Overview of the Professional Travel & Development Approval and Reimbursement Process

All professional travel must be approved by the Dean’s office before any expenses are incurred. Faculty not following the procedures outlined below may not be funded or reimbursed.

All travel must be reconciled with the Dean’s office by May 31, unless special permission has been received from the Dean’s office. Funding support is limited to the academic fiscal year in which the conference travel occurs.

If your presentation is scholarship of teaching and learning or teaching related, plan to request funding from CATL.

See below for additional guidelines related to professional travel & development support.

Step 1: Complete the Travel Request Form

  • Fill out the online Travel Request form.
  • Note: If you are having trouble logging in, please use your full Elon email address as your username.
  • Note: If you receive a “critical error”, please use a different browser (Chrome and Safari are ideal).
  • Submit the form at least 4 weeks prior to travel and before you incur expenses. Let us know if there are special circumstances related to the timing of your request.
  • Provide the best estimate for expenses:
    • $40 per day for food
    • Add $15 per night for hotels that do not include taxes and fees in the per night rate.
    • If you plan to check bags, include the airline charge per bag (estimate $50 for roundtrip).
    • Mileage is reimbursed at a per mile rate. Please consider cost when deciding on form of transportation.
  • Expenses that are not reimbursed:
    • Membership fees
    • Expenses related to the preparation of presentations (e.g., posters, handouts)
    • Expenses related to childcare, pet care, or elder care during your professional travel
    • Expenses related to car rental unless previously approved by the Dean due to special circumstances (e.g., the airport is more than 100 miles away from the conference site).

Funding and Notification

  • You should hear about funding within 5-6 business days.

Step 2: Submit Travel Reimbursement for prepaid expenses

  • Complete the Travel Reimbursement form.
  • Work with your program assistant to upload all receipts and other documentation needed to support the reimbursement request. Your program assistant may ask you to provide additional information, as they are trained in what is required in the accounting process.
  • The completed reimbursement form and receipts will be sent by your program assistant to the Dean’s office for processing.

While at the conference:

  • Do not use an Elon p-card for expenses associated with professional travel covered by College funding. P-cards are provided for specific programmatic and institutional responsibilities and are not to be used for professional travel.
  • Please keep all original receipts and write a brief description on each. Make sure to retain all itemized receipts and receipts that show the last four-digits of any credit card used. Remember do NOT use your p-card for any travel being reimbursed with College funds.
  • Write down any expenses for which you did not receive a receipt For any missing receipts, please fill out the missing receipt affidavit.

Step 3: Submit Travel Reimbursement for conference expenses

  • Complete the Travel Reimbursement form. Please complete only one post-travel request per conference.
  • Do not include expenses already reimbursed through pre-paid process.
  • Work with your program assistant to upload all receipts and other documentation needed to support the reimbursement request. Your program assistant may ask you to provide additional information, as they are trained on what is required in the accounting process.
  • The completed reimbursement form and receipts will be sent by your program assistant to the Dean’s office for processing.
  • Attach a mapquest screenshot if you are seeking reimbursement for mileage.
  • The responsibility for submitting materials for reimbursement rests with the individual faculty member. You must submit all receipts for reimbursement no later than 4 weeks after the conference concludes to be assured of reimbursement.
  • Even if your travel request or a portion of it was queued, you must complete the reimbursement request process no later than 4 weeks after the conference concludes so that we can expedite queue reimbursements if funds permit.

Additional information about Professional Travel Funding Guidelines

  1.  All funding is based on professional travel that occurs during a fiscal year (June 1 to May 31).
  2. Amounts listed are maximums not guaranteed amounts (see the Procedures for Professional Travel document for the approval process). Funding beyond $800 is subject to the availability of funds.
  3. Faculty are encouraged to thoughtfully plan their professional travel needs for each year and to be aware of the funding guidelines, especially the maximum possible funding.
  4. Presenting:
    1. Faculty presenting at a conference, or conferences, may be approved for up to a total of $1,700 per fiscal year.
    2. Requests beyond the $1,700 (either additional conferences or additional expenses) will be placed in the Travel Queue (see below).
    3. Faculty presenting scholarship related to teaching and/or student learning are encouraged to request funding from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.
  5. Not presenting:
    1. Faculty attending a conference or workshop, but who are not presenting are eligible for a maximum of $800.
    2. Faculty members who attend but do not present at one conference and then request funds to present at another conference are eligible for no more than a total of $1,700 in travel support.
  6. Organization Leadership:
    1. Faculty members who hold an office or significant leadership position in an organization may be awarded additional travel funds (maximum $500) to meet their responsibilities to the organization.
    2. A limited amount of leadership monies is available.
  7. International Travel:
    1. Faculty making presentations at International Conferences held outside North America may be awarded additional travel funds (maximum $500).
    2. Additional funds to support international travel are limited.
  8. Professional Travel Queue:
    1. Requests placed in the queue are evaluated in mid-April for possible reimbursement based on remaining professional travel funds.
    2. Faculty members should not expect to receive money from the travel queue. If funding is available and the request is approved, a faculty member can expect to receive no more than $1,000 of additional travel funding from the queue.
  9. Approved Expenses for Summer Travel:
    1. Summer conference travel is counted in the fiscal year when the travel occurs.
    2. All expenses related to summer travel count towards professional travel funding in the fiscal year when the travel occurs.
    3. For conferences that run across fiscal years (e.g., the conference runs from May 30-June 2), we must reimburse based on the date of receipts and so expenses may count towards travel for different years.
  10. Special Travel Requests:
    1. Faculty may request professional development support for:
      1. activities such as attending a workshop to promote professional development in an area clearly identified as part of their professional development plan (Unit 1);
      2. Unique situations that arise unexpectedly such as invitations to speak at a prestigious conference;
      3. activities related to scholarship (e.g., work at an archive). Faculty are strongly encouraged to seek funding from FR&D for this type of work.
    2. Faculty requesting Special Travel must submit a Approval Request form and a one page letter of justification clearly articulating the relationship between the proposed travel and professional development or explanation of the unique opportunity.

Questions

  • Questions about procedures, status of reimbursement requests, or funds available – Linda Hibbard (lhibbard@elon.edu; x6475; Campus Box 2112; Lindner 200).
  • Questions regarding travel policies and procedures – Angela Lewellyn (alewellyn@elon.edu; x6447).

Links