UNT Department of Mathematics

Faculty Travel Guidelines

This document provides some clarifications on the policy and procedures that must be followed when math faculty travel and request reimbursements. Since some of the policy and procedures are not departmental but are from the College of Science (COS), the Provost office, the VPRI office (including the Office of Grants and Contracts Administration), and the UNT Business Support Services (BSS), the ultimate authority to interpret them lies with these offices. The guidelines in this document are provided only to give the math faculty and staff an overview and to minimize confusion.

Topics covered in this document include:

Is it personal or professional?

Who pays for the trip?

Why and how do I register international travel?

What to keep during the trip in order to get reimbursement later?

How do I get my reimbursement?

Is there a way for my trip expenses to be pre-paid with university funds?

Where can I find all the forms?

Who to contact if I have questions?

In this document a faculty member refers to a member of the math department with a full-time appointment at UNT that requires teaching and/or research. More specifically, the guidelines in this document apply to tenure-track and tenured faculty (including those with joint appointments), lecturers, visiting professors, and postdoctoral fellows. Adjunct faculty and graduate students are not included in these guidelines.

Is it personal or professional?

When a faculty member needs to travel for personal reasons, a VPAA-150 form (FacultyApplication for Approval of Leave) mustbe submitted andapproved before the trip takes place, even if the faculty member has made arrangements to cover his/her regular teaching duties. The UNT emergency/administrative leave policy (Policy Manual 05.066) explains in detail the circumstances in which a leave with pay can be granted. For instance, in the emergency of the death of a family member, an emergency leave can be granted with restrictions on the number of days permitted.

When a faculty member travels to professional conferences or other universities to conduct research, the travel is professional and is usually considered university business. It is this type of travel that the rest of this document focuses on. As a common practice, as well as departmental policy, the traveling faculty member is responsible for taking measures to cover his/her regular teaching duties during the travel dates. The usual arrangement is to find a substitute instructor for the classes. Students must be notified in writing, in advance, of the arrangement. Typically no classes should be cancelled. In the event that the faculty member has to cancel classes, advance arrangement must be made to make up for the cancelled classes with the agreement of all students affected, and the arrangement should be communicated in writing to the students before the travel takes place.

Who pays for the trip?

The following list gives an overview of funding sources available to most mathematics faculty:

  1. Departmental Travel Support

In the math department each faculty member is allocated an annual amount of travel support from departmental funds. The current allocation amounts are as follows:

Tenured and tenure-track faculty$700

Lecturer$300

Postdoc, visiting faculty$1,000

Departmental funds can be combined with other sources of funding and can be used to support multiple trips during the year.

To gain access to the departmental travel fund, the following departmental procedure must be followed:

  • Before each trip, the faculty member must submit a signed Travel Budget Authorization Form, regardless if the faculty member needs department funding support or not.
  • Before each trip, and only if departmental funding support is needed, the faculty member must submit a signed Departmental Faculty Travel Fund Request form and provide appropriate supporting documents (specified on the form) to the department travel coordinator;
  • The Chair approves the travel and funding requests according to established standards (see below) and provides the information about the amount approved for the trip and the departmental account number(s);
  • The department travel coordinator files the approved requests for departmental record and provides a copy of the approved requests to the faculty member;
  • The faculty completes the travel and submits the Travel Reimbursement Request form with supporting documents for processing, within 10 business days of returning from the trip and within the same fiscal year (September 1 through August 31) in which the trip takes place.
  • The department travel coordinator prepares and submits the travel voucher for payment within 5 business days of receiving the travel reimbursement documents from the faculty member.

The standards for the Chair to grant access to departmental funds for faculty travel are as follows.

The travel requested significantly increases department and university visibility in the profession;

The travel requested significantly advances faculty research and development;

The request does not put the faculty member over his/her annual allocation amount.

Occasionally the request will put the faculty member over his/her annual allocation amount. In this case it is the faculty member’s responsibility to justify why the trip significantly promotes the department’s research reputation and benefits the faculty member’s research. Such requests will only be approved with clear arguments and sufficient supporting documentation, but will be subject to the availability of additional funds from departmental accounts.

