Anyone who has ever taken a business trip is familiar with the long hours, endless meetings and trail of receipts that accompany business travel. A majority of Yale's more than 10,000 Yale faculty and staff members have engaged in some type of business travel, many on a monthly or even weekly basis.
The paperwork generated by travelers' expense reports could fill a warehouse, let alone the desk of an Accounts Payable Office employee. This volume of work, when combined with other factors, means that even those travelers who file the most accurate and timely expense reports may have to wait five weeks or more to receive reimbursement for their travel expenses.
By the summer of 1998, Yale business travelers will see a dramatic change in both the way their expense reports are filed and in the time it takes for reimbursement -- which will be reduced to just five days in most cases. The revolutionary new expense reporting process is just one of the changes being planned and implemented by the Travel and Entertainment T&E team of Project X -- Yale's campus-wide initiative to upgrade technology and streamline business policies and procedures in the areas of financial and human resources.
Heading up the T&E redesign team is Carol Marshall, administrator at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, co-team leader of the Purchasing-Accounts Payable Team and a member of the Project X Steering Committee. Other members of the T&E sub- team include Dick Bascom, business process analyst, Finance Office; Joanne Bentley, business manager, chemistry department; Goretti Blewett, Project X administrative associate; Joanne Brooks, manager, and Fran Cassista, supervisor, Accounts Payable Office; Darlene Corgan, travel manager; and Don Relihan, manager, Office of Traffic, Receiving and Stores. The entire Project X initiative is overseen by a Steering Committee headed by Provost Alison F. Richard and Vice President for Finance and Administration Joseph P. Mullinix.
$3 million cut from current process. Yale presently spends approximately $17 million annually on travel and another $5.3 million on associated processing and administrative costs. By streamlining the process and moving to an automated system, the University will eliminate $3 million of unnecessary work, or 57 percent of the current process costs.
"The team has been successful in cutting all the excess effort currently involved in this process. Administrative staff will be able to reinvest this time in delivering more value-added services to the community," says Ms. Marshall. Previously up to four stages of review and approval were required for expense report processing -- from the authorizing business manager, as well as the Offices of Grants and Contracts -- whenever a grant fund is being accessed -- Accounts Payable and the Controller. The new process, however, will require only one authorizing signature -- that of the business manager or his-her designated appointee. By making business managers the sole authorizers and by training them totally in the process of approvals, the new process will not only result in savings of time -- in the form of reduced staff hours and in the length of time Yale community members spend waiting for reimbursement -- there will also be an increased level of service and compliance with the authorizer having first-hand knowledge of the travel requirements, says Ms. Marshall.
The new process, which will be piloted beginning this summer, will be a major accomplishment in terms of meeting Project X's goals, which include updating outmoded business and financial processes and modernizing systems requirements to accommodate Yale's changing needs. An evaluation and expansion of the pilot will take place in the fall, and the new expense reporting process will be phased in across the entire campus beginning next January, with the help of online interactive training materials.
User-friendly expense report forms. The most obvious innovation will be a simplified, user-friendly expense report form. While paper will be used initially, once the new technology is fully implemented, the entire process will take place electronically. Another change in procedure, already in place, is that travelers who purchase their tickets from Yale Travel Services no longer have to attach the original airline ticket receipt to their expense report if their departmental account has been billed directly.
"We hope to make the total travel and expense reimbursement process electronic and flowing for all users," says Darlene Corgan, manager of travel services. "The savings opportunity is tremendous. Improved information from the new system will allow the University to gain greater leverage with its preferred travel vendors so each department can realize increased cost savings."
1n the future, using the new World Wide Web-based technology from Oracle Corporation, travelers will simply log on, input and certify expenses, then send the information electronically to the business office authorizer for approval. Receipts, which will still be required for expenses exceeding $25, will need to be submitted separately to the business office. The business manager (or appointee) will then review the report electronically -- along with submitted receipts -- for completeness and compliance with University policy and authorize reimbursement via electronic signature. If the form is missing information or contains unallowable expenses, the authorizer can route the expense report back to the traveler for adjustment. Once approved, payment will be generated automatically via direct deposit to the traveler's bank account or, if that is not feasible, a check will be issued directly to the traveler. The system will enable the traveler and authorizing business office to monitor the status of the transaction throughout the process.
A post-payment quality assurance review of expense reports will be conducted by Accounts Payable Office staff to provide ongoing feedback to users, as well as business managers and central administrators. In their new role, Accounts Payable staff will now manage the process rather than the individual transactions. One of the benefits of the review, according to Ms. Marshall, is that it will enable the Accounts Payable Office to concentrate its efforts on revising the training, ensuring that it continues to meet university requirements and the evolving needs of travelers and administrators.
"Expense report wizard." First-time users or those unfamiliar with a Web browser will be "walked through" the process step-by- step via the system's built-in "expense report wizard." Prompts will appear on screen requesting the necessary information and highlighting University policies and procedures. Plans also include access to on-line travel information, such as mileage charts and currency conversion rates. Once the report is complete, the traveler will sign it electronically.
The T&E Team is currently developing an interactive training module or tutorial, which will demonstrate how to use the new system and instruct users and business office authorizers in the expense reporting process. The training module will provide a series of hypothetical travel scenarios to acquaint users with the various options and preset parameters, which are built into the system and will, according to Ms. Marshall, "provide a clear and defined knowledge of policies and procedures -- all the mystery will be taken out." According to Diana McShea, University controller, this will assure continued compliance with "all relevant requirements in an efficient and responsive environment."
While authorizers will be required to complete a more comprehensive training to be certified in the process, the travelers themselves will be able to directly access the module and "walk" step-by-step through the process right from their own offices.
Members of the Yale community who travel and know the drawbacks associated with the present system of reimbursement are enthusiastic about the upcoming changes. James Jones, assistant men's basketball coach, says, "I'm really looking forward to the new process. It will prove to be a great cost saver for the University, while enhancing the cash flow for the individual traveler."
Jared Cohon, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the Project X Steering Committee, agrees that the new process holds great promise. Dean Cohon will be doing some traveling himself this summer as he prepares to take up his new post as president of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he still expects to keep tabs on the progress of Yale's Project X.
"By reducing the time from an average of five weeks to five days ... we will achieve a great cost savings to the University as well as much better service to the individuals who submit the reimbursement requests," he says, adding, "I think it's an excellent and dramatic demonstration of the benefits that Project X can yield for the University."
The T&E team expects the new program to be fully operational by July 1, 1998.
-- By Donna Pintek
NOTE: A longer version of this story appears on the Project X World Wide Web site: http://www.yale.edu.pjx.