Abbreviations:

CR = Chrome River
P-card = MSU purchasing visa card

EHHD student travel grant guidelines:

  • Use travel grant to pay the expenses that can be paid prior to conference atendance with faculty advisor/supervisors p-card before any other expenses: conference registration, airfare, baggage, and hotel.
  • Ground transportation or rental car to and from the conference is acceptable. Pay with p-card if possible.
  • Expenses reimbursed to students may include per diem (no receipts needed) and ground transportation (receipt needed) are acceptable, but only after preferred expenditures have been paid with advisor/supervisor p-card.

Overview of travel and payment process:

Student works for MSU

Student does not work for MSU
1. Request index # from [email protected]. 1. Request index # from [email protected].
2. Enable student as a CR user and complete travel pre-authorization in CR. 2. Complete travel authorization form with approval signatures and send to [email protected].
3. After CR pre-authorization approved, use faculty supervisor/advisor p-card to register, book flight, rental car, hotel, etc. 3. After travel authorization is approved, use faculty supervisor/advisor p-card to register, book flight, rental car, hotel, etc.
4. P-card owner reconciles expenses in CR with pdf of student's travel pre-authorization attached. 4. P-card owner reconciles expenses in CR with pdf of student's travel pre-authorization attached
5. Travel to conference, obtain and keep receipts as needed. Proof of attendance (conference badge, photo of student with poster, boarding passes) should be kept for processing after conference. 5. Travel to conference, obtain and keep receipts as needed. Proof of attendance (conference badge, photo of student with poster, boarding passes) should be kept for processing after conference.
6. Return from conference and submit any additonal p-card expenses in CR within 10 days. Submit travel expense report within 10 days if any reimbursement is needed.

6. Return from conference and submit any additonal p-card expenses in CR within 10 days. Submit travel expense report within 10 days if any reimbursement is needed.

Enabling students as CR users for travel pre-authorization:

Send students name, MSU email address, last 4 of GID, and banner ID to [email protected] and request that they be set up as a CR user. Identify yourself as their advisor/supervisor.

CR travel pre-authorization:

  • Students should fill out their travel pre-authorizations with the expenses that will be paid by any MSU source. They should use the index number assigned for the EHHD travel that was obtained through jobsehhd.
  • If the EHHD travel grant is not the only source of MSU funding, then be sure to list all applicable index numbers in the pre-authorization.
  • If amounts are estimates, then it is best to overestimate actual charges.
  • The faculty with the p-card is the approver for the travel pre-authorization.

Non-MSU employee travel authorization:

Purchasing after travel pre-authorization is approved:

  • Use faculty/supervisor p-card to pay for airfare, hotel, etc. whenever possible. Reimbursements to students are much more effort and take quite a bit longer.
  • If the cost of a single expense ends up being greater than the amount of funding authorized, then use one of the following options:
    • Pay with p-card and have the student pay the balance above grant total to MSU. This can be done with cash or check given to EHHD staff in 250 Reid.
    • Pay with multiple indexes, e.g. the EHHD travel grant index + other index (grant, endowment, IDR, other designated account)
    • Student pays out of pocket and submits travel pre-authorization, travel expense voucher, proof of travel and conference atendance, and W-9 to [email protected] for reimbursement. Use this option only as a last resort. Reimbursements cannot be made until after travel is completed, and interest will accrue on charges such as conference registration and airfare are paid up to several months in advance of actual travel.

Reconciling student travel in CR:

Follow standard procedures for submitting travel p-card receipts in CR and do the following in the expenditure report:

  • Select travel as the report type.
  • Fill in appropriate travel details for the student and the report.
  • In the ‘Details’ section of the report, indicate that this is an EHHD student travel grant to First Name Last Name.
  • Attach receipt and a pdf of the approved travel pre-authorization for the student.
  • After hittng ‘submit’ the 2nd time a pre-approval reminder will appear with a comment box. Indicate in that box that a pdf of the approved travel-pre-authorization is atached to the report.
  • Submit the report.
  • NOTE: Receipts for a given travel do not need to be submited all at once. This procedure can be repeated as many times as necessary to cover all of the paid expenses. For example, if conference registration is paid before any other expenditures, then submit the receipt for that one expense before other expenditures. Reuse the travel pre-authorization as many times as necessary.

Submittng expenses for reimbursement:

  • Tape receipts to a piece of paper and make a pdf of receipts for reimbursable expenses.
  • Complete a travel expense voucher form (https://www.montana.edu/ubs/forms.html) that includes the expenses to be reimbursed. Instructions to fill out this form are included in this link.
  • Complete a W-9 tax form (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf) and make a pdf of the completed form.
  • Make a pdf of the proof that student atended conference.
  • Submit pdfs of the receipts, travel expense voucher, proof of conference atendance, a W-9 and a travel pre-authorization to [email protected]. In the email, indicate how much should be reimbursed and to whom the reimbursement should be made.

Contact [email protected] if you have questions not addressed in these instructions.