A beginning tenure-track faculty member, a new postdoctoral fellow, or a new visiting faculty member could be allocated a different (and higher) annual amount for travel support from departmental funds, if such a different amount has been negotiated as the faculty member’s employment offer. Such information must be included in the faculty member’s original offer letter.

  1. Travel Support through Other Institutional Programs
  • Small Grants
  • Research Seed Grants (RSGs)

Both are available through the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI). For all intramural funding opportunities, including RSGs and the Small Grant Programs, go to -funding.

  1. Internal and ExternalGrants

Many faculty members have internal and external grants containing funds for travel related to the grant research. As the account holder for grant accounts, the faculty member can make the preliminary determination to use grant money to pay for research trips. In this case, the faculty member is responsible to make sure that

  • the purpose of the trip complies with the terms of the grant,
  • the total expenses are within the limits of the grant budget, and
  • proper university procedures are followed.

As a rule of thumb, all grant spending, including travel, should be pre-approved by the Grant Administrator in the Office of Grants and Contracts Administration. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to secure such pre-approvals. If the travel is international, make sure the grant contains a line item in the budget for international travel. Funding agencies usually have restrictions on the choice of airlines, reimbursable expenses, etc. Check and get approvals before the trip takes place. Sometimes this means that the grant officer in the funding agency needs to be contacted and give approvals.

  1. Faculty Indirect Cost (IDC) Accounts or Discretionary Accounts

These are not grant accounts but are typically generated from grant activities. They are departmental accounts with faculty members as account holders. Faculty members have the primary authority to decide how the funds can be used to enhance and further research. Research trips can usually be funded with money in these accounts. Similar to grant accounting, expenses charged to IDC accounts need approvals by a Grant Administrator (usually a different person from the one mentioned above) in the Office of Research Services. The faculty member is strongly encouraged to seek pre-approvals before the expenses are incurred.

  1. External sponsors (conference, host, etc.)
  1. Faculty personal funds

All of the abovementioned sources of funding can be combined with other funding sources for eligible research trips. In fact, faculty members are encouraged to seek combination of funding sources so as to maximize the positive impact of the trips. The key is to plan ahead and to follow proper procedures. It is also important that the faculty member communicate the status of requests and approvalsthe department travel coordinator.

Why and how do I register international travel?

All UNT faculty traveling abroad on university business mustregister with UNTInternationalOffice for international travel health insurance and crisis management support. The traveling faculty will be issued a health insurance card for each trip. The university assumes all insurance cost for the registered traveler.Please note that spouses or dependents of the traveling faculty are not covered by the traveling faculty’s international travel health insurance.

To register your trip online, go to and open the following links in succession: > Resources for Travelers > UNT Health & Travel Insurance > Faculty/Staff Insurance. The completed information must be submitted via Register International Travel at least two weeks prior to departure. The traveler will receive an email with a scanned copy of the travel insurance card. This document is sufficient, but if the traveler prefers a hard copy of the insurance card, s/he can visit the UNT Study Abroad Office to request one. The insurance card will be ready and available for pickup five business days following the submission of your information.

Note that each trip is a separate event and needs to be registered separately. Keep in mind that the UNT Study Abroad Office does not keep your passport and trip information beyond the trip.

What to keep during the trip in order to get reimbursement later?

Typically, travel expenses include airfare, lodging, transportation (including taxi, bus, train, car rental, parking, etc.), meals and incidental expenses (M&IE), registration fees, and other paid conference programs. The rule of thumb is to keep all available receipts, sometimes this means that you have to ask for them.

All the receipts must show the date(s) of the service provided, an itemized description of the goods purchased or service provided, and most importantly, the payment method and amount paid.

The following are some examples and important exceptions to the rule of thumb.

