Travel Grants

CS Grad Student Travel Instructions

Travelling through the CS department generally breaks down into pre-travel tasks and things you submit once you’ve returned from travel. This post is for current CU Graduate Student employees, traveling with funding provided by Computer Science faculty whose funding is housed in Computer Science.

If you’re currently doing an internship or otherwise not working for CU Boulder, you are not an employee and can’t use Concur. Instead, refer to this document https://www.colorado.edu/cs/media/165 and go straight to completing a Department Travel Authorization (DA) Request Form. The department administrative team will guide you from there.

Things covered in this post are:

  1. Tasks to complete before your trip
  2. International travel extra steps
  3. Personal travel extra steps
  4. Things to do when you’re back

This post is intended as a roadmap to travelling through the CS department at CU. More detailed instructions are available at https://csfinance.colorado.edu/, and step-by-step instructions for domestic and international travel can be found here: https://www.colorado.edu/cs/media/165. This includes instructions on accessing Concur (the CU travel booking software). The guide also provides instructions for giving access to your Concur profile to CS Team members so that they may complete a reimbursement expense report on your behalf at the conclusion of the trip. You can also contact Christopherson Business Travel to plan your trip.

If you’re looking for grants, the CSGSA has compiled some resources on available grants: https://bouldercsgrads.org/2018/09/12/Travel-Grants.html.

Pre-Travel

Once you’ve decided to travel and confirmed with the Computer Science faculty member who will support the trip that you will be funded, you need to seek travel pre-approval through the Computer Science administrative team (CS team).

The pre-travel process can be found at this step by step word doc guide and is broken down as follows:

  1. If your travel is international, you need separate approval through Concur before taking the next step. The “international travel” section of the step by step has instructions on completing this authorization.

  2. Complete the Departmental Travel Authorization (DA) Request Form
    • You’ll need to have talked to whoever is funding your travel to have the funding Speedtype to fill this form out.
    • By the time you’re filling this out, you should have fully planned your trip but NOT purchased any airline tickets or booked any portion of the trip. This means the final ticket prices may be different from any quotes you submit, that’s fine.
  3. You’ll receive an email from the department approving your travel with instructions about reimbursement after travel, which means you can book your trip!
    • Keep track of this confirmation email. You’ll need to reference it when you get return as it provides instructions on completing the Travel Reimbursement Request Form.
  4. Once you’ve received the confirmation email, you can proceed with booking your trip.
  5. Pay out-of-pocket and be reimbursed for all expenses other than airfare. Keep itemized receipts showing proof of payment for all non-food expenses, which you can submit for reimbursement through the Travel Reimbursement Request Form when you return from the trip. Reimbursement includes things like:
    • lodging
    • conference registration fee
    • food (no receipts needed)
    • ground transportation (trains, lyfts/ubers, buses, mileage, etc.). For tips: you’ll be reimbursed for up to 20% of the service charge. If the final bill includes gratuity, you won’t be reimbursed for any additional tip.

International Travel

There is an extra stage of pre-approval if you’re travelling internationally. You can find instructions on how to get that pre-approval through Concur under the “International Travel for CU Employees” section of this guide.

Make sure that you:

  • submit a pre-approval application through Concur
  • add the CS Team as delegates to Concur

You are responsible for ensuring you have appropriate visas for your travel, and the CU system may not inform you of visa requirements. Also make sure to check visa requirements for any countries where you have layovers: they may require a visa to pass through.

Adding Personal Travel

You are allowed to combine personal travel with business travel. The University will only pay for the business portion of your trip, and you need to document the difference in costs. The full policy is here.

If you’re adding personal travel, you need to do some additional research and obtain a business-only itinerary before submitting your DA request form (or Concur pre-approval for international travel). Create trip plans with cost estimates through Concur or Christopherson Business Travel, to be submitted together in your DA form:

  1. Business-only travel itinerary, that excludes the personal travel. Screenshot/get a PDF of this plan

  2. True travel itinerary, including personal travel. Also save a screenshot/PDF of this

  3. Fill out DA form/Concur trip request with your true trip details and pricing and attach the comparison quote. Leave off any personal costs (e.g. hotel stays that are part of your personal travel)

The university will cover your travel costs up to the total cost of the business-only trip you submitted. You can book airfare through the university for personal legs of the trip, and any cost beyond that will be deducted from other reimbursements, or you’ll be asked to pay the university back. You can send updated comparison quotes to csteam@colorado.edu if the true costs have changed since you were approved.

After Your Trip

Once you return, follow the instructions for reimbursement in the email approving your travel, which might differ. Generally, you’ll be asked to submit a Travel Reimbursement Request Form.

You need to submit this within 90 days of your return. More information on this can be found in the University’s Business Expense Substantiation Policy.

Note: do NOT create your own travel expense report through Concur, even if you get email reminders from Concur telling you to do so. The department administrative team will do this for you. You will be notified when the expense report is ready for your review and submission.