At MTSU we are trying to discourage travel advances as much as
possible.  Because of consistency in A-21, I would refer to your
University's policy on travel advances.

Myra Norman

Lori Johnson wrote:
> At ISU, we have a clearing account for travel advances.  Thus, we
> would pay the travel advance out of that account.  When the traveler
> returns and turns in actual receipts, etc. we then cut him a check for
> the total reimbursement amount less the advance.  It is at that time
> that the grant account is charged for the actual amount of the travel
> (this also allows us for exclustion of unallowable charges).
> Hope this helps.
> Lori
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Schier-Happell, Suzanne E" <xxxxxx@OTTERBEIN.EDU>
> Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 9:54 am
> Subject: [RESADM-L] Pre-payment with Federal Funds:
> To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
>
> > Our Sponsored Programs Office has a general policy that we avoid
> > pre-paying for goods or services with grant funds. We prefer to pay
> > through reimbursement or by purchase order/invoice. We've never
> > had a
> > problem enforcing this policy before, but I've run into a
> > problem with
> > our business office and would like to get some "What would you do?"
> > opinions on this. Here is the situation:
> >
> >
> >
> > A Faculty member has requested an advance check for close to
> > $2,000 to
> > cover hotel costs on an upcoming trip. No departmental credit
> > card is
> > available for him to use. Typically, we would request a
> > temporary credit
> > card for him to use so that he can use that on the trip, thereby
> > avoiding the whole pre-payment issue.
> >
> >
> >
> > For some reason, the College is now insisting that we cut him an
> > advancecheck rather than issuing a temporary credit card. I have
> > nothing to
> > fall back on besides our office policy, which appears to mean very
> > little!
> >
> >
> >
> > So my question is: Does you office permit pre-payment for travel costs
> > out of federal grant accounts? And whether yes or no, could you please
> > explain your rationale? Are there federal guidelines to back you up?
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank you in advance for your help!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > Suzanne Happell
> >
> > Assistant Director of Sponsored Programs
> >
> > Otterbein College
> >
> > xxxxxx@otterbein.edu
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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--
Myra Norman, PhD
Director, Research & Sponsored Programs
P.O. Box 124
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN  37132
Tel:  (615) 898-5005
Fax:  (615) 898-5028
xxxxxx@mtsu.edu

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