Video gives overview of new travel management system

October 22, 2018

University Relations

The University of Alaska will soon launch Concur, a new paperless travel management system. Concur for Travel is a one-stop shop for all things travel, from submitting the initial planning request and booking your trip to uploading receipts and completing your expense reports.  Gone are the days of tracking paper receipts. Travelers can simply snap pictures of their receipts and upload them to their expense report.

You can watch a 10-minute overview of the Concur travel management system.  The video does not contain UA’s Concur configuration, but the UA site will be similar to the one in the video.

Transition over to Concur Travel will be phased over the next few months, with the goal of all university travelers using the system by June 2019. “We are confident that it will streamline processes for travelers, travel coordinators and delegates/approvers, while saving a few trees,” said Geoff Jacobs, UA finance business process analyst.

New UA travel cards will be used with the Concur tool. The university pays for the business expenses on the card directly so the traveler will no longer bear the burden of personally paying for the trip and then waiting for reimbursement. The card transactions feed directly into concur and reconcile when assigned to the expense report, streamlining the expense reporting process. The trip expenses will post to the departments account after the expense report is completed.

All university employees will also receive access to Concur’s TripIt, a mobile app that organizes all flight details in one place. “TripIt will give you real-time flight updates, information about gate changes and track your reward points. It can even help find another flight if yours gets canceled," Jacobs said.

Pilot training is currently underway for travel coordinators and arrangers at UAS, UAF and statewide. Additionally, pilot training for travelers and delegate/approvers will begin in early November. UAA will begin transitioning over to the UA travel management system in January 2019. Training for all employees associated with travel activities will also be available beginning January 2019.

For more details, regular updates and future training registration please join our UA-travel-project listserv. For questions regarding the travel project or the new process, call 450-8785 (TRVL) or email ua-travel@alaska.edu.