Budget & Finance Knowledge Base - How to Request and Reconcile a Travel Cash Advance

Overview

This article provides guidance on the steps that need to be taken to request, reconcile, and return an unused travel cash advance.

Essential Information

Travelers who have been issued a university corporate Travel and Entertainment (T&E) card are required to use the card for cash advances, except under exceptional circumstances outlined in policy such as traveling to a remote location.
A cash advance must be substantiated with a valid business purpose before it can be issued by the Travel office.
An example of a valid business purpose: traveling to a remote location where credit cards are not accepted by merchants.
Cash advances can be requested for meals, incidental expenses, and ground transportation wherever a Travel & Entertainment Card is not accepted.
All cash advances must be expensed/reconciled within 21 days after travel concludes.
A cash advance may not be requested as a means to reimburse a traveler for out-of-pocket expenses prior to trip completion and before completing the expense report.
Unsubstantiated cash advances are treated as taxable income to the traveler.

Next Steps

How to Request a Cash Advance

Log in to Concur via Single Sign-On.
Select the Request module at the top of the homepage.
Select Create New Request and follow steps 3 - 10 in article KB0032013, How to Create a Travel Request in Concur.
Click on the Request Details dropdown and then select Add Cash Advance to request the cash advance on your Travel Request.
Add the Cash Advance Amount requested.
Provide detailed Cash Advance Comment (NOTE: Cash advances can only be requested for meals, incidental expenses, and ground transportation).
Select Save
Below you will see the amount for the cash advance being requested on the main page of the Expense Report.
You will then need to add the Expected Expenses such as Meals, Incidentals, and Ground transportation
Remember to Allocate. If the expense report is complete and all the required documents are given, before submitting the expense report, please ensure all expense lines are allocated appropriately
- To learn how to allocate expenses, please refer to KB0032337: How to Allocate Expenses in Concur
Once you have entered all the estimated expenses, then you can submit the Request.

How to Add a Cash Advance to Your Expense Report

Once your request has been approved, and the trip has concluded, you can proceed with creating an expense report to reconcile the cash advance by following these steps:

Open all your requests, locate your request, and select the Create your expense option on the top right.
Open your report header and ensure that all the information is correct.
Select Report details then Manage Cash Advances.
Select add

5. Select the cash advance you would like to link to your expense, then select Add then close.

6. Once your cash advance has been added you will see it on your expense home page.

How to Reconcile Your Cash Advance in an Expense Report

You can now reconcile the cash advance by adding the expenses where the cash advance was used by following these steps:

Select Add Expense
Select the Create New Expense tab.
Select the expenses that the cash advance was used on, for example meals, incidental expenses, and ground transportation.
Fill in all required fields.
In order to ensure the given cash advance is deducted from the total, the Payment Type of “Payment to Employee" must be chosen
Once complete select Save Expense.
As you can see below the remaining amount of the cash advance is now $100.
8. You can now add additional expenses that were paid by the cash advance by repeating steps 1 - 6 until the remaining amount is $0 shown in the screenshot.
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NOTE: As a reminder, receipts and a valid business purpose are required for any expenses over $75.
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9. Once all expenses have been added, submit the expense.

Returning unused cash advance

In a case where the traveler does not use the full amount of the request cash advance, the traveler must return any unused amount back to the University. To return funds, follow these steps:

In the screenshot below you can see that there is a remaining balance of $75 which was not used and needs to be returned.
Select Add Expense
Select Create New Expense
Select Cash Advance Return

5. Add the date and the amount of the cash advance being returned, once completed, Save the expense.

The remaining amount of the cash advance should now be $0, and there should be no other expense to be added (as shown below) select Submit Report

Have the traveler submit payment to UCSD cashier office for the unused cash advance they need to return.
1. KB0033866, How to Complete the Cashiers Deposit Form
2. Cashier Deposit Form

Submit a Cashier's Deposit Form for Repayment (When Applicable)

Do not submit a check or fill out a Cashier's Deposit Form until the Concur expense report shows a final status of "Sent for Payment"

Submit an electronic Cashier’s Deposit Form (or ask your Fund Manager to submit it) via Services & Support.
Include the information:
1. Department: make a selection
2. Business Unit: make a selection
3. Email: skip as this should be auto-populated.
4. Receipt Type: miscellaneous
5. Amount (with decimal): enter the amount of the deposit with decimal.
6. Tax Amount: leave blank
7. Cash Deposit - Chart String(s): click Add and follow Step 5 below.
8. Additional Comments: include the name of the individual sending the check (if applicable), the full name of the cardholder, include a note this is for a "P-card or T&E Card Personal Charge Repayment" and Concur Report ID number (which can be obtained from the Concur Expense Report Header).
Since the charge was made on a centrally-billed University Card, it was paid by the University (specifically, UCSD IPPS) and the transaction resides in the UCSD Travel/Procurement Card clearing account. Solely for the repayment/deposit steps, you must complete the following fields and use the specific chart string below to repay the proper UCSD financial unit. Note that when using the Personal / Non-Reimbursable expense type in Concur, the expense would not post to the department chart string even though it is required for the expense report.
1. Deposit Type: Other
2. Payment Amount: enter the amount to be deposited again.
3. Chart of Accounts Information field for the Cash Deposit must be populated with:
  - Entity: 16150/Fund: 13001/Financial Unit: 5000051/Account: 101063/Function: 000/Program: 000/Location: 000000/Funding Source: 0000000/Project: 00000000.
  - IMPORTANT: do not use this chart string in the Concur expense report – your department chart string is used for the Concur Expense Report (See Step B.2.a above) while the above chart string should only be used for the Cashier's Deposit Form.
Write a check payable to UC Regents and send it to the following address (either via USPS or Intracampus mail) and provide the Services and Support Case number used for the Cash Deposit along with the check:

UC San Diego Cashier’s Office
9500 Gilman Drive MC 0009
La Jolla, CA 92093-0009
After taking those steps, IPPS will ensure that the repayment will be applied against the credit memo. Clearing of the credit memo is done monthly after the month-end ledger closing.
If needed, add additional Expenses, then click Submit Report.

Supplemental Information

While the cash advance should be submitted to the Central Office well in advance, the cash advance itself is issued not more than two weeks before the travel start date.
The amount breakdown of the cash advance being requested must be explained in detail in the Travel Request.
- Example: Meals & Incidentals maximum allowable amount per day for five days.
A cash advance may not be requested as a means to reimburse a traveler for out-of-pocket expenses prior to trip completion and expense reconciliation.
Employees must return any unused cash advance amount at the time of trip reconciliation.

Questions?

If you need any additional assistance, please submit a ticket here.