  • For airfare, an online or an email receipt is good, provided that it contains the entire itinerary, the cost, and a verification of payment amount and method. To be on the safe side, keep the boarding passes and submit them along with the reimbursement requests for verification of the trip taken.
  • For lodging, ask for a receipt when checking out of the hotel (don’t just drop the key and leave). The receipt should contain the information of dates stayed, amount charged by day and by service, and it should show a zero balance. Sometimes, you must persist to get lodging detailed receipts in a foreign country.Keep in mind that you will not be able to get reimbursement if the lodging receipts do not show actual room charges per day or state clearly that the charges are for room and taxes only. If phone charges, laundry, movies, etc. are not shown separately, you will have trouble using the receipt for reimbursement.
  • If you get a card from the taxi driver as receipt, ask the driver to fill out his/her information and the payment amount (this can include the tips).
  • Some train and subway tickets are for one-time use and will be taken back by the end of the ride. Ask for a receipt when you purchase the ticket. If you buy the ticket from a vending machine, there usually are instructions about how to obtain a receipt.
  • If you have driven your own car for a part of a trip, a (federal) standard mileage rate can be paid for transportation. This does not require a receipt. When you claim mileage reimbursement, you will need to include a printout of the google map ( with the information of starting address, destination address, and total mileage. Mileage can only be reimbursed for the shortest path calculated by the good maps program.
  • If the conference (such as the Joint Mathematics Meetings) offers a book fair, then books purchased from the fair can be included as travel expenses. This is an example of a paid conference program. Banquets and excursions not covered by the registration fees are also paid conference programs.
  • The current UNT System Travel Guidelines allow per diem payments or reimbursements of meals and incidental expenses with actual receipts. Only one method (per diem or actual receipts) can be used, not a combination of both. Per diem payment amounts are set by the U.S. General Services Administration. The first and last days of travel will be reimbursed at 75% of the per diem rate. If actual receipts are used, the amount of reimbursement per day cannot exceed the per diem rate. Credit card statements can be used to support expense claims if an actual receipt is lost or unavailable. Check with the department travel coordinator if you have specific questions about M&IE expenses.

In addition to the above, other documents related to the trip may be needed for the reimbursement. These additional documents include, but are not limited to, the following.

  • Invitation letters and other correspondence about the conference arrangements (especially if payments from external funding sources are involved).
  • The conference program, with the faculty member’s talk(s) and role(s) highlighted (for instance, you might be traveling to a conference because you are an organizer or a session chair). If the conference program is too long to print in its entirety, only the part with the relevant information is needed.
  • If the original travel plans are altered (for instance a change of plan due to inclement weather), documentation is needed to justify the changes.

Most of these documents are available through email or from the Internet. However, it is a good idea to keep the documents along the way to avoid difficulties that sometimes come up later. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to provide these documents for reimbursements.

The BSS travel webpage a good source of information. The departmental Travel Reimbursement Request form also contains detailed instructions on the supporting documents required for the reimbursement of travel expenses.

How do I get my reimbursement?

Regardless of the funding sources, faculty members are required to submit a UNT Travel Budget Authorization Formprior to the trip. The form needs to be signed by the faculty member, the department Chair, and the account holder for the departmental account or grant account from which the travel reimbursement will be requested (who is usually one of the above two). The form is necessary for all trips, even if a reimbursement will not be requested, and needs to be submitted and processed before the trip takes place. If multiple accounts are involved in the reimbursement, then all of the account holders must sign. The form is also used for requesting travel advances (see the next section for more information).

Within 10 business days after the faculty member completes the trip, and within the same fiscal year (September 1 through August 31) of the trip, the faculty member must submit a Travel Reimbursement Request (TRR) and provide all necessary supporting documents in order to get the reimbursement processed. In addition, the department travel coordinator may need to interview the faculty member about the trip, the expenses, and the reimbursement request in preparation of a Travel Voucher. The department travel coordinator will process and submit the travel voucher for payment within 5 business days of receiving the travel reimbursement documents. See the instructions forthe Travel Reimbursement Request for detailed information on supporting documents required.

The Travel Voucher will then be signed by the faculty member, the account holder(s), the department Chair, and will be routed to other offices, including the College of Science (COS), the Office of Grants and Contracts Administration (OGCA), and the UNT Business Support Services (BSS), for further approvals. The reimbursement check usually arrives in two weeks. By default, a reimbursement check will be mailed to the faculty member’s mailing address. The faculty member has the option to pick up the check personally from the BSS, but must indicate such on the Travel Voucher. The faculty member can sign-up to have all travel reimbursement directly deposited to a bank account by filling out an EFT Agreement Form provided by BSS and by following the instructions in the BSS webpage Once the faculty member’s form is on file it is not necessary for future trips.