Travel and Expense Transformation Project

Page Index

• Shifting Roles and Responsibilities
• Why the University is Making These Changes
• Resources for Employees and How to Start Preparing

What is the Travel and Expense Transformation Project? 

The Travel and Expense Transformation Project will streamline the employee experience for booking travel, submitting receipts and expense reimbursements, and reconciling Procurement Card (PCard) activity. 

Once implemented on July 1, 2026, it will consolidate the current expense and PCard reconciliation processes into a comprehensive solution within the existing Travel & Expense system, within Concur, which already hosts the university's travel authorization and PCard management services. Implementing at the start of the new fiscal year, will allow for a clean start to the fiscal year, eliminating the need to move expenses from one system to the other and creating easier reporting.  

This transformation Includes:

• Upgrading the existing PCard Program to provide additional payment tools
• Introducing custom dashboards with expense data
• Offering an optional mobile app for capturing receipts and approving transactions
• Adding policy reminders, audit rules, and defined approval workflows
• Adding an embedded software assistant
• Providing real-time visibility into reimbursement status  
• Aligning responsibilities to promote financial accountability

Additional Operational Changes

UAccess Analytics will no longer display reimbursement information; users will instead access documentation and status updates directly in Travel and Expense (including via the mobile app).

The following documents will now be completed in the Travel & Expense system:

• Disbursement Vouchers for reimbursements  
• Travel advances
• Procurement Card (PCDO) eDocs

Shifting Roles and Responsibilities

One of the key changes with this expansion is a shift in current roles & responsibilities:

• PCard holders and purchasers will now be submitting their own receipts and asked to provide business purposes and documentation, uploading directly into the Travel and Expense system.  
• Employees seeking travel and non-travel reimbursements will now be submitting their own receipts and asked to provide business purposes and documentation, uploading directly into the Travel and Expense system.
• Business and fiscal officers will focus on reviewing and approving activity, rather than tracking information and workflow status.

This is a shift in process for those who currently route their requests, receipts, business purposes, and supporting documentation through their business officers and/or administrative staff.  

Why the University Is Making These Changes  

"The landscape of higher education is shifting, and we need to adapt to ensure we stay relevant. This project is one of several steps we're taking to shift our focus from manual tasks to more meaningful work: providing faster answers, strategic insight, and improved partnership and collaboration. This shift supports the university's commitment to operational excellence and efficiency." 

Garth Perry, Chief Budget and Fiscal Management Officer

Today, information often passes through multiple hands across different offices and through different applications, which slows down processing times, reduces visibility into the status of documents within workflow, and creates frustration for both employees and business offices. Staff spend unnecessary time tracking receipts, asking for missing details, and performing manual status tracking.  

By consolidating travel, reimbursement, and PCard activities into a single integrated system, we can streamline the experience, reduce delays, and give employees clear visibility into the status of their submissions. This change helps allocate responsibility to employees, travelers, purchasers, and business and fiscal officers to create a shared goal of financial accountability across campus.  

Additionally, these changes allow the university to modernize its business processes while reducing reliance on our financial system, which is not designed to support improved business workflow. Improvements like stronger policy reminders, software tools, and better reporting will support accuracy, efficiency, and cost savings.  

Benefits include:

• A more modern way to capture and submit receipts
• Faster reimbursement turnaround
• Fewer manual calculations, workflow status tracking, and data entry
• Clearer accountability for financial activities

How We Will Measure Success

• Fewer process-related communications and follow-up discussions between employees and business offices, which will result in shorter processing and reimbursement times
• Fewer policy violations and audit findings, leveraging the system's advanced tools and embedded policy guidelines to help users remain in compliance
• Reduction in inadvertent personal use of university resources  

Resources for Employees and How You Can Start to Prepare  

This expansion affects business officers, PCard holders and users, and any employee who submits receipts and requests for reimbursement. To help you prepare for these changes, effective July 2026, please consider the options below, depending on your role.

Current PCard Holders

PCard holders will be responsible for submitting their own receipts and backup documentation, including the university business purpose for each purchase. To prepare, we ask that you consider reviewing these PCard training courses as a refresher available in EDGE Learning.   

Those Who Travel on University Business

Part of the travel process already takes place in Travel and Expense, as travelers are already asked to complete their travel requests in the system. With this expansion, travelers will now also request their trip reimbursements in the system. To refresh your knowledge, consider reviewing the following resources: 

• University Travel System Training  
• Business Travel Start to Finish Guide

Business Officers

Because PCard holders and anyone making a purchase with university funds will now be asked to submit their own receipts and supporting documentation, including business purposes, it’s important to point these individuals towards their resources and assist with getting them trained in these areas.  

Start to train your PCard holders on key concepts, including:

• Funding sources (e.g., accounts they use for travel or purchases)
  • Submitters will be asked to select the account for each expense, so knowing their funding sources will ease this transition  
• Card management training
  • Card holders are now responsible for the management of their cards including new card requests, card changes, and self-report violations.
• Writing a Business Purpose Statement
• Unallowable expenses
• Begin training your frequent travelers on how to complete the current Travel Authorization Request
• Encourage your Business Office employees and Fiscal Officers to review relevant training in preparation for the Concur Implementation.

We can’t successfully implement this change and achieve our intended objectives together without your input, expertise, and commitment. If there is anything else we can provide to your office to help make this implementation smoother, please reach out to our contact our Change Management Team at FNAB@arizona.edu.

Project Timeline

Resources

Travel and Expense Advisory Group Roster

Travel and Expense News

You can review previous communications that we have sent regarding this project below.