Individuals traveling internationally are required by UT travel policy to have an approved Request to Travel. See university fiscal policy FI0705 - Travel. The approved request gives a traveler permission to travel on university business. It also allows the traveler to claim reimbursement for travel expenses or to have expenses paid on their behalf by the university. Any traveler who is requesting a cash advance also must have an approved request, regardless of the trip type. The request is the vehicle through which the cash advance is requested. Finally, a request is required for all non-resident aliens.
NOTE: The traveler must have the travel request created and approved before taking the trip.
To create a new request, go to the Manage Requests screen and click Create New Request.
From the Create New Request screen, click Request Type and select Request to Travel (this is the default). Fill out the form with the pertinent information. If there are multiple destinations, enter the one that is the furthest or the most sensitive (such as an Export Control country). List additional destinations in the Comments field. Make sure the Trip Type is consistent with the Destination. It is helpful to add Comments to the header to give any information that would be helpful to the approvers (and the auditors if a cash advance being requested). The comments should include the who, what, when, where, and why of the trip. This can reduce the chances of the request being returned. Once the form is filled out, click Create Request.
Once the request is created, the Expected Expense screen will be displayed. The expenses entered here are estimates of the cost of the trip. If the department requires cost estimates or if a cash advance is requested, add all expenses with realistic cost estimates. If a cash advance is not being requested and the department does not require an estimate of expenses, the request can be submitted with only one expense which can be for zero dollars. At least one expense must be present, as this drives the approval path. To learn more about cash advances, please see the FAQ article Travel: Requesting a Cash Advance.
Click on Add and a list of the expense types is displayed. Select the desired expense type. In the search at the top of the list, enter all or part of an expense type and the list will be filtered to show only those with matching text.
The expense entry screens will vary depending on the expense type. Complete the entries and click Save.
If more than one fund is paying for the trip, the workflow will route to all cost object approvers. To allocate the cost across multiple funds, select the expenses to be allocated and click Allocate. For additional information, please see the FAQ article Travel: Allocating Expenses.
Once all expenses have been added and the request is ready to be approved, click Submit Request.
Request Approval Flow
The travel request approval path is determined by the Trip Type and Destination, while card requests follow a defined path. All requests route first to the Cost Object Approver(s). International trips require approval from the Campus International Office and the Campus Business Officer. If the international destination is an export-controlled country, Campus Export Control office approval is required. Requests with a cash advance require final approval from the Request Processor. If the cash advance is $10,000 or greater, Campus Business Officer approval is required.
Managing Requests
Approved travel requests will remain in the Active view of requests for 90 days. From 90 – 180 days, they can be found under Active Requests > Approved. These can be linked to an expense report. Currently, approved requests stay active for 180 days past the end date of the trip. After that time, the system automatically closes them, and they can no longer be linked to an expense report. If an expense report needs to be linked to a request older than 180 days, a new request must be created and approved. Contact travel support at travel@tennessee.edu for specifics of creating this type of request.
Tip: Requests can be copied to save time entering new requests for routine travel.
If you have questions or need additional assistance using the University’s travel system, please contact travel@tennessee.edu.