Travel and Expense
The Road to a Streamlined & Efficient
Implementation
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Your Presenter
» Bobbi Walker, MAcc
› Financial Systems Principal
› University of Missouri
› Accounts Payable Functional Lead
› Asset Management Functional Lead
› Travel and Expense Functional Lead
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University of Missouri
Campuses
Total enrollment, Fall 2010
Total degrees granted, FY10
Total faculty, Fall 2010
Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis
71,596
14,896
7,814
(67% full-time, 33% part-time)
Total staff, Fall 2010
16,718
(75% full-time, 25% part-time)
Total student financial aid
Net book value of capital assets, as of FY09
Land holdings
FY11 Travel Spend
2010 Benchmark Cost to Process Travel
Number of Travel Vouchers
$794.2 million
$2.5 billion
19,428.74 acres
$24.2 million
$2.7 million
50,566
Cost Per Voucher
$51.30 (peers were $23.43)
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Problem Statement
» The University of Missouri uses a paper-based
process to manage travel expense
reimbursement. Compliance with existing travel
policy is enforced by the Campus Accounting
Offices through manual review of expense
reimbursement requests. Therefore the process
lacks automation and requires manual
intervention for ensuring policy compliance.
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What Do We Want?
»
»
»
»
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Specific reimbursement data
Travel data for negotiation with vendors
Efficient Workflow
Electronic storage of receipts
Integration with PeopleSoft
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Current Methodology
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Shared Services Initiative
» Customer-focused organizational model
that reduced inefficiencies and duplicative
costs and increases customer service by:
› Continually improving the quality of services
provided
› Demonstrating superior customer service via
metrics that benchmark effectiveness
› Leveraging automation to improve processes
› Examining policies to reduce manual effort and
optimize associated processes
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T&E Cost ($) per Transaction – Overall
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T&E Cost ($) per Invoice – Operating Unit
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Other Observations
» University policies allowed departments and
campuses to be more restrictive
› Used to limit the amount of reimbursement
› Employees not treated equitably
» Collection of travel data was done manually
› Paper vouchers with detail being processed as a
single amount in PeopleSoft
› Budgeting challenges due to lack of detailed data
› Vendor relationships could not be leveraged to
negotiate discounts
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Direction Change
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Total Quality Management (TQM) Methodology
» Adopting a guiding set of principles around
which past and new implementations will be
evaluated
» Formally mapping processes and evaluating
each step for process and policy
improvements and efficiencies
» Developing metrics and service level
agreements (SLA) to measure the success of
improvement efforts
» Partnering with departments/divisions to get
the most out of the new process and
aggregate transactions
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New Problem Statement
The University of Missouri uses a paper-based process to manage
travel expense reimbursement. Preparation of the reimbursement
is time consuming as currency conversion and meal limits are
calculated manually. The approval process is lengthy as the
reimbursement is often delayed at each step in the approval
process. The status of a reimbursement is unclear as there is no
record of where the form is in the approval chain and therefore
reimbursement to the employee is delayed. Compliance with
existing travel policy is enforced by the Campus Accounting Offices
through manual review of expense reimbursement requests.
Therefore the process lacks automation and requires manual
intervention for ensuring policy compliance.
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What Do We Want?
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
Specific reimbursement data
Travel data for negotiation with vendors
Greater compliance with travel policy
Consistent application of travel policy
Efficient Workflow
Electronic storage of receipts
Integration with PeopleSoft
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Where Do We Start?
» Current reimbursement process
› How long does it take to get reimbursed?
› How does a travel voucher get approved?
» Current policies
› What are we trying to accomplish with our policy?
› Are we consistently applying policy across
campuses/departments?
» Review process for policy compliance
› How many times is the travel voucher reviewed?
› What causes us to send a travel voucher back for
clarification or policy violation?
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Do Your Travelers Feel Like This?
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Current Reimbursement Process
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Current Reimbursement Process
» The time it took for the travel voucher to route for
approval was not clear because it was not
recorded. When polling departments, it was
reported to take 1-3 weeks for the approval
process.
