Reimbursement and Booking

CruzFly: Account code info (email 2024 Jun 20)

Hello SCIPPers,

Now that employees are using CruzFly to submit post travel reimbursements, I'd like to provide a list of account codes that should be used for grant funding reimbursements. If the correct CG account codes are used the research accountants won't have to correct it when they are reviewing it. 

CG4100 | Travel: Conf Reg Fees

CG4310 | Travel: Domestic-In State

CG4410 | Travel: Domestic-Out of State

CG4470 | Travel: Foreign

CG4480 | Travel: Conf Reg Fees-Foreign

Thank you,

Laura 

Information about CruzFly (email 2024 May 13)

Dear SCIPPers,

Last Tuesday, May 7th, many of you received an email regarding the launch of CruzFly. CruzFly is UCSC's latest expense management system, which we will be adopting over the next few months and fully implementing by August 1, 2024. We urge all users to start utilizing CruzFly for their out-of-pocket post-travel expenses to familiarize themselves with the system. 

This system will replace the online post-travel form (and eventually ERFs and Direct Payment forms). All UC travelers will be responsible for submitting their post-travel forms in CruzFly (similar to what we do with the online format now) and have the option of assigning Laura as a delegate so she can review everything before it is submitted. You will also need to know your FOAPAL and Tier 1 & Tier 2 approvers. Laura will continue processing reimbursements on the visitors' behalf since these cannot be submitted via the CruzFly system. You will learn more about all of these details in the training. 

We ask that all SCIPPers please sign up for one of the available training dates listed below as soon as possible.

• Thursday, May 23rd, 2024 at 10:00AM

• Thursday, June 6th, 2024 at 2:00PM

• Thursday, June 20th, 2024 at 2:00PM

Make sure you have access to CruzFly before the training date. To login to CruzFly, navigate to the CruzFly website http://cruzfly.ucsc.edu and click on “Launch CruzFly”. Enter your CruzID and Gold password to login. Instructions are below.

• If you received the email from cruzfly-help@ucsc.edu on 5/7/24 please go to the launch page here and use your UCSC gold login to login. If you did not receive this email you  need to fill out the CruzFly account authorization form which you can get here, please only fill out this form if you did not receive the email on 5/7/24.

• If you’re filling out the account authorization form, Please select: I am preparing this form as “Account Holder” and Account Type “Expense reporter/delegate.” When you get to the main form please submit one FOAPAL that you’re associated with, even if you are associated with multiple. 

In addition to the Zoom sessions, they are posting videos on the website, at cruzfly.ucsc.edu. For additional information about creating Expense Reports in CruzFly, please visit the CruzFly User Manual.

More information about CruzFly:

• CruzFly will now be used in place of post travels but only if Travel Advance was not created in relation to the same trip. 

• You can assign Laura (or Margaret) as a delegate to look over what you’re submitting which you will learn about in the training. 

• CruzFly is UCSC's expense management system. It is currently being used by CTE cardholders and approvers but is now being expanded for out-of-pocket travel reimbursement requests. In the coming months, they will be enabling it for out-of-pocket entertainment expenses, and out-of-pocket general expenses.

• CruzFly offers numerous enhancements for requesters over the current Post Travel Expense webform. With CruzFly, users can submit various out-of-pocket reimbursement requests to route automatically to a departmental approver. This includes Personal Auto Mileage, with a built-in Google Maps feature to calculate a trip from one destination to another, along with the current mileage rates. Additionally, a Per Diem wizard has been added for foreign travel, and domestic travel greater than 30 days. The system has built-in rules based on UC policy to assist you in required back up and documentation.

Thank you,

SCIPP administrative team

Expense Documentation Submission Requirements (email 2024 May 13)

To all UCSC employees who incur expenses on behalf of the University, including: 

Employees who travel on University business, 

Employees who pay business entertainment expenses and 

Employees who pay for supplies and other expenses

The Internal Revenue Service requires that expense documentation be submitted for approval within 60 days of an expense being paid or incurred, as outlined in the Accountable Plan section of IRS Publication 463.  If expense documentation is submitted for approval more than 60 days after the expense has been paid or incurred (defined as a reasonable period of time), the expenses are considered taxable compensation and should be included in employee earnings on their year-end W-2 statement.  It’s vital to note that the IRS 60-day submission and documentation requirement applies to all types of expenses incurred, including reimbursements (not just travel) and expenses paid using a CTE card.  

Up until now, there have been four potential submission methods for travel expense approval:

CruzFly

DocuSign 

Post Travel PDF attachments

Paper versions 

An extraordinary effort has been ongoing behind the scenes to establish CruzFly as the CTE card and expense reimbursement solution for all campus employee reimbursement transactions (travel, entertainment, and all other expense types). It is now available for all employee expense reimbursement submissions.  Consolidating all reimbursement transactions into one system will allow us to efficiently monitor expense submission dates vs when the expenses were incurred.

It’s crucial that this communication be distributed as widely as possible, as UCSC will enforce the 60-day submission and documentation requirement from the IRS.  If an individual violates the 60-day submission rule, imputed income will be added behind the scenes to the employee’s year-to-date earnings, and the payroll system will calculate the required tax withholding amounts and reduce the employee’s net pay for one or more pay periods to capture the appropriate withholding totals.  Unfortunately, imputed income also causes a financial burden for the University, as we are required to pay additional employer payroll taxes related to amounts added to employee earnings.

