Ball State University Travel Policy
Mileage reimbursement rates will follow the federal mileage rate as determined by the IRS. This rate can fluctuate at least annually, but occasionally more frequently. This rate will be monitored by the Travel Department and communication will be sent out for any changes. Please see below for current mileage rates based on travel dates.
Mileage 01/01/2024-12/31/2024 - $0.67/mile
Mileage beginning 01/01/2025 - $0.70/mile
Business or group meals while in travel status must be submitted in Chrome River. Please use the following guidelines when determining what is a business or group meal:
If a business or group meal is submitted for reimbursement, the maximum allowable tip is 20% of the total bill, which includes any taxes or fees.
The Request & Justification for Cash Advance Form must be completed, in full, by travelers requesting a travel advance. The form must be approved prior to the issuance of the advance, and a detailed justification and breakdown for the amount requested must be entered on the form. Budgets/calculations should be submitted with the form, when applicable.
Notes concerning cash advances:
At this time, travel advances are limited to field trips/studies, international trips, or team travel. For assistance in requesting or reconciling a cash advance, please see Chrome River Cash Advances.
Employees and students are loaded into Chrome River daily, based on data in the Banner Human Resources module.
Reasons that someone is not visible in Chrome River include:
Yes, the Pre-Approval is required for liability purposes for all travel. If no expenses will be reimbursed, use the 'Non-Reimbursable' expense type. This expense type must have an amount greater than $0.
When creating a blanket Pre-Approval in Chrome River, the dates on the header can be by month, semester, or fiscal year, but cannot be backdated or cross fiscal years. Enter “various” as the location under city/state. Since the PA is a declining balance document, once it is at zero dollars, a new PA will need to be created for any future expense reports within that time period. All possible expenses for the time period of the blanket need to be estimated on the PA.
Invoices can be attached to a traveler's Pre-Approval in Chrome River. These items should be listed as a 'University Paid' expense type on the Pre-Approval.
If you need to add an expense type on a submitted expense report, recall the report, make your edits, and re-submit.
Individual expenses cannot be copied on a Pre-Approval at this time.
On an Expense Report, click the individual expense to copy on the left pane, and then click the ellipsis on the right pane, followed by 'Duplicate':
A 'Various' option exists for:
Chrome River workflow is based on Banner HR and Banner Finance approvals and follows the routing below:
Pre-Approvals:
Expense Reports:
Yes. Approved Expense Reports export to Banner Finance for payment daily. The next business day, the receipts that were attached in Chrome River are loaded into the B-F-DOCS application of BDMS.
These images can be viewed either by:
querying B-F-DOCS directly, using one of these options:
clicking 'Retrieve' from Banner when on the FAIINVE or FGIDOCR screens
The supervisor information is fed into Chrome River from the Banner Human Resources module. Contact your HR representative for supervisor information.
This is because the 'Mail' application in Windows 10 is set as your default e-mail client. There are a few workarounds:
In order to arrange travel for a University employee or student in Egencia, the traveler-arranger relationship must be created in Egencia. To request or remove this relationship:
Egencia should be used if wanting the University to directly pay for air, hotel, or rail. It is not mandatory for travelers who wish to purchase travel fares with their own funds and then be reimbursed, subject to the provisions of the University Travel Policy.
Travelers will be allowed to use the University's travel card in Egencia on a per-trip basis, if approved on a Pre-Approval.
The charges on the University travel card will appear in Banner Finance within the first week of the month following the month in which charges were assessed.
Contact an Egencia agent, rather than the airlines/hotels themselves, from either your Egencia app (tap 'Assist Me') or by calling 877-310-0463 or 702-939-2532. Be sure to have your Egencia itinerary number with you before calling. An agent should be able to make the proper accommodations.
After booking airfare, if seat selection was not available or a seat was not assigned, either the airline is not permitting pre-assigned seating at this time or they may only assign a seat at check-in. If utilizing online check-in and the only seat options available are paid upgrades, please wait to check-in at the airport as a seat will be assigned at no charge. If a seat is purchased, it will not be eligible for reimbursement per the University Travel Policy.
Once the ticket is paid for, a seat is confirmed regardless of whether or not there is a pre-assigned seat number.