I will not subject you to the intricacies of the SF State financial labyrinth, except to say that some days I am convinced I have died and now reside in the fourth circle of hell.
Step One:
ALL travel begins with the authorization to travel. No exceptions.
You should fill this out and get it to me (ideally) at least 30 days prior to travel. If you have a last minute thing or you forgot or you didn’t get your acceptance letter to the conference until last Tuesday because the organizers are moving a little slow, AND you are traveling domestically, we can usually abuse the ideal.
However. If you are traveling internationally, you need to get authorization 45 days in advance and talk to the nice people in Risk Management. You will need to also do everything outlined in the Instructions for International Travel.
THE INSURANCE COST MUST BE FACTORED INTO YOUR BUDGET. The department gets a bill and if you have spent all of your travel allocation, you have to cut a personal check to cover the cost.
Pro tip: Attach as many receipts as you can to this sucker. Flight and hotel reservations, conference registration – although the form doesn’t ask for this information, it has been my experience feeding The Machine copius amounts of paperwork speeds these things through the system and, as an added bonus, I don’t have to pester you for the information a few days later when they ask for it.
Step Two:
Travel. Have a nice time. Return without injury.
Step Three:
You need to use the Ucorp forms for travel claims (Excellence is a Trust fund, Trust funds use different forms than do things paid by Faculty Affairs, College of Liberal and Creative Arts (LCA), CEL or a host of other annoying acronyms in this grouping. And I have now lied about how much SF State financial mumbojumbo I’m subjecting you to).
Pro Tip: The Machine INSISTS that you enter your expenses BY DAY. If you flew and stayed at a hotel on 29 February, then those expenses go on the same line. If you enter expenses giving each expense its own line, The Machine gets huffy.
Step Four:
TAPE your receipts to a sheet of paper making sure that the tape does not cover any writing on the receipt. Tape that is clear on the original is a big black box on copies. And The Machine loves hard copies.
Step Five:
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about. Paperwork stinks and you probably need a stretch by now.
Step Six:
I suggest everyone do one of these should anyone upstream deem your receipts "not of original enough nature." I don’t make the rules, I just spend a silly amount of time figuring out how to traverse and circumvent them.
Step Seven:
Return all the things to me.