Travel Guidelines

School of Social Sciences
Travel and Concur Guidelines
For general guidance only – all official policies can be found on the
Accounts Payable Travel Website.

All travelers:

  1. All travel requests and expense reimbursement requests will be submitted via a program called SAP Concur.  All faculty must submit their own and those for any students or non-employees they are sponsoring.
  2. All travelers must be familiar with the travel guidelines on the website linked above.
  3. All international travel must follow all campus travel guidelines AND the requirements found on the Foreign Travel website.
  4. Receipts are needed for expenses of $75 or more. 
  5. There are detailed SAP Concur Guides on the Accounts Payable travel website that you can use to walk you through each step.  Any policy questions that you still have after reviewing the website can be addressed to Julie Wood in the Dean’s Office.  Any Concur issues or data entry questions should be addressed to Accounts Payable.  You can email apinvoice@sonoma.edu, or go to their Zoom drop-in hours for help.

Student travelers:

See Concur Non-Employee Travel Guide for complete information.

  1. Before travel – students must complete the Travel Certification Form and submit it to their faculty sponsor.
  2. The faculty sponsor emails apinvoice@sonoma.edu to tell them they will be arranging travel for a student.  Include the student name, address, SSU ID, SSU email, and phone number.  Once the response is received, the faculty sponsor goes into Concur and creates a travel request for the student.
  3. Within 30 days of returning from travel, the student will need to submit receipts and travel information to their faculty sponsor who will enter their reimbursement request via CONCUR. 

Faculty travelers:

All guides referenced below can be found on the Financial Services website. 

  1. Complete the Social Sciences Travel Authorization Form.
  2. Set up Concur Profile (see Concur Profile Setup Guide).
  3. Submit a Concur travel request (see Concur User Guide), and upload your signed Social Sciences Travel Authorization with the request.
    • A Concur travel request must be submitted for all university business travel (conference, research, etc.), even if travel occurs during non-paid or non-teaching days, and even if you are not requesting any reimbursement.
    • Travel approval requests must be submitted at least 30 days prior to travel.
    • You may purchase airfare within Concur using the university “ghost credit card”, which means you will not be paying for it.  At this time, only airfare can be purchased using the ghost card.
    • Note that an approved travel request only means you are approved to travel. In order to ensure compliance with university and state policies, a careful review of expenses will be made once the Travel Expense Report is submitted (See next step).
  4. Submit Concur Travel Expenses Report for reimbursement
    • If you are asking for travel reimbursement, you will need to go into Concur two separate times for each travel event – once to request approval to travel, and once to request reimbursement.  If you are not being reimbursed, you would go in once to request approval to travel.
    • Travel Expsense Reports must be submitted within 60 days after travel (see Concur User Guide).  If you did not receive your travel award in time to meet the 60 day requirement, you can request an exception from the AVP for Administration and Finance (David Crozier).

Non-CSU Employee Guests:

See Concur Non-Employee Travel Guide for complete information.

  1. Before travel – Volunteer employees and interview candidates must complete the Travel Certification Form, and submit it to faculty sponsor.
  2. Guest travelers must complete and submit a 204 Vendor Data Form through the secure upload link.
  3. Once Accounts Payable processes the 204 Vendor form, the faculty sponsor emails apinvoice@sonoma.edu the supplier name, and requests Concur access.
  4. After a reply is received from AP, the faculty sponsor goes into Concur and submits an expense reimbursement request.
  5. No Concur travel request is required for guest travelers.