Reports, reports, and more reports – every member of management has had a need for a report of some sort at some time or another. Reports are crucial in today’s business world. A report can advise management of budget constraints. A good report also tells management where a company is spending, and maybe even losing, money. Reports can also indicate how much time was spent on particular jobs/assignments. It is nearly impossible to function without reports.
My agency receives many requests from our customers for various reports. Nearly every day, we receive a new request for information. In addition to the requests that we receive from our customers, we also receive data calls from the Department and General Services Administration (GSA). Depending on what information is being requested, we must make the determination as to how to gather the information and whether we should get the information from the E-Gov Travel System, the travel management center (TMC), or the agency’s accounting system. Even though the ETS and the TMC provides various reports, we have found that it may be necessary to pull the information from the accounting system. The ETS vendor and the TMC have always been very accommodating when we request data. If they are unclear about what information is being requested, they always ask for clarification.
Before the onset of the ETS, reports had to be created manually or maybe the data was not captured anywhere, and therefore it could not be reported. The ETS has improved the reporting of travel expenditures for Federal Government travelers. Now, it’s much easier to know how often the City Pair Program (CPP) is used, who is requesting premium class travel and why, and if there are any unused airline tickets. The ETS forces the traveler or document preparer to justify certain requests and expenses. Therefore, management not only knows that the traveler made the request, but also knows why.
Some of the reports that we regularly request from our ETS are: the Traveler Information Report, the Routing List Report, the Delegate Authority Report, and the Trip Status Report. Some of the reports that we regularly request from our TMC are: the First Class Travel Report, the Fee Allocator Detail Report, the Monthly Travel Summary, and the Trip Detail Report.
Reporting is just another benefit of converting to an ETS.
by Pam Morton
The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.