For Domestic trips, complete the Domestic Pay by Employee and Domestic Direct Bill UGA lines.
For International trips, complete the International Pay by Employee and International Direct Bill UGA lines.
Failure to complete the details sections accurately will result in your travel authorization being denied. You will then need to create a new travel authorization and begin the approval process again.
Fiscal Year Blanket Travel Authorizations are available for in-state travel only and with the following guidelines:
A Travel Authorization is a form that an employee submits to acquire the permissions needed to receive reimbursement for travel and provide the University with some expense estimates. Travel Authorizations will be required for all out-of-sate (which includes international) travel, and some departments may require TA's for in-state travel. UGA policy considers travel out-of-state if the travel is more than 50 miles outside of Georgia.
First, log into the UGA Financial Management System.
On the Employee Self Service homepage, click the Travel Authorizations tile.
Click the Add Travel Authorization button.
The Travel Authorization page is displayed. This page allows you to add information to create a new travel request.
Enter a brief description of the trip purpose in the Description field.
Example shown here: "Spring Conference 2024".
In the Business Purpose field, click the drop-down menu to choose the travel purpose.
Click the appropriate Business Purpose option.
Note: You would choose "Out-of-State Travel" for international travel.
Example shown here: Out-of-State Travel.
The Comments field should not be used. Nothing entered will display to approvers in workflow.
The Billing Type can only be set to Default.
Click the Billing Type drop-down menu.
Click the Default Value option.
You can enter an Accounting Tag into the Accounting Tag field, if applicable.
An Accounting Tag is a ten character "short cut" for populating financial information. The Accounting Tag will populate the associated accounting details, except Budget Reference, which must be entered manually.
To enter the ChartField details manually, click the Accounting Default button.
The Travel Authorization Defaults page is displayed. You can enter accounting details for the travel authorization here. The Bud Ref is the fiscal year to which the expense should be charged.
Enter the Budget Reference into the Bud Ref field.
Example shown here: "2024".
Enter appropriate information into the Fund field from your department's chartstring.
Example shown here: enter "10000".
Enter appropriate information into the Program field from your department's chartstring.
Example shown here: enter "16300".
Be sure to review the accounting details before closing the window. Use the scrollbar at the bottom of the window to review the entire chartstring.
Note: If the department code lists "74999999", you MUST change that to reflect the appropriate unit, college, or school. Failure to change this field will result in your TA going to the wrong approval workflow.
Enter appropriate information into the Dept field from your department's chartstring.
Example shown here: "6106".
Click the corresponding Department link.
Example shown here: Department 6106XXX2.
Enter appropriate information into the Class field.
Example shown here: "11200".
When you are done entering the accounting information, click the Done button in the top right corner.
Enter the location from which you are traveling in the *Travel From field.
Note: When selecting a domestic travel location, search by state name, then city name. If the city does not appear, select the state option labelled "Standard Rate" (non-high cost).
When selecting an international travel location, search by country name, then city name. If the city does not appear select "Country, Other."
Example shown here: "Headquarters".
Click the appropriate Expense Location link.
Example shown here: Headquarters option.
Note : You can enter Headquarters as your travel from location. Headquarters is a location set up in your travel profile.
For In-State Travel destinations all 159 Georgia counties are listed under Travel To. Select the appropriate county.
Note: For blanket travel authorizations or multiple destinations record any additional counties using the Notes feature.
Enter appropriate information into the *Travel To field.
Example shown here: "Tenn".
Click the corresponding Expense Location link.
Example shown here: TN004 link for Memphis, TN.
Enter the appropriate departure and return dates in the *Date From and *Date To fields.
In the Details section of the Travel Authorization, employees should provide estimates of anticipated expenses for the trip.
For DOMESTIC trips, use rows one and two to provide the estimates.
For INTERNATIONAL trips, use rows three and four to provide the estimates.
The Populate from Travel Authorizations button will create a new blank expense line with chartstring information from a prior TA.
Note: This is optional and does not populate any information from the prior TA such as description, business purposes, travel locations, dates, etc.
In the appropriate Pay by Employee Description field, enter a brief description of the anticipated expense types the employee expects to incur while traveling, including lodging, car rental, per diem, conference registration, etc.
Example shown here: "Lodging, Car Rental".
In the appropriate Amount field, enter the estimated total costs of the expenses.
Example shown here: "1145".
The Details button provides a brief description of the individual Expense Line. Related chartstring informatinon is populated under the Accounting button.
For any charges being direct billed to UGA by a travel agency, enter a brief list of the expense types of any direct-billed items in the appropriate Direct Bill UGA Description field.
Example shown here: "Airfare".
This row also requires selecting a Merchant.
To select a UGA Authorized Travel Agency, click the Merchant drop-down menu.
Click the corresponding Merchant link.
Example shown here: Travel, Inc .
Enter the dollar value of the direct billed expenses into the appropriate Amount field.
Example shown here: "469".
The total amount is displayed in the bottom right corner. Across the bottom, a notice and link provide for guidance in determining Per Diem Rates and reasonable lodging expense for an area.
To save the travel authorization to review and submit at a later time, click the Save button.
Note: After saving, you can access the saved authorization under the Pending link on the Travel Authorization Search page.
The Notes feature allows the initiator to add additional information to validate the critical nature of the travel. Any information that approvers may need is entered here.
Note : The Notes feature is not accessible until the Travel Authorization has been saved.
Click the Notes button.
Click the Add Notes button.
Use the Notes feature to provide additional information about the name and location of the event, what you will be doing, and what funds you hope to be reimbursed from for the trip.
Once appropriate justification is entered, click the Done button.
Your notes have been saved.
The Edit function on the Travel Authorization Notes window allows you to delete a selected note and add a new one.
Click the Done button.
A confirmation message appears indicating that your note has been saved.
Before submitting your travel authorization, verify that you have completed the correct lines in the detail section. Domestic trips should use the first two lines, while international trips use the last two lines.
Failure to do this correctly will result in your travel authorization being denied.
Click the Submit button.
The Essential Travel Confirmation pop-up window is displayed. The traveler is required to submit acknowledgement of UGA policy on travel and possible related health risks.
A confirmation message indicates that the travel authorization has been submitted for approval. A TA ID number is also generated.