Helpful Hints for
Travel Orders/Modification and
Vouchers

RQ Entry:

1. Remember, anything you enter when in “edit defaults” will apply to your entire RQ.  When you distribute the RQ between two chartfields, the system will assign a percentage to EVERY line in your RQ for these two chartfields.  If you only wish to distribute lodging between two chartfields (e.g., state and designated allowances), do it when you are entering the line RQ distribution lines instead of using the defaults.
2. If the traveler is paying for airfare, when entering the RQ, use the “Misc. Other” line item from the travel kit and change the account code to (67101 or 67111).  Using the BTA line, will not allow you to change the vendor from Bank One to the traveler and save it successfully.

PO Modifications:

1. Always finalize your PO at the HEADER level prior to doing any changes.  This will disassociate your RQ from the PO so that it will never go back to the pre-encumbrance stage.
2. NEVER “unfinalize” your PO.  This causes the encumbrance to liquidate and go back to the RQ pre-encumbrance stage.  When this happens, the pre-encumbrance gets stuck and will have to be liquidated by our technical crew since you cannot dispatch to the PO encumbrance stage again.  The RQ and PO will have to be closed and re-entered.
3. DO NOT modify a travel PO which was created prior to 6/1/05.  You cannot re-distribute the PO lines across Peoplesoft versions 8.4 and 8.8.  When the PO is copied into the voucher, it WILL NOT process. 
4. To add another DISTRIBUTE line to the PO after the trip has taken place (e.g., registration paid by employee, rental car, etc…) which was not originally included on the RQ simply add the appropriate account code on another line.  Creating another RQ linked to the original RQ in the Cost Travel Page will accomplish the same thing (this option will require both POs to be copied into reimbursement voucher).  DO NOT attempt to add another travel kit at the PO stage.
5. If you cancel a PO line, you MUST budget check the PO prior to saving the document (this also applies to RQ cancellations).

Travel Voucher Entry:

1. The USER should NEVER “finalize” travel voucher lines.  If this is done and ERT has to change the voucher totals, it must be “unfinalized” to correct the voucher which could cause encumbrance issues.
2. DO NOT add non-PO lines to your PO voucher.   If you need to add a line, you must unmatch the voucher, modify and budget check the PO, and re-copy PO into the voucher.
3. Be sure to click on “view all” when copying in the PO to the voucher stage to ensure ALL lines are addressed in the reimbursement voucher.
4. All vouchers should be budget checked with a status of “Valid” before screen printing your voucher and distributing to ERT.
5. Be sure your voucher totals are balanced and that there are NO budget errors or warning flags at the distribution levels. 
6. Monitor your vouchers thru the payment stage to ensure no budget errors occur.   Budget exception messages can be seen by going to the “Go To” field on the voucher information page or by using Match Manager.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
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Last updated January 30, 2009