Greetings colleagues,

 

Accounts Payable Services in the Division of Administration and Finance is enhancing the university’s employee travel reimbursement process to provide a more efficient and robust method for submitting employee travel vouchers. Beginning June 1, 2022, employees can submit and approve travel vouchers electronically through the OnBase system, eliminating the need for paper or Excel forms.

 

Live training sessions have been scheduled for travelers, travel voucher preparers and approvers to become more familiar with the new process. Please take a moment to register and attend one of the below available training sessions.

 

Travelers and Preparers:

• Monday, May 23, 2022 from 3 to 4 p.m. – Register now to attend this training.
• Friday, May 27, 2022 from 9 to 10 a.m.– Register now to attend this training.

Approvers:

• Tuesday, May 31, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. – Register now to attend this training.

A recording of these training sessions and training guides will be made available on the Controller’s Office website for anyone unable to attend the training sessions.

 

The current paper/Excel process will still be available for a period of three months to allow for a smooth transition to the enhanced electronic travel voucher process. After August 31, 2022, the new electronic process will be the only method for submitting employee travel reimbursement requests.

 

Approval delegation

 

With the change to an electronic process, all approval communications will be sent via email. We understand that there will be a need to either temporarily or permanently delegate the travel voucher approval process to another employee, so we created a process to delegate approvals on a limited term or permanent basis. It is advised to follow the below process before June 1 so that any required approvals are sent to the delegates.

 

The approver must configure the delegate in OnBase for the Workflow Approval Management (WAM) process. The guides for this process are available here.

 

Requests that include Foundation funds

 

Employee travel vouchers fully funded by the Foundation must continue to use the existing paper/excel form and process. Requests with split funding from both NIU and Foundation should be processed through the new system; the system automatically routes the request to the Foundation at the end of the electronic approval process. The Foundation team may reach out if additional information or documentation is required. 

 

Thank you for your continued commitment to advancing the mission of NIU and for being a trusted steward of NIU resources. We look forward to serving you through this enhanced process. If you have any questions, please contact us at AccountsPayableSrvs@niu.edu.

 

Sincerely,

Accounts Payable Services

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