NASA LaRC Internal Memo on Travel Reimbursement
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006
To:
From:
Subject: IMPORTANT: Travel Info and Deadlines
From @larc:
Guidance to Langley Travelers for September 2006 through November 2006
As you are aware, NASA?s accounting system, SAP will be down from late September 2006 until at least November 13, 2006. No payments will be made from September 27, 2006 until after November 13, 2006, including travel vouchers. When the system comes back up, the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) will be working extra shifts and overtime to process the backlog of travel vouchers as quickly as possible.
General Travel Guidance:
Submit any outstanding travel vouchers ASAP. NSSC will make every effort to process all domestic and foreign vouchers submitted through Wednesday, September 20. The NSSC will also make every attempt to pay vouchers submitted after these deadlines prior to September 27.
Travel during this time should be Mission Critical only.
For travel during October and November, it is highly recommended that PY 2006 funds be used and that travel authorizations for those months be completed, approved, and interfaced with SAP before the accounting system goes down at the end of September. The reason for this is twofold: (1) to ensure that the funds are obligated and (2) although SAP will be down, if the authorization has been approved and has interfaced with SAP, vouchers can be done in Travel Manager during the downtime and will be ready for payment when SAP comes back up.
In order to ensure that your travel authorizations are interfaced with SAP and obligated by the end of FY 2006, please ensure they are prepared, signed, and management approved no later than September 20, 2006. (Previously, the date suggested was September 15, 2006.) This is to ensure that any failures to the accounting system interface can be resolved before September 30, 2006. We are currently receiving authorizations for which no funding is available. Please ensure that travel funds are available for your fund center before initiating any travel authorizations and please ensure that funding is made available for authorizations that have already been prepared.
Use of PY 2007 funds for travel in October and November is highly discouraged. Once SAP comes back up, PY 2007 funding will not be available for distribution within SAP until November 20. Therefore, there will be no funding on the travel authorization until well after November 20; the PY 2007 funding will have to be received at Langley, distributed to travel, and the authorization interfaced with SAP before a voucher can be completed.
The Bank of America (BoA) is aware of NASA?s issue with delayed travel voucher payments. BoA has agreed to help the Agency by putting NASA Travel Card accounts that are affected by the SAP downtime in Mission Critical status. What that means is that if a cardholder is unable to pay their bill because they have not received a travel reimbursement as a result of the SAP downtime, travel cards will be protected from suspension. Please note: Mission Critical Status will not be granted to cardholders who are delinquent for any other reason besides SAP downtime. The Financial Management Services Branch will be working with BoA to ensure that accounts are put in Mission Critical Status.
Guidance Regarding your Travel Card:
Please pay any current or delinquent outstanding BoA balances that you currently have by the bill due date.
If it is determined that an account should be placed in Mission Critical status, the cardholder will still receive bills and letters of delinquency; however, the account will not be suspended.
The length of Mission Critical status will depend on the length of the downtime and the amount of time that it takes for the backlog of vouchers to be processed, not to exceed 60 days.
BoA bills must be paid as soon as travel reimbursement is received.
Langley has a Government Travel Card Centrally Billed Account (CBA) which is billed directly to the Center, not the individual traveler. Langley is using the CBA for all airfares for trips beginning September 1, 2006 through November 30, 2006. There are 3 major advantages to this: there will be less debt on the traveler?s Individually Billed Account (IBA), a large dollar value item will not be on the traveler?s IBA, and there will be no charges on the IBA before a trip takes place.
Please note, airfares on the CBA will be paid by the Center, will not be on the traveler?s individual Travel Card, and therefore are not to be claimed on the travel voucher.
Please be reminded that the CBA cannot be used for portions of trips that include personal travel.
Any questions can be addressed to Jim Michael, 46094 or Gary Lofswold, 42079.
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Same is true for credit card buys and major purchases.
