Frequently Asked Questions

You can define an unlimited number of expenses on the Expense Type (EXPT) table.

Yes. A Travel Expense Report (TRER) transaction can be submitted without having a previously submitted Travel Authorization (TRAUTH) transaction. However, a Travel Advance (TRADV) transaction cannot be submitted without referencing a TRAUTH.

The Travel transactions allow you to specify multiple travelers as long as it is for the same trip. This is because the trip information is stored in the Header tab of the Travel transaction and only one Trip ID (the unique identifier for a trip) is allowed per transaction. Specifying multiple travelers for the same trip is accomplished by adding multiple lines in the Traveler topic of the Travel transaction.

In that case, you will want to check the Multi-Segment Trip flag on the Header of the Travel transaction. This will allow you to leave the destination fields on the Header blank so that you can specify different destinations on the Trip Details lines.

Yes. Since not every destination may be coded in the DSTN table, the Travel transaction allows for flexibility in specifying the travel location. If the Destination field is specified, the address fields (for example, Address, City, State, and so forth) are automatically populated by inferring the information from the DSTN table. If the Destination field is not specified, then the user can populate the address fields instead. This is true of the destination fields in the Travel transaction’s Header and Trip Details tabs.

Please refer to the "Determining the Applicable Travel Policy" topic for information on how the system determines the travel policy that is effective for a particular traveler.

The department policy defined in the Department Travel Policy by Expense Type (TRPETD) table will override the state-wide policy defined in the Travel Policy by Expense Type (TRPET) table. The department policy represents exceptions that are only applicable to a particular department. These exceptions should be regularly reviewed to ensure that they are still valid.

Please refer to the "Travel Transaction Updates" topic for information on the updates that take place once the Travel transaction is successfully submitted.

Since a Travel transaction may be routed to other parties before it can be submitted to Final (for example, routed to the accounts payable team to enter accounting-related details or routed to the traveler’s supervisor for approval), it may be necessary to notify the transaction submitter or the traveler (if the transaction was submitted via a proxy). If the Send Email Notification flag is checked on certain transactions, a notification can be sent to the specified email address. Notifications can be triggered for the approval/modification/cancellation of travel authorizations, travel advances, and travel expense reports as well as for the actual disbursement of travel advances or reimbursements.

Please refer to the "Trip Cancellations" topic for information on the two different ways that trips can be cancelled in Advantage.

Yes. If the advance is $100 and actual expenses reported is $80, the outstanding unused advance amount is $20. The system could apply the $20 to a future expense report or the traveler could be billed. It is a manual process to bill the traveler using a Receivable (RE) transaction. After that, it would go through the normal Accounts Receivable process of billing and collections. If subsequently deemed uncollectible, the outstanding unused advance could be written off.

The Taxable Expense Trigger (TAXET) table is only updated automatically by the Travel Expense Report (TRER) transaction when the Taxable Expense flag is selected on the TRER’s Trip Details line. In the case of unused advances that are deemed to be taxable, a user can also manually add entries to the TAXET table.