Travel
E-Travel News
November 2020 - Volume 12, Issue 6
In This Issue
- E-Travel Online Enhancements
- Year-End Taxable Travel Reimbursement Reminder
- Employee Reimbursements (Travel, Non-Travel, and Moves)
E-Travel Online Enhancements
Several enhancements have been made to E-Travel Online over the past few months. Most are not noticeable to the end user, but we are now using the most current secure and efficient version of the system.
The new version of E-Travel Online performs best when using secure browsers such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. If you are experiencing long running scripts or delays in a page load check your browser; Internet Explorer (IE) is no longer supported by Microsoft resulting in poor system performance.
The most noticeable enhancements are seen are on the Travel Arranger homepage, the Travel Policy section when booking air, and the Reporting section.
Travel Arranger Homepage
A complete change to the look and feel for travel arrangers was released in August. The enhancement simplifies the look of the page and allows planners to more easily search for profiles and manage up to 50 frequent travelers’ verses 10 on the old version.
The enhancement to the hotel search function streamlines the booking process when a hotel outside the airport area is needed. For example, a flight to Anchorage with a hotel in Wasilla is requested in one search verses 2 on the old version.
Travel Policy Page
When searching for flights the number of options flagged as Out of Policy are reduced. Previously, the Out of Policy would flag for any flight option that was not the preferred carrier and all flight options more expensive than the lowest fare offered. This was frustrating to end users as sometimes there would be no option that appeared in policy. Now only higher fare options are flagged as Out of Policy.
Options flagged with an Out of Policy can still be booked, but the user must select from a short list of exceptions before moving on to the purchase page.
- FLIGHT TIMES OFFERED OUTSIDE BUSINESS HOURS
- ROUTING/CONNECTIONS OFFERED
- REFUNDABLE FARE
- FIRST/BUSINESS CLASS OR PAID UPGRADE
Check Out and Reporting Page
Itineraries that include hotel bookings, reflect an option to enter a temporary card to pay for a hotel. The default cards are still set, but if there is a business reason to use a different card this can now be accomplished in the system.
Changes to the reporting section are dynamic, which means depending on the selected itinerary and profile settings certain reporting questions are hidden. For example, unless you are a DPS employee you no longer see a reporting question for trooper escorts.
Other dynamic reporting questions
- Itineraries that include a non-preferred carrier require the user to select from a short list of reasons for not choosing a preferred carrier.
- Only itineraries that include a hotel reservation are asked if a CTS is needed. Users will still be asked about car CTS authorization, but this is being worked on.
- Only itineraries that include Alaska Airlines segments are asked if they wish to decline the auto-upgrade.
We encourage travel arrangers to provide feedback to these enhancements in our quarterly E-Travel Survey.
Year-End Taxable Travel Reimbursement Reminder
All taxable/reportable moving, mileage, and per diem payments to employees must be paid in HRM. Non-taxable/non-reportable reimbursements can be paid in FIN; however, HRM is the recommended process.
Per IRS regulations for W-2 reporting, transactions must be entered in the tax year in which the expenses were paid. This includes all Personal Use of a State Vehicle entries.
If an employee has been incorrectly paid out of IRIS-FIN for taxable/reportable travel a pay/recover transaction must be processed in HRM by DOP Payroll. See Correcting Reportable Reimbursements [PDF].
To ensure payments process in 2020, all OTPAYs for payments to employees should be entered in HRM by 12/15/2020. This will avoid corrected W-2’s from being issued to employees.
Employee Reimbursements (Travel, Non-Travel, and Moves)
All employee reimbursements can be processed in HRM via an OTPAY document. Depending on the type of reimbursement there are different steps required to processes an OTPAY. Two resource documents have been created: one for employee moves and another for all other types of employee reimbursements.
For travel reimbursements, the resource provides a list of Event types for taxable, nontaxable, and in state and out of state travel. These Event types are tied to an object code.
For non-travel reimbursements only one Event Type is used, but there is a list of allowable non-travel object codes.
Resources are located on the Division of Finance website under Moves, Travel Accounting, and IRIS References and Resources.
- Creating an OTPAY for Move Reimbursements [PDF]
- Located on Division of Finance under Moving
- Creating an OTPAY for Non-Move Reimbursements [PDF]
- Located on Division of Finance under the Travel Accounting section
In cases where an employee has been incorrectly paid out of IRIS-FIN for a taxable/reportable reimbursement a pay/recover transaction must be processed in HRM by DOP Payroll. See Correcting Reportable Reimbursements [PDF].