Employee Travel Expense Processing

Employees should compile and submit travel expenses for reconciliation and/or reimbursement in Concur as soon as possible after returning from a trip.

Timely Submission

The University of Colorado’s accountable plan requires all business expenses including those related to travel be submitted within 90 days of when the expense was incurred, or within 90 days of the last date of travel, if incurred during business travel. Employees who do not meet the conditions of the University’s accountable plan will have the amount of the related expense(s) reported as table income on their pay advice as well as on IRS Form W-2.

Many departments across the university utilize assigned delegates to assist with expense report preparation and processing in Concur. It is, however, ultimately the employee’s responsibility to ensure understanding of and compliance with all applicable policies and processes for travel and related reimbursements.

Foreign Currency

When travel expenses include payments made in other (non-USD) currencies, employees are required to document the exchange rate and any associated fees as part of the reimbursement request. There is a currency exchange converter built-in to Concur that will assist with processing each transaction entered in the report. Entries with foreign currency should always be entered using the system conversion to ensure appropriate exchange rates are applied for each transaction.

Travel Card Transactions

Please note that transactions charged to a university-issued commercial card including the Travel Card can take several business days to appear in Concur for reconciliation. Once all travel-related charges appear in Concur, and/or once all receipts are available for cash/out-of-pocket payments, employees should initiate, complete, and submit their travel expense report.

Reminders and Tips

• Don’t forget to include your itemized hotel receipt (folio) with your lodging entry on your expense report.
• Employees are eligible to receive a daily travel allowance (per diem) while in travel status. Be sure to exclude any meals provided by your hotel and/or conference when adding the per diem to an expense report. Also be sure to check with your department for any department-generated limitations on per diem reimbursements. 
• Mileage to and from the airport/airport parking can be reimbursed in many cases (after deducting the round-trip daily work commute for on-campus or hybrid employees). Be sure to use the Concur Mileage calculator to add this expense entry. See also Calculating Reimbursable Mileage and Ground Transportation for examples on when to deduct your work commute.
• Once your report is complete, look at Details --> Totals in Concur to review whether the University owes you money, or if you owe the university.

Knowledge articles on how to set up and process expense reports in Concur can be found in the links below:

• Concur Expense: Reconciling Employee Travel
• Concur Expense: Creating a New Employee Expense Report
• Concur Expense: Adding an Expense
• Concur Expense: Available Receipts Section
• Concur Expense: How to Attach an Approved Request to a New Expense Report
• Concur Expense: Managing Itineraries & Travel Allowance (Per Diem/Meals) for Employees
• Concur Expense: Mileage Reimbursements
• Concur Expense: Hotel/Lodging Itemizations
• Concur Expense: How to Add a Request to an Existing Travel Reconciliation Report
• Concur Expense: Determining Reimbursement (or Owed) Amounts on Expense Reports

Processing Non-Travel Employee Expenses

Information on reconciling Procurement Card expenses can be found on the Commercial Card program website. 

Information on submitting reimbursement requests for cash/out-of-pocket payments for business expenses can be found on Reimbursements.