Electronic Certification of Travel Expenses
Beginning last fall, the IRIS Team worked with Campus Business Officers to identify ways to improve the IRIS Travel System and make it more efficient. Several improvements have already been implemented, and now, electronic certification of travel expenses by travelers will become effective on Monday, October 30, 2017.
The system will now support two travel expense certification scenarios, which are routed differently in IRIS workflow:
- If an IRIS user enters travel expenses on behalf of a traveler, the traveler becomes the first stop in the IRIS workflow path, so s/he can electronically certify that the expenses are accurate and complete.
- If a traveler enters her/his own travel expenses in IRIS, then the traveler no longer needs to print, sign, scan, and attach the Travel Expense Report. Instead, by submitting the Travel Expense Report in IRIS, the traveler is certifying that the expenses are accurate and complete.
In both scenarios, the system will automatically attach the Travel Expense Report when expenses are submitted to IRIS workflow for certification and approval. This new feature eliminates paper and the previous need to print, sign, scan, and attach Travel Expense Reports manually in IRIS. Also, if a “T-3 – Travel Expense Worksheet” is used, this new functionality will remove the need to provide a signature or a total of all expenses on that form.
Because the IRIS system will begin automatically attaching the Travel Expense Report on Monday, October 30, any receipts and supporting documentation should be attached as a single PDF document using the attachment document type called “Receipts (PDF)” on that date.
When a Travel Expense Report is entered on behalf of a traveler and submitted for certification, the traveler will receive an email and can perform this electronic certification through the My IRIS Web Portal (where one views payroll statements) or through the IRIS inbox if the traveler is an IRIS user. (Non-IRIS users will be able to electronically certify travel expenses through the My IRIS Web Portal starting on October 30 and no additional access is required to do so.) Please note that the traveler cannot forward the travel certification work item to anyone else. The traveler her/himself must certify the expenses, just like s/he currently does by signing the printed Travel Expense Report.
Please click here for documentation to explain this improvement.
We hope these enhancements will make the IRIS Travel System more efficient for everyone involved.
Please contact the IRIS Helpdesk at irishelpdesk@tennessee.edu with any questions.