It’s critical that we collectively work together to minimize this potential financial pitfall.  Supervisors who approve employee reimbursements can proactively reach out to team members if they believe that expenses have not been submitted in a timely manner.  It’s also recommended that employees who use university-issued credit cards or incur expenses on behalf of the University on a regular basis develop a monthly calendar or task reminder approach to ensure that they submit their expense documentation within the 60-day window.  Please reach out to me directly if you have any questions.

Respectfully,

Ed Moran, Accounting Director

New Web Based Post Travel Form + Travel Planning Reminders (email 2023 Mar 13)

Dear Scippers,

We have some important news! The university is changing to a new web-based system to submit Post Travel Expense forms. From here on please use this link: https://financial.ucsc.edu/Pages/WF_DS_Entry.aspx?WF=PostTravelExpense to submit your Post Travel Expense Forms and be sure to follow the instructions listed below:

• Enter the Tier 1 Approver name and email address (the PI who's approving the reimbursement).

• Please check "Include Optional Additional Approver" and put in my information: Laura Bakken, lbakken@ucsc.edu, and my role for this is "Other."

• If you know who the Tier 2 approver is, choose "Specify Tier 2 Now" and enter their name and email address. If not, choose "Specify Tier 2 Later."

• After you input the Tier 1, additional approver, and Tier 2 info click the green "submit" button and then check your email for a message from Docusign. You will need to log in to Docusign to approve the form.

A few things about the form: 

-Make sure you fill out everything to the best of your ability and as thoroughly as possible because after submitting you cannot go back and edit it.

-Make sure to specify if you're a US citizen and the visa type or it will not allow you to proceed.

-Please remember to submit all relevant travel expense receipts, price comparisons, oanda.com currency conversion documents, etc using the paperclip attach icon.

Travel Planning Reminders

As some of you may have noticed I have been asking for more documentation for travel reimbursements per requests from accounting and I wanted to send a list of some important things to keep in mind before and while making reservations for your trip as well as when compiling your documentation after your trip for my review.

While making reservations:

• Get itemized receipts for everything; it's better to have lots of documentation than to be short. Both electronic and paper receipts are accepted (and the paper ones can easily be scanned later). What I mean by itemized is every single thing broken down on the receipt (ie. taxes on 1 line, fees on another line, etc). 

• It's highly recommended to purchase rental cars, flights and lodging through Connexxus. You may choose to book on other sites but the university discourages it. Please be aware that third parties (like Expedia) might not provide itemized receipts. If you cannot get an itemized receipt you may not be reimbursed which is why I emphasize using Connexxus. If you have questions or need help with Connexxus I can help.

• If you fly you’re only allowed to purchase economy tickets. Do not purchase first class or upgrade seats. The receipt needs to show the ticket+taxes+fees breakdown. The receipt needs to show that the ticket was paid. Usually this will show the last part of a credit card number as proof.

• If you're combining personal travel with business you must show thorough price comparisons of an estimated ticket with taxes and fees. You must go through the actions up until purchasing the flights to get the thorough breakdown of flight, taxes and fees. Please don't just google it and take a screenshot of the range of prices of various airlines as that won't show the full breakdown for accounting.

• Accounting requires a 24 hour or more stay in order for food to be reimbursed. So, if your travels do not include a hotel or explanation that you did stay overnight your food will not be reimbursed. 

During your trip:

• Get itemized receipts for everything, it's better to have lots of documentation than to be short. This means, for example: if you get a lodging receipt from the hotel it must be broken down into the price per room + taxes and fees, not just a lump sum amount, it should also say your name and credit card used.

• If you’re renting a car please get an itemized receipt that also shows the class of vehicle rented. You are only allowed to rent an economy vehicle unless you get prior approval for maybe a group rental. Do not rent an SUV/Van or you may not get reimbursed. 

• If you have baggage fees (not included in flight) please keep those receipts. Screenshots generally don’t work.

Post Trip (when you're compiling documentation to send to me):

• You must provide some sort of documentation that you were at the conference or event you attended. To substantiate attendance at a formal meeting or conference, an agenda or documentation supporting the date and location of the event should be attached to the reimbursement request and ideally with your name on it (but your name on it is not absolutely necessary). You don't need an agenda for a research trip with no event or just a meeting. 

• Please fill out "Affiliation" and box below (ie. if you’re a citizen, and if not, what type of visa). Please note: If you do not have a visa, choose N/A. The form cannot be submitted until you choose some value for the visa.

• Please know if you have a 204 on file and check this box if so (this is how UCSC pays). If you haven’t ever gotten $ from UCSC then you may not have one on file. If you're not sure, you can ask me and I can look it up.

• If you completed a Travel Advance before your trip for any expenses you must put the trip number and expenses on the Post Travel form (in the upper right corner) as well as on the main part of the post travel. The expenses will cancel out if you input the expenses in the upper right and in the main part of the form. If you don't know your trip number please ask me. 

If you have any questions or are uncertain about booking travel please ask them before purchasing something that could potentially be hard to get reimbursed for.

Best regards,

Laura