The following step-by-step narrative outlines the procedure to initialize Costpoint Travel. Special Topic TR-3 will outline the step-by-step procedures to use Costpoint Travel on a daily basis.
Establish module parameters in the Travel Settings screen. Some of the decisions that will need to be made include:
Choosing a numbering sequence for expense reports, advances, and trips.
Determining the company-wide ceiling on outstanding travel advances to be applied to each traveler. (This ceiling can be overridden on a traveler-by-traveler basis in the Vendor Travel Info screen.)
Deciding whether per diem should be calculated on a quarter-day or on a full-day basis.
Choosing a method of applying outstanding advances against expense reports submitted for reimbursement.
Determining whether or not approvals should be required, and if so, the minimum amount requiring approval.
Establishing aging columns for the Aging of Advances report.
This is an optional initialization that allows you to identify types of advances issued to travelers. Each traveler is assigned a default advance type in Vendor Travel Info, shown below.
A default charging account should also be identified in Maintain Advance Types screen.
This account, if initialized, will default when travel advances are entered. The Aging of Advances Report will use advance types as a report option.
This is another optional initialization that allows you to identify different types of transportation (e.g., rail, rental car, etc.).
Costpoint Travel requires that all traveling employees be set up in Costpoint Accounts Payable (A/P) as vendors. Costpoint Travel validates that all travel vendors exist in the A/P Vendor table. However, many A/P vendors are not vendors used by Costpoint Travel. Therefore, all lookups in Costpoint Travel use the Vendor Travel Info table to provide travel vendors available for use. Vendor Travel Info contains default charging information, a default advance type, and vendor overrides. Initialization is optional; however, lookups will be empty if travel vendors are not set up in this table. Each time a new vendor is added to Costpoint Accounts Payable, an option exists at that time to also create the vendor record in the Vendor Travel Info screen. If you need to create a travel vendor that already exists as an A/P vendor, this can be done via the Vendor Travel Info screen.
Travel account groups link and assign accounts (and, optionally, orgs and projects) to different posting and charging functions. These accounts are used by the expense report and travel posting programs (Create/Post AP Vouchers screen).
All travel expenditures must be assigned an expense type; for example, "MEALS" for "M&IE" (Meals & Incidental expenses), or "LODG" for "Lodging." Set up these expense types in the Maintain Expense Types screen. Properties of each expense type must also be defined at this time. For example, if an expense type is active only for a specific date range, this range must be entered. A standard rate per unit should also be identified for reimbursables, such as mileage.
Upon initialization, each expense type must also be flagged as to whether or not it will be used to charge M&IE (meals and incidental expenses), lodging, or relocation expenses. This is done in the Link To Travel Account Group subtask of the Maintain Expense Types screen. It is critical to correctly identify meals and lodging as such at this point, because the per diem calculations will use this information to calculate over-ceiling amounts. The final step is to assign an account group to each expense type.
This is an optional step. You can use the Vendor Travel Info screen, on a vendor-by-vendor basis, to identify the following information:
An override travel account group to be used when this vendor charges to accounts other than their selected default accounts.
An override ceiling rate for internal or company-specific per diem ceilings.
An override rate per unit for expense types such as mileage.
This step is required for clients who use the JTR ("Joint Travel Regulations") as a basis for per diem ceiling calculations. This file is maintained and updated monthly by the United States Federal Government. Costpoint supports an upload of both the CONUS and OCONUS per diem rates. These files are uploaded using the Update Per Diem Rates screen. Review exception reports for errors.
The Internet URL for the per diem files is:
http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem/pdrates.html
For more information on downloading the federal per diem information, please see the Update Per Diem Rates screen.
Edits to uploaded files can be made in the Maintain Per Diem Rates screen.
Clients who use their own internal per diem rates should next initialize these rates. Internal rates can be initialized in one of three ways:
Fixed Internal Rates - Clients who allow a fixed standard rate per day should establish these ceilings in the Maintain Expense Types screen. Each expense type supports a daily maximum, such as a $38 meal allowance. This ceiling does not depend on the trip location.
Internal Rates Used as a Substitute JTR - Clients who are not required to use the federal JTR, but are required to adhere to established daily rates by trip location, should add these rates in the Maintain Per Diem Rates screen. This type of ceiling is a substitute used in place of the JTR.
Internal Rates Used as a Percentage of the JTR - Clients who establish a per diem ceiling that is a fixed percentage of the JTR rate should enter that percentage in the Maintain Per Diem Rates screen. This form of internal ceiling is used by clients who hold travelers to the JTR ceilings when on contract travel, but may have indirect travel ceilings that are a fixed percentage (such as 110%) of the JTR. Clients can identify this internal fixed percentage when they upload per diem rates from the United States Federal Government web site as well.
The next step is to print and review the per diem rates entered in the Maintain Per Diem Rates screen.
This is an optional initialization that you should perform if you are required to track and apply individual meal maximums. Meal schedules allocate a daily per diem rate across each meal to arrive at a per-meal maximum.
Finally, use the Maintain Per Diem Rates screen to assign each meal schedule to the localities that it supports.
The next step is to print and review the M&IE schedules.
This is an optional step that you should perform if you are tracking relocation reimbursements through Costpoint Travel. Each type of relocation reimbursement should be set up in Costpoint in the Maintain Relocation Reimbursements screen. Each type of relocation reimbursement, such as house hunting expenses or storage expenses, should be initialized. When expense reports are entered, travel expenses for relocation will be assigned one of these relocation types.
The next step is to print and review Relocation Reimbursements.
The next step is to enter all outstanding advances by traveler. Outstanding advances are those advances posted and issued into Accounts Payable and the General Ledger before installation of Costpoint. Checks have already been issued for these advances. If an advance has not been posted to the General Ledger and Accounts Payable (a check not entered), it must be entered as a travel advance in the Enter Advance Requests screen. The advance should also be posted to Costpoint through the Create/Post AP Vouchers screen.
However, advances that already exist in the General Ledger and Accounts Payable should be initialized in the Maintain Advance History screen. The account and org used when initializing should be the same account and org to which the entry was posted. Outstanding advances can be entered by individual advance, or a summary outstanding advance can be entered per traveler. Only advances with an outstanding balance must be entered; however, you can initialize a complete advance history if you wish. All outstanding advances must exist in this screen in order to be applied against expense reports. The initialized balance of outstanding advances should tie to the General Ledger account balance for that account at the time of initialization.
All credit card or company-paid transactions that are unmatched at the time that Costpoint is initialized should be entered next. Unmatched company transactions are identified as follows:
Unpaid or paid vendor invoices (such as credit card invoices), that have not been matched to company-paid expenses submitted on an expense report
Any unpaid or paid expense reports with company-paid expenses that have not been matched to vendor or credit card invoices.
These expenses should be charged to the same account, org, and project in this screen that they were posted to in the General Ledger. Because matching occurs on a transaction basis, each outstanding expense must be individually entered. The initialized balance of the account or accounts charged for credit card or vendor invoices should tie to the initialized balance of the clearing or suspense account in the General Ledger.
If the type of transaction being entered is an unmatched expense report, it should be identified with a record type of "Expense Report." If the type of transaction being entered is an unmatched vendor invoice, it should be identified with a record type of "Company Expense."
You can optionally initialize expense report history by vendor. Historical expense reports are those that have been submitted, paid, and matched before the initialization of Costpoint. These records are entered for historical reporting purposes only.
You can optionally initialize company-paid history by vendor. Historical company-paid invoices are those that have been submitted, paid, and matched before the initialization of Costpoint. These records are entered for historical reporting purposes only.