This quick reference guide outlines allowable prepayment methods for San José State University (SJSU) business travel expenses to reduce out-of-pocket costs.
Employees: Pay via Travel Card or Personal Funds. Alternatively, a department administrator can use their ProCard to pay on the employee's behalf.
Non-Employees: Check with Payment Services.
Employees: Concur Booking Tool (strongly recommended for rentals), Christopherson Travel Agency, Travel Card, or Personal Funds.
Non-Employees: Sponsoring employee must arrange via Travel Card or by contacting Christopherson Travel Agency directly.
Employees:
Domestic Hotels: Use Travel Card, Instant Card (requires smartphone and Credit Card Authorization/online check-in), or Personal Funds. Note: Concur can secure reservations but will not prepay them.
International Hotels: Use Travel Card, Travel Advance (must be enabled in Concur profile for international trips), or Personal Funds.
Non-Employee Hotels: Sponsoring employee can pay using their Travel Card. Sponsoring employee must coordinate a Credit Card Authorization Form with the hotel in advance. Christopherson Travel Agency can also be used, but a backup payment method is required at check-in.
Employees: Use Travel Card or Personal Funds.
Non-Employees: Paid out of pocket by the traveler and reimbursed after the trip via the sponsoring employee.
Employees: Do not prepay. Reimbursed via location-based federal GSA per diem rates after the trip. Use Travel Allowance to adjust provided meals to be deducted on the Concur Expense Report.
Non-Employees: Do not prepay. Reimbursed for actual expenses up to $92 per day (GSA per diem rates do not apply). Receipts must be submitted to the sponsoring employee post-trip.
The Hotel Prepayment Rule: Hotels booked through the Concur Booking Tool or Christopherson Travel Agency cannot be prepaid and always require a backup physical or digital payment card at check-in.
Policy Grounding: All out-of-pocket reimbursements must strictly comply with the standard CSU Travel Policy.
Sponsorship Mandate: Non-employees cannot access SJSU travel portals directly; an active SJSU employee must sponsor and coordinate all workflow steps on their behalf.