same across all steps in the travel reimbursement process of preparation, approval, and audit/review compared to the legacy voucher process? 3 Do you know how to access reports? Do the reports provided meet your needs? Have you found it necessary to access receipt images via Imagenow? If so, did the process effectively serve your needs? Do the reports provide you the ability to better manage travel resources because of the new T&E process? If not, what could be improved? 4 Do you use the T&E data to make travel decisions or set departmental expectations? 5 Are communications and training sufficient regarding the T&E process? If not, how could they be improved? 6 Is the system responsive such that the wait time between an action and the page to refresh is reasonable? If not please describe the page, action and estimated delay when problems have occurred. 8 P age