New Travel Allowance

[jodiclark]

With the new configuration is there a way to have this just all be one line instead of allowance and incendital when it comes over to the expense report? Maybe I'm missing something like a check box 🙂

Jodi

[KevinD]

@jodiclark from what I see in the Travel Allowance Configuration screen, you use the Combine Rate Categories option field to select Meals and Incidentals. I think this would then combine them into one line.

I've not tried this myself, but if you have some test users, you can test it before making it available for real users. I take it you have access to the Travel Allowance Configuration screen.

[drakewinfrey]

Just commenting since I had the same question. It seems the current configuration does not allow you to use the 'Combine Rate Categories' feature when using 'Daily Allowance. 

[KevinD]

@drakewinfrey good catch. I guess this is designed to work if you are using daily limits, rather than a fixed amount.

As I mentioned, I haven't tested this myself to see if from the end user's perspective they see the meals and incidentals as one entry on their report.

I'm asking internally to see if Combine Rate Categories actually means combine them on the expense report into one entry or if it means something else.

[KevinD · Accepted solution]

@drakewinfrey I was informed that these setting cannot be changed on an already created TA configuration. To get these to work, you need to create a new travel allowance configuration and then set up these options.

[stacey1]

For those of us who are government contractors, the customers don't want or need to see the break out.  I agree Jodi.  This is not functional for our realm.  We need to see daily allowance, but combined like it did before.  We don't accept receipts because the government doesn't want to look at all of that.  I think this is a disservice to those of us who need it this way.  Maybe someone needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to combine it when using the US FTR.

Stacey

[adredden]

@KevinD  - we have tried creating a new TA configuration with Daily Allowance for Meals and Incidentals.  It does not let us combine those rates.

[KevinD]

@adredden I reached out to a Travel Allowance colleague about this as he is the expert in this area. 

[adredden]

@drakewinfrey were you able to get anything to work with the new Travel Allowance configuration to combine meals/incidentals if they were both set to Daily Allowance? 

Thanks!

[drakewinfrey]

No, unfortunately it still doesn't seem possible to combine Rate Categories when using Daily Allowance. Such an odd restriction in my opinion, and wasn't a restriction with the prior Travel Allowance functionality. So we still have individual lines for meals vs incidentals, which often creates confusion with infrequent travelers and leads to support tickets.  

[adredden]

Did you ever get this to work?  We are doing ours transition now and it's doing the same thing.

[MatthewZ]

You are correct, the Meals and Incidentals daily allowances are always broken out. This functionality was added to ensure accurate tracking and account code matching for customers.

The option to "combine" is for Actuals v Limits only.

Seeing the concern from several people here, we will investigate how to add an option to combine the two together for daily allowances

[adredden]

Thanks Matthew!  I had opened a support ticket this issue before finding the community postings.  We had a call with him yesterday and he encouraged us submit an Improvement Request so we did that as well.