Procedures

B. TRAVEL ADVANCES

(Section 25-1-79 of the MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, Annotated)

1. Travel In/Out of State. If the circumstances of authorized travel are in/out the State of Mississippi, the MSU Office of Travel Services can provide the traveler with a reasonable travel advance to defray the cost of such travel.
   
   
2. Approval Required. Advances for travel must be requested in writing and approved according to the requirements for travel in/out of the State of Mississippi and outside the continental limits of the United States.

   Approved requests for travel advances should be presented to the Office of Travel Services using either Form A-03 or Form A-04.

   MSU Form A-04 must be signed by the President before an advance can be issued for international travel.
   Advances will not be issued prior to thirteen (13) business days before the trip begins, unless there is a documented savings to the University on early purchase of public carrier tickets or when documented pre-trip payment is required (i.e. when a hotel requires an advance deposit, advance registration fees, etc.)

   Advance requests should be limited to advance "needs". However, under no circumstances should advance requests exceed travel expense estimates. The budget manager who authorizes the advance is responsible for insuring that advance requests are reasonable.

   No more than four (4) advances may be outstanding at a given time.

   Travel must have an overnight stay. Advance request must be $200.00 and above.

3. Prepaid Conference Registration Fees. Professional Development fees incidental to conference, seminar or workshop attendance may be prepaid. These pre-registration fees will be processed on the Procard or a Direct Pay. See instructions below for this process:
   
   
   • Change in Conference Registration payments and advice when entering Direct Pay documents.
   • Historically, Conference Registration was done on a Travel Document. Over the past few years, in an attempt to simplify and speed up the process, we have attempted to move more of the Conference Registrations to the p-card with the Travel Document being the alternative option when the p-card was not accepted.
   • In an effort to increase efficiency in the process we are making the following change effective immediately. The P-card is still the preferred method of paying Conference Registration fees, but, when the p-card is either not accepted or not available as an option, the second option is using a Direct Pay. When using the Direct Pay it is imperative that the person key in enough information (conference name, location, registrants name, institution, agency, etc) so the person receiving the direct deposit will know who and what it is paying for.
   • Since we are making more of our payments using Direct Deposit, keying in complete information is good advice for any payment. Remember, the person receiving the money is not getting a copy of an invoice or other document identifying the purpose of the payment. They receive an e-mail indicating the funds have been deposited into their account and the text that is entered into the Direct Pay document. Using abbreviations and "code words" that your department may understand may not give the person receiving the funds enough information to credit it to the right account.
   
   

   If settlement is not in accordance with these guidelines, the advance will be considered past due. An employee must submit settlement in full with an expense voucher in payment of any net advance due the University. The Travel Services Office may allow an extension of the settlement period based upon an examination of all relevant information and circumstances.

   Past due Travel Advances: The Office of Travel Services is authorized, with the understanding of the employee, to withhold from the traveler's salary the amount of a past due advance. Travel Services must be notified either by fax, phone, memo or e-mail of any extenuating circumstances that might preclude the traveler's ability to settle on a timely basis.

   An advance is considered past due ten (10) business days after the end of the month in which the domestic travel was completed. Exception: International Travel