Interfacing ETS systems with financial systems is an intricate process that plays a major role in travel operations. To begin with, for people that are not very familiar with financial systems, lines of accounting can seem very complicated and intimidating. When I first started working as a travel administrator a few years ago I had to become familiar with financial system lingo, and accounting structure. Travel preparers, especially new preparers, would contact me inquiring what line of accounting they should use for their traveler.
The problem I would have is that their specific team/office may have several accounting codes to choose from, but I had no idea which code they needed to know. This has happened at every stop I’ve been at. During my previous two jobs I had to always run to our budget people and talk with them to figure out what accounting codes were used for each office. Sometimes the budget staff had a spreadsheet with offices listed with their lines of accounting, and other times they may have no idea. In those instances we would have to research other travelers from that specific office and see what they used in the past and then make an educated guess. This experience taught me the importance of having lines of accounting that are labeled in a way to make it easier for travelers to choose from, and that as an administrator it is very helpful having a list of lines of accounting for teams/offices nearby.
By: Kelvin Dawson