Resources

Reimbursements to Employees

Direct Pay

The Direct Pay process is to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket expenses incurred on behalf of the university in situations where a requisition, call number, limited purchase order or a ProCard purchase was not possible due to abnormal circumstances.

Reimbursement of such expenses are made at the risk of the employee, as reimbursement is not guaranteed and may be denied by the AVC for Financial Services if it does not fit the intent of such reimbursements as outlined in the Direct Pay Reimbursements policy memo (PDF).

Only reimbursements for expenses over $100 and representational allowances are processed through OFA. The Office of the Bursar processes reimbursements under $100 as petty cash transactions. Visit the Bursar's website for more information.

Enter a general encumbrance in Banner (FGAENCB) using journal type "DP01." Once completed, submit the required documents to the Accounts Payable team at OFA.

Required Documents:

 

Local Mileage

UAF employees and volunteers sometimes use their personal vehicle to accomplish university business such as visiting local markets or stores for supplies, traveling to alternative locations to instruct or visiting other organizations in the community as a part of an outreach program. Local travel is defined as business travel occurring within a 50 mile radius of one's home or duty station. In some cases, the university will reimburse the traveler for these trips.

Local mileage rates are set in accordance with the federal rates and are updated each calendar year. Mileage for commuting from home to primary duty station is not reimbursable per IRS guidelines. Mileage is intended to cover fuel, repairs, wear and tear, etc. for the person's vehicle while it is being used for university-related work.

We use a NextGen form for reimbursement of local mileage and associated expenses (e.g., parking). The form is designed to easily collect all pertinent information needed to issue these reimbursements and contains instructions on how to complete each section, including how to determine the authorized approver. NextGen will also send email notifications to the form initiator after each step is completed, including payment issuance.

  1. Have the employee (payee) use the mileage log on the OFA Forms page to record local mileage as it is accrued.
  2. Fill out and submit the Local Mileage Reimbursement (LMR) form on the OFA Forms page or the Travel Customer Service Office (TCSO) website.
    1. Encumbrances are not required for an LMR. Instead, OFA keys reimbursements as a direct pay using the next available invoice number.
    2. The payee themselves can fill out and submit the form, but administrative staff can still complete this on their behalf.
    3. The mileage log is attached to the form as backup documentation. If the log does not include odometer readings, online mileage maps of the routes are also required as backup.
  3. Once submitted, the form routes to the payee for signature. (There is an option to indicate the initiator is the payee which will skip this step.)
  4. Once signed by the payee, the form routes to the designated approver(s). (There is an option to indicate the payee is a travel self-approver which will skip this step.)
    1. The form initiator will assign the designated approver through the form fields.
    2. Mileage paid on restricted funding is approved by the PI/Co-PI/Researcher as documented in Banner.
    3. Mileage paid on unrestricted funding is approved by the department Financial Manager or the employee's supervisor as documented in Banner.
    4. If the payee is the expenditure authority, supervisor approval is required.
  5. Once signed by all parties, the form routes to OFA for review and payment issuance.

  1. Assign a TA number (used as the "Document #" on the encumbrance) to the employee’s local mileage for the fiscal year
    1. Please assign
      1. One employee per TA number
      2. One TA number per fiscal year
    2. A paper TA is not required for reimbursement, but departments can still use one for internal calculation, approvals or tracking purposes
  2. Encumber the funds once approved
  3. The LMR form will include a field to enter the "Document #" for the encumbrance
    1. The document number, fund, org, account code, activity code (if applicable) and vendor ID on the LMR must match the corresponding information on the encumbrance
    2. OFA cannot change these fields in Banner when keying the payment
    3. If there are discrepancies between the encumbrance and LMR, OFA will hold the reimbursement request until those discrepancies are corrected by the department
    4. Vendor field can remain blank on the encumbrance; OFA can enter a vendor ID if this field is blank 
  4. The reimbursement is keyed from the encumbrance using "T<number>A" (B, C, D, etc.) as the invoice number

The 20xx travel account codes are no longer valid except for 2006. Local mileage falls under the 21xx series if not 2006.

 

Moving & Relocation Allowance

A relocation allowance is used to issue payment to employees for moving or relocation expenses in accordance with Board of Regents policy (R05.02.060.B.) and university regulations.​

Fill out and submit the electronic Relocation Allowance Form on the OFA Forms page or the UA Human Resources Forms page. 

An encumbrance is not required for this payment. Departments must inform AP if they have opted to establish an encumbrance for this.

In some rare instances, the electronic form will not work for a particular relocation allowance request. When this happens, the department may submit the Relocation Allowance Request (PDF).

Follow these instructions if submitting this form instead:

  1. Submit the completed form with applicable signatures (according to UA Regulation 05.02.06.B.) to the AP team at OFA
  2. Include encumbrance information if the department has opted to establish one for the payment (encumbrances are not required though)
  3. Include with the submission the details of why the electronic form does not work
    Note: Acceptable reasons include requesting a relocation allowance for a non-exempt employee.

The PDF form option is only available for a limited time as development of the electronic form is finalized to accommodate all possible scenarios.

 

Our staff are happy to answer questions and help navigate the employee reimbursement process.

Note: Employee business travel expenses are reimbursed through the UA Travel System using Concur. Visit the Travel Customer Service Office website for information on travel reimbursements.