Resources

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 employee 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.

Instructions

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. If you initiate the form, NextGen will send you email notifications after each step is completed, including payment issuance.

  1. Use the Mileage Log (PDF) to record local mileage as it is accrued.
    1. The mileage log is required backup documentation for reimbursement.
    2. If the log does not include odometer readings, online mileage maps of the routes are also required as backup.
  2. Fill out and submit the Local Mileage Reimbursement (LMR) NextGen form.

Contact our office if you need assistance filling out the form.

  1. Advise employees (payees) to use the mileage log to record local mileage as it is accrued.
    1. This is required backup documentation for local mileage reimbursements. If odometer readings are not documented on the log, online mileage maps of the routes are also required as backup.
    2. Travelers can also use this log as backup documentation for mileage reimbursements issued through Concur
  2. Encumbrances are not required for an LMR. Instead, reimbursements are keyed as a direct pay using the next available invoice number.
  3. The payee themselves can fill out and submit the form, but administrative staff can still complete this on their behalf.
  4. 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.)
  5. 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.
  6. Once signed by all parties, the form routes to OFA for review and payment issuance.

The Office of Finance & Accounting (OFA) Travel Finance team maintains the local mileage NextGen form and mileage log. Contact our office or theirs if there are issues with or questions about these forms.

  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.