Best Practices

➢ Departmental policies and procedures for the activity should be formally documented. This should include authorized activity, workflow, responsibilities, documentation requirements and step-by-step instructions for processing activity.

➢ Documented policies and procedures helps ensure departmental personnel understand expectations and requirements, and promote accountability and consistency in activities.

➢ All out of town travel should be for an official purpose that clearly benefits Kentucky State University. Documentation of the benefits should be maintained. This can include summaries of the key points or lessons brought away from professional conferences.

➢ Out of town travel should be approved in advance.

➢ The importance of adhering to all policies and procedures should be emphasized to all employees who travel on official business.

➢ Care should be taken during the reconciliation process to ensure all policies and procedures have been followed. Any exceptions to established guidelines should be properly documented and approved.

➢ The importance of complete and accurate documentation should be emphasized to all individuals. Documentation should be sufficient to allow independent review of travel records without assistance or interpretation.

➢ Care should be taken by all employees to ensure travel calculations are accurate and properly documented. All amounts should be recalculated as part of the reconciliation process.

➢ Multiple individuals should not be combined on a single travel document. Separate forms should be prepared in order to clearly record the authorization, payments and receipts for each employee.

➢ The travel documents should be completed accurately so that per diem calculations can be independently verified.

➢ All early registration discounts should be taken.

➢ Any situation that makes it impossible for employees to take advantage of discounts, causes an employee to leave a conference early, or otherwise increases costs, should be properly and thoroughly documented. Applicable supervisory personnel should review and approve the documentation for these situations.

➢ It is imperative that travel documentation and reconciliations be processed within the time parameters required by Kentucky State University’s policies and procedures.

➢ A standard mileage reimbursement form should be used. The form should include the date, origination point and destination, beginning and ending odometer readings, total miles, and purpose of trip. Requests for reimbursement missing any of this information should not be approved.

➢ Reimbursement should not be made to employees traveling to and from home and their normal work site.

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