Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Extended Suspension of Business Travel and New State Added to Restricted List

Business Travel Suspended Through June 2021 Due to COVID-19

The CSU Chancellor’s Office recently announced that non-essential international and domestic travel will be suspended through June 30, 2021. For more information, please view the FY2020-21 Systemwide Meetings and Conferences memo.

In response to the extension, SJSU will continue to follow the travel guidelines established due to COVID-19 and as explained in our blog last March. The noticeable change to the original guideline is the President (or their designee) now maintain final approval for essential travel. Essential travel is not authorized until President approval is obtained.

For information on the university’s plan to continue campus operation, please refer to SJSU Adapt.

Update- New State Added to the Restricted Travel List

With the effective date July 1, 2020, Idaho has been added to Assembly Bill 1887, the law restricting the funding or sponsoring of state business travel to states with discriminatory laws.

The current list of restricted states are as follows:

Alabama
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Mississippi
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas

For the background and guidelines regarding Restricted Travel, please refer to the Travel Guide.

Travel Reimbursement for Business Travel Suspended by the COVID-19 Situation

Employees whose business travel were suspended due to the COVID-19 situation can submit a Travel Reimbursement in FTS for non-refundable expenses paid for out of pocket. Please use the Travel Reimbursement that is associated to your Travel Authorization. Enter the expenses in the One Time Charges and not in the Daily Charges section. In the Funding Source/Chartfields section, include COVID-19 class code 4716 with the required chartfields (Account-Fund-DeptID).

For expenses incurred by the department (typically on a GoCard), review your GoCard statements for costs incurred in previous months and enter an Expense Transfer Journal in FTS to add class code 4716 to the transaction. While an extra step, it will best ensure departments receive reimbursement for costs associated with cancelled trips.

Please refer to our travel announcement for guidelines related to submitting a Travel Reimbursement. If you have any questions, contact Finance Support at financeconnect@sjsu.edu or 4-1558.

Figure 1: An example of how to enter claims in the One Time Charges. Click on image to enlarge.

Procurement to Payment Services

Dear Campus Community,

In response to the heightened restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, the Procurement to Payment Services team would like to ensure you we remain available to you to fulfil your needs.

Procurement

Should you need to purchase supplies, please continue to enter requisitions. This is especially recommended for items that require shipment to individual homes and will need to be tagged as University property.

If you need to purchase an item immediately, please work with your department ProCard holders to facilitate purchases. Please be advised that orders initiated in the Campus Marketplace cannot be redirected to your home.

ProCard holders should follow normal ProCard protocols for the purposes reconciliation. For items purchased in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, please make sure you are using the class code below in your reconciliations.

  • Class Code: 4716 Coronavirus COVID-19 Incident

Payments

At this juncture, check runs will be done once a week, on Thursdays. Please continue to submit invoices for payment to ensure continuous payment to our suppliers. Many of them will be facing financial challenges during this time.

Should you have any questions, please contact Finance Support at financeconnect@sjsu.edu and they will direct your request accordingly.