With the use of a credit card, whether personal or business, comes the headache of reconciliation and payment. Travelers now have a tool when traveling for the federal government that helps minimize the pain. Agencies also have a tool that helps them reduce delinquencies and late payments. Even though the travel card is government issued, it is the responsibility of the traveler to ensure that it gets paid timely. Within the last 5 years, OMB passed Circular A-125 that now requires most agencies to use split disbursement for at least part of a traveler’s payment. Split disbursement is an option that allows travelers to send a portion of their travel reimbursement directly to their credit card.
With the eTravel system, any reservation that a traveler makes is automatically reimbursed back to their credit card. They have the option of sending any the reimbursement for any other expense claimed directly to their card as well. This includes items such as taxi fares, parking, tolls and other miscellaneous business expenses. They can also send a portion of their meals and incidentals directly to the card to cover any meals that may have been paid for using the government credit card.
If the traveler keeps track of all expenses charged during travel or checks the online statement before filing a voucher, they can eliminate having to write a check to the credit card company. As long as enough money is sent to the card during voucher processing, they would receive a zero dollar statement. It’s just another way to help ensure that the federal travel process is as easy as possible.
By: Jason Caltrider