Access
Q:   Who can be travelers in eTravel?  
A:   Individuals in PeopleSoft can use eTravel.
 
Q:   Who can access eTravel?
A:   Anyone with a UH username/password who has a profile in the Profiler application may login. However, what each user can do is dependent on his/her role, whether delegated to as a Preparer, or assigned to a Business Office for a fiscal role. Note: Anyone with a UH username may be Preparers or be assigned to a Business Office; this includes RCUH employees, Casuals, and Student Employees.
 
Q:   I am a traveler but someone else does all my travel paperwork for me. Is it necessary for me to login to eTravel?
A:   Since eTravel does not accommodate electronic approvals at this time, it is not necessary for you to login. However, you must create a user profile in the Profiler application and assign the Preparer role to other users with their UH username.
 
Q:   How do I prepare a travel document for another employee when I don't see them in my list of travelers?
A:   The traveler has to login to Profiler and grant you Preparer access. The reason it works this way is that the traveler's profile may contain sensitive data, so they have to specify who is allowed to see all their information. In addition, travel documents contain detailed information on when employees will be away from their homes, sometimes for extended periods. To protect the employee/traveler, travel information is restricted from public viewing and each traveler must designate who can see their trip information.
 
Q:   If I wasn't the Preparer on the Travel Request, would I be able to process the Travel Completion?
A:   Yes. Anyone assigned the Preparer role has the ability to generate Requests and Completions for the Traveler. Note: Whether a specific document is editable or not depends on the document status. Once a travel document is Submitted or Approved, Preparers no longer have edit access; they have read-only access.
 
   
 
Timeline
Q:   What is the timeline regarding travel paperwork?  
A:   See table below.

Action Day of Action / Description
WITHOUT an Advance WITH an Advance
Travel Request Must be approved prior to departure Must be approved and submitted to Disbursing at least 10 days prior to departure
Travel Advance Paid N/A Within 10 days prior to departure
Traveler's Proposed Return Date Day 0 Day 0
Travel Completion Due to the traveler's Business Office Must be submitted within 21 calendar days from the completion of the trip Must be submitted within 21 calendar days from the completion of the trip
Travel Request (or Request+Advance) Approval Notification Travel request (or request+advance) approved by the business office Travel request (or request+advance) approved by the business office
Pending Advance Notification N/A Sent when the travel advance has been released for payment by Disbursing
10 day Reminder Notice Day 10 after proposed return date Day 10 after proposed return date
21 day Reminder Notice Day 21 after proposed return date Day 21 after proposed return date
1st Reminder Notice sent to the Traveler * Day 22 after proposed return date Day 22 after proposed return date
30 day Reminder Notice Day 30 after the completion create date and the traveler has not been reimbursed Day 30 after the completion create date and the traveler has not been reimbursed
30 day Overdue Notice Day 30 after proposed return date and the travel completion has not been approved by the business office Day 30 after proposed return date and the travel completion has not been approved by the business office
2nd Reminder Notice sent to the Traveler and Fiscal Administrator * N/A Day 45 after proposed return date
3rd Reminder Notice sent to the Lead Fiscal Administrator with a cc: to the Traveler * N/A Day 55 after proposed return date
Gross Income Reporting initiated by Disbursing (required by the IRS) N/A Day 60 after proposed return date
Submittal to Payroll N/A Day 61 after proposed return date. The University will report the Advance amount as income to the Traveler in the next pay period. Additionally, the Traveler will be tagged as delinquent and will be unable to receive future travel advances.
* All reminder notices are sent via email and are automated in eTravel.
 
   
 
Justification
Q:   Are conference badges required?  
A:   Disbursing does not require conference badges.
 
Q:   Why do I have to provide justification when I already did one for the University Research Council (URC)?
A:   The University Research Council (URC) has its own process/requirements which is completely separate from the Disbursing process.
 
   
 
Travel
Request
Q:   When is a Travel Request required?
A:   Any time an employee is traveling for University business, an approved Travel Request is required to cover the traveler while he/she is away. In addition, in the event of a disaster, the University will be able to identify employees traveling in the area of the disaster.
 
Q:   When should I submit my Travel Request?
A:   For travel without a travel advance, a Request should be approved prior to departure. For travel with a travel advance, a Request must be approved and submitted to Disbursing at least 10 days prior to departure.
 
Q:   How much info is needed on the Request – dates and justification only, no estimated cost?
A:   If the trip is being funded by the University, estimated costs are required and prior approval must be obtained. In terms of funding, prior approval includes:

    1.  The Principal Investigator must authorize use of the account code to fund the travel.
    2.  The Fiscal Officer must authorize that adequate funds are available and fiscal policies and procedures have been followed.

The traveler risks not being reimbursed upon return if prior approval is not obtained and there are inadequate funds to cover the expenses.
 
Q:   Is a travel form required if airfare is charged to the P-card and there’s no other costs to report?
A:   Yes. The travel form is not just to process payment, it also includes justification for the trip, the business itinerary, and required approvals, all of which are required by UH policy.
 
   
 
Travel
Completion
Q:   When is a Travel Completion required?
A:   A Completion must be submitted to the traveler's Business Office within 21 calendar days after the traveler returns from his/her business trip.
 
