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This page provides instructions for the PERG member who has been authorized to submit travel approval and travel expense forms on ARES. Currently, that member is Mike, who was trained by Renee Michelle.
If you have any questions, see Cheryl in purchasing
Below you will find instructions for submitting travel expenses:
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If traveling in-state (ie, by car or metro) and do not need lodging, then there is no need to get authorization in advance for the travel. In that case, just do an expense statement when the meeting is over and indicate "In state" on the first page as the sub code, leaving the "trip number" block blank.
Otherwise:
1) Get
a) full name
b) social security number
c) FRS number
d) what will be reimbursed them for the travel
e) what airline they are flying on and the dates of their travel
f) who is authorizing the reimbursement
g) if the person is our visitor, the address where her check should be mailed
of all participants of the trip.
2) Go to ARES (http://ares.umd.edu/home/) and then click on Electronic Forms and then Access my Forms
3) Login
4) New Form
5) Yes should be bubbled in, click Travel Approval Request
6) If you have already completed a form for a traveler, but are now going back to make changes, then click "yes" next to "Is this a Trip Adjustment?"
7) Contact phone is our office, (301) 405-6185
8) Travel Agency - Other - "Self-arranged"
9) Next tab, "Travel": Date is of the form month/ day/ year. Include extra days to be absolutely sure that the entire trip will be covered. It will be corrected later
10) If driving, type *** into the airline code. If train, ###. Then, under the "Notes" tab, note that
you would either drive or take Metro, or take Amtrak and from where to where.
In the box asking for the purpose of the trip, include details of where and what dates the (for example) conference will be taking place
11) Select "Confirmed" and then select either "Confirmed" if travel is out of the USA or "N/A"
12) Next tab, "Meal Detail": Click OK for now. Again, it will be modified to be more accurate later
13) Other expenses, like transportation and conference fees are recorded on the next tab, under "costs". Get the cost of the plane, the hotel, ground transportation, etc. before sending the Travel Approval Request. If you don't, you will need to do an Adjustment before the Travel Expense Form if the actual costs are more than 10% different than what's projected.
14) In the comments section you need to note who is authorizing for the person to be reimbursed. If the trip is for a
At any time, click Save to save the form
Click Check to ensure there are no errors
Next to "Send to" click "Change", "Add Adressee"
Next to "Get all groups", type "Physics Travel"
Click "Add this group"
Also add "Cheryl Ekstrom"
Then click Send to send the form
Tell all travelers and visitors to the school to keep track of what meals they eat and to keep all receipts that are not associated with meals. Note that, according to Sarah Megonigal, it is not necessary to keep receipts from transportation within the US. Meals are per diem, but ground transportation needs a receipt to be reimbursed. The airline ticket must have name of traveler, total price, and method of payment (ie, credit card name, last 4 digits, and expiration date).
Give visitors to UMD this form: Form for visitors to UMD for reimbursement.doc
1. Go to: ARES / Electronic Forms/ Access my forms
2. Before the travel expense form, you’ll need to get info from the approved travel approval form. Write down the trip number. Also check whether the meals the traveller planned on having were the meals s/he had, and note the number of meals (3B, 3L, 2D) for example, and the total cost.
3. Go to "New form": choose travel expense
4. put in trip number and SSN twice, look up trip data. Contact name, phone number and e-mail address are your own. If there is some problem with the form, they will contact you.
(From this point on, you go through all of the tabs at the top, starting from left and going to the right.)
5. If filling this out for a guest visitor: If the speaker isn't from UM, check the box that says no to "Is the traveller on the UM payroll?" and then you can add in their address.
6. Go to the Itinerary tab if you’ve driven. There will be *** marks if you had submitted that you intended to drive. (There are airport codes there if you flew and ### marks for the train.) If doing an expense form, put ### or *** in the origin and destination code boxes if applicable.
Don’t put mileage in as an other expense; it should be done in itinerary, which then automatically adds to the expenses page.
7. Go to expense tab.Add one row as necessary. The date doesn't really matter. Keep adding expenses until you’re done, then hit the exit button. Do not list hotel room plus Internet as one lump sum. You should separate these out, and designate the room as "housing" (cost code 02) and the Internet access as "phone/fax/communications" (cost code 04). Meals are per diem at $8 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and $24 for dinner, totaling $42 per day.
8. Then Attestation and Comments. (Possible notes include calculation of cost of driving, which is $.55 per mile [but note that Sarah Megonigal says that it's not necessary to note the cost of driving here, because it was already done previously on itinerary]or costs that are split across multiple travelers.) When a speaker comes, you do a reviewer attestation. You don't need the visitor's signature (you can sign for her... however: From Sarah Megonigal - "Often visitors need to mail the reimbursing group some additional receipts after they return home (parking at home airport, taxi, etc.), and the expense statement must be created when they are no longer present to sign the form. If a reviewer is going to sign the expense statement instead of a visitor, he would sign his OWN name. However, in this case, a visitor travel attestation form (stating that the visitor has been e-mailed his expense statement, and has had time to notify the reviewer of any problems) on your group's letterhead must be attached. I will attach a copy of this form for your use. (The paper that is being referenced is available here) I find it is often easier to simply sign the visitor's name instead of going through the above procedure, but you can use your own judgment.)". When you’re doing it for an employee, it’s a traveler attestation. This is OK because they will sign the form you print out. Say who is approving the reimbursement.
10. In the box asking for the purpose of the trip, include details of where and what dates the (for example) conference will be taking place
11. Save.
12. Choose check tab. This checks for errors.
13. Use the form that you just e-mailed. Print the travel expense form (It has to be signed and receipts attached.) Make photocopies of everything that you mail (including receipts - NOTE: The airline ticket must have name of traveler, total price, and method of payment (ie, credit card name, last 4 digits, and expiration date).). Put forms and original receipts (Please don't staple forms or receipts; use a paper clip
If taping several small receipts to a larger sheet of paper, DO NOT tape over receipt totals.) in an interdepartmental envelope and it needs to be “mailed” internally to Sarah M. For name, write “Sally Megonigal, Box 468" and below it write "Travel Form.” For Dept, write "Physics" and put it in either of the High Energy mailboxes if Box 468 does not exist in the mail room.
14. Electronically send both the travel expense form and the travel approval form to Physics Travel. Use the Send button at top left.
Useful side notes:
If you have trouble accessing ARES, try using a different browser.
Inbox holds docs that have been approved.
Status holds docs that you’ve submitted but haven’t been approved yet.
Draft tab hold docs that you haven’t submitted yet.
You only need to get the SSN once, for the trip request. To pull that SSN up for use with the expense form, just print preview the travel approval request.