Upcoming change to airfare FOAPAL charges in travelND
The travelND team is changing the way some airfare charges come into Concur (travelND). On January 16, 2018, airfare charged to a FOAPAL (booked in Concur or through Anthony Travel) will no longer be available in a user’s expense queue with the purple credit card icon. Additionally, any unassigned airfare purple icon transactions listed in your available expenses queue will be removed. Going forward, users will manually add/create airfare expense lines to satisfy the University’s full-trip documentation requirement.
The program’s intention was to make it easier for users to account for full-trip documentation by automatically populating airfare charges for travelers booking airfare to a FOAPAL. However, it also created considerable confusion about the trip reimbursement request amount for some users. And for other users, it caused an accumulation of unneeded airfare charges that would never be reflected on an expense report (e.g., an admin books flights for students or recruits). The travelND team attempted to address these concerns with Concur developers to no avail. Thus, we have determined the best course for the majority of campus users is to remove this feature.
Airfare booked for University business should continue to be booked directly to a FOAPAL through the travelND booking tool (Concur) or Anthony Travel. The expense report preparer will simply need to add the expense type of “Airfare Domestic - Charged to FOAPAL (77010)” or “Airfare Foreign - Charged to FOAPAL (77510)”, whereas in the past this had been automatically populated. Airfare not charged to a FOAPAL will use expense types “Airfare & Related Fees-Domestic (77010)” and “Airfare & Related Fees-Foreign (77510)”. For more information, see the FAQ's below.
FAQ's:
Can I keep my airfare purple icon charges for future reference?
Yes, you can create an expense report and assign these charges to that report. You do not need to submit that report and can keep it as long as needed. If the charges are assigned to a report prior to January 16, 2018, they will not be deleted.
What happens if you delete a transaction that I still need to account for?
The expense report line will need to be manually added with an expense type of “Airfare Domestic - Charged to FOAPAL (77010)” or “Airfare Foreign - Charged to FOAPAL (77510)”.
What will happen to flights after Jan 16, 2018?
For airfare charged to FOAPAL, the expense report line will need to be manually added with an expense type of “Airfare Domestic - Charged to FOAPAL (77010)” or “Airfare Foreign - Charged to FOAPAL (77510)”. Airfare not charged to a FOAPAL will use expense types “Airfare & Related Fees-Domestic (77010)” and “Airfare & Related Fees-Foreign (77510)”.
Does this mean there is a change in functionality regarding the charging of flights to a FOAPAL?
No, campus travelers are expected to use the preferred booking methods for business travel, meaning it should be charged to a FOAPAL via Anthony Travel or via Concur booking tool. Flights booked using other methods will only be reimbursed after the travel is complete.
Does this change the University’s full-trip documentation requirement?
No, campus travelers will continue to fully document their trip. Airfare purchased in advance and charged to a FOAPAL (or any other prepaid expense, such as conference fees) is to be reflected on a fully documented expense report and backed out of the amount of the reimbursement request.
An expense report serves as a documentation of the entire trip establishing the trip’s business purpose to allow reimbursements to be treated as nontaxable. And, it provides the expense report approver the full amount of the trip so they have full view of what they are approving. The expense report is not merely a reimbursement tool for expense items incurred during the trip.