Q:   How do I create a Travel Completion?
A:   On the Main Menu, under "Create", click "New Travel Completion". You will then be presented with a "Document Search" screen. Enter search criteria or leave all fields blank and click the "Search" button. The search results will include all Travel Requests for which you can create a Completion (i.e. Travel Request documents with an Approved or Released status). Select the appropriate Travel Request document and a Completion will be generated by copying all the data from the Request.
 
Q:   How do I prepare the Travel Completion if the traveler did not submit a Travel Request?
A:   In eTravel, Travel Completions are always generated from the Travel Request. If a Request doesn't exist, you must create the Request and obtain the appropriate approvals before a Completion can be started.
 
   
 
No Cost
Travel
Q:   What constitutes no-cost travel?
A:   This is when an employee is traveling for official UH business, but UH is not paying for the trip as it's being funded by another organization or institution.
 
Q:   If there’s no cost to the University, does a travel document still have to be submitted?
A:   Yes. If the employee is traveling for official UH business, even if at no cost to the University, a Travel Request must be submitted to cover the traveler while he/she is away. In addition, in the event of a disaster, the University will be able to identify employees traveling in the area of the disaster.
 
Q:   Do I need to submit a travel form if the traveler was asked to attend and another UH campus is paying?
A:   A Travel Request must be submitted on behalf of the traveler. Either the traveler's home department or the campus funding the travel must submit the request.
 
Q:   For no cost travel, is a Completion required?
A:   Yes, currently no-cost travel follows the same process as all other travel (i.e. it starts with a Travel Request and ends with a Travel Completion). If the Travel Completion isn't generated/finalized, the Travel Request will remain on the "Active Documents" table (on the Main Menu) as outstanding.
 
Q:   Can I use eTravel to document a travel that is 100% personal?
A:   No. If there is no University business, employees should use the employee leave system.
 
   
 
Misc. / Other
Q:   Where does the Traveler’s name come from?
A:   eTravel pulls the employee name from PeopleSoft (the University’s HR system). The only exception is that the Board of Regents are stored in a separate table since they are not employees of the University.
 
Q:   What is the Business Office on the document for?
A:   It represents the Fiscal Office responsible for the account codes being used to fund the travel. The Fiscal Office is responsible for authorizing that funds are available and fiscal policies and procedures have been followed.
 
Q:   What if Coverage of Duties is not specified?
A:   Coverage of Duties is an optional field as it may not apply to all employees or departments. In some cases, faculty must list who will be covering their classes while they’re away. Executives may be required to list who will be acting on their behalf. But it’s department-specific so the field may be left blank.
 
Q:   What is the difference between UH and RCUH?  
A:   Both UH and RCUH has its own financial system. The UH financial system is called KFS and eTravel was developed primarily for UH funded travel so there's a backend feed from eTravel to KFS. RCUH has its own travel application that feeds their financial system. You must use the appropriate system depending on which organization is funding the travel.

Note: UH employees are governed by UH travel policies & procedures, regardless of whether UH or RCUH is funding the travel. Likewise, RCUH employees are governed by RCUH policies & procedures, regardless of whether UH or RCUH is funding the travel.
 
Q:   Can a traveler take comp time for working on weekends, holidays, or at night while on travel status?
A:   This varies by bargaining unit, so contact your Personnel Officer for clarification of your specific circumstances.
 
Q:   Is a UH Form 410 or HRD Form 410 required for training that requires travel?
A:   If training involves travel, the UH Form 410 is not required. Proper administrative approval of the Employee Travel Form associated with the training shall be considered as approval of the proposed training.

If travel is necessary to attend a course sponsored by the State of Hawaii Department of Human Resources Development (HRD), the HRD Form 410 must be completed to register for the training.
 
Q:   What is "Mixed Destination"?
A:   For eTravel purposes, "Mixed Destination" means the trip includes a combination of destinations, i.e. Intra-State, Out-of-State/CONUS, and/or Foreign/OCONUS. The reason is that travel subocodes are based on expense type AND destination. For Mixed Destination travel, each expense must be matched to a specific leg of the itinerary so the system knows which subcodes to assign to each expense.

Mixed destination is different from multi-destination or multi-leg travel. For example, a business trip from Honolulu, to Denver, to Florida, to Honolulu counts as multi-leg. However, since all locations are within CONUS (continental United States), it doesn't count as Mixed Destination. If the business trip was from Honolulu, to Hilo for a meeting (Intra-State), Denver for a conference (CONUS), and Canada for research (OCONUS), this would count as mixed destination travel.
 
   
 
Technical
Q:   How long before the site times out after login?
A:   eTravel does not timeout.
 
Q:   Is the site available 24/7?
A:   eTravel is not available while the database is being backed up, which occurs from 3:00am to 4:00am daily. The site is also not available during code updates, however those downtimes are announced to the user community and posted here.
 
Q:   What browsers can I use for eTravel?
A:   Recommended browsers and computer operating systems are listed here. Overall, these are the versions that ITS supports.
 
Q:   Are there specific browser settings?
A:   Minimally, Javascript must be enabled in your browser.