» Once the travel voucher was approved, it took
about a week from the time it was entered into
PeopleSoft until it was released for payment.
(With a range from 2 to 20 days total)
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Do Your Travelers Feel Like This?
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Current Policies
» Required documentation that wasn’t
value-added
» Complicated meal reimbursement policy
» Inconsistent application of policy
between departments
» Reducing reimbursement rates for
different levels of employees
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Current Review Process
» Minimum of 3 reviews/signatures per travel
voucher
» Average of 4 reviews/signatures per travel
voucher
» Delays were prevalent at each step in the
approval path
» Project Manager approval for Grant Funding
was not consistently obtained
» Review Process included 12 categories of items
being reviewed and within those 12 categories
there were 45 aspects verified
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Review Process
» Benchmark data identified that 14% of
travel vouchers required further
clarification or contained policy violations
University of
Missouri
Top Decile
Percent T&E transactions automated
0%
100%
Expense reports error rate
14%
1%
Travel expense reports sampled for
compliance
100%
10%
Travel and Expense Best Practice
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What Did We Change – Policy?
» Streamlined our policies
› Policy changes to eliminate redundant reviews and
approvals
› Policy changes to reduce or eliminate required
documentation that didn’t add value
› Implemented the use of per diem for meal
reimbursement
› Established system-wide policies applicable for all
employees. No longer allowed more restrictive
policies at the campus, division, or departmental level.
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Policy Compliance Review Example
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What Did We Change – Review?
» Reduced the number of “send-backs” by
implementing pre-populated data (i.e. per
diem limits, foreign currency conversion
rates, etc.)
» Integrated ImageNow into the module so
receipts can be viewed electronically from
within the module while approving the
report
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What Did We Change – Process?
» Electronic workflow used to move expense
reports through the approval process.
Notification that reports are available for approval
is sent through email with link to the document.
» Most Expense Reports will only require 1 approval
» Removed HR Supervisor from expense report
approval
» Campus Accounting Office review was reduced to
reports that met certain criteria
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New Reimbursement Process
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What Did We Change – Self-Service?
» Promoted Self-Service for Employees
› Traveler enters expenditures directly into PeopleSoft
Expenses
› Traveler may assign a delegate to enter on their
behalf
› Traveler can change the bank account for deposit of
reimbursement
› Traveler can update their default ChartField string
for expenditure posting
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Implementation
» Lewin’s Model of Change
Unfreezing
Moving
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Freezing
Unfreezing
» Helping people recognize the need for change and
achieving buy in for proceeding
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Moving
» Act of implementing new behaviors, method,
policies, etc. to support the new way of doing
things
› New policies went into affect for everyone
› Rolled out the new electronic system to divisions over a 6month period
› Multiple training tools and communications were made
available
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Refreezing
» Re-embedding and reinforcing organizational
culture around the new process or “the new
norm”
› Establishing a user community where users can share
ideas, collaborate on management reports and look for
ways to leverage the system
› Service Level Agreement that defined specific measures
for success was created
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Benefits
» Increased visibility, tracking and accountability
for the travelers and reimbursement (e.g. Where
is my reimbursement?)
» Reduce the University’s paper consumption by
more than 200,000 sheets annually
» Easier compliance with grant activities
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Benefits (cont’d)
» Equitable and consistent policy enforcement
» Should be able to reduce our cost to process
travel reimbursements by at least $1.5 million
» Reduced preparation time of reimbursement
request
» Fewer resources needed to process travel by
automating policy compliance and policy changes
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Benefits (cont’d)
» Reduced our reimbursement time
› 73% of Expense Reports are reimbursed within 1 day
of being submitted
› 81% of Expense Reports are reimbursed within 2 day
of submitting
» New reporting capabilities with detailed travel
data will benefit budget management and
discount negotiations
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Contact
» Bobbi Walker
› Financial Systems - Principal
› University of Missouri
› E-mail: walkerbs@umsystem.edu
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