Request a Travel Advance

Travel advances may be issued to University faculty and staff to aid with the purchase of travel related expenses. Travel Advances must be requested through Chrome River as an Expense Report. Chrome River Pre-Approvals should not be attached to the Expense Report containing the advance request.

Requests

Amounts must not include air or rail fares, since those expenses should be paid by the Agency Travel Card (ATC) through Collegiate Travel Planners.

Advances will only be issued in whole dollar amounts and must be $100 or more.

Advances are issued to employees only, not students, guests, or contractors.

Advances are not issued to employees who have a sufficient line of credit on the corporate travel card, whose corporate travel card has been cancelled by the corporate card program administrator, or whose travel advance privileges have been revoked due to delinquent reconciled.

The “Pay Date” entered on the Chrome River request cannot be any more than 10 days prior to the “Start” date of travel. It will take 2-3 days after the pay date for the traveler’s bank to make the funds available, please plan accordingly.

The amount of the advance will not encumber in Banner. The reconciliation process (after travel) will charge the travel costs to the appropriate index based on the Chrome River expense report

Reconciliation

The advance must be reconciled in Chrome River within 30 days from the last date of travel. The reconciliation requires the travelers to account/document the travel advance amount to the costs incurred during the associated business trip. The reconciliation process in Chrome River will determine if the traveler is due a reimbursement or if the traveler must reimburse the University for the excess amount not used during business travel.

Your travel advance must be reconciled within 45 days of the last date of travel or will result in the following: Payroll Deduction for the outstanding balance of the cash advance, a $50 administrative fee will be charged to your department, and the loss of future cash advance privileges.

Step by Step

  1. Request the Travel Advance in Chrome River

    • Select “New Expense Report”, then “Travel Advance”
    • Enter the Pay Date, amount in whole dollars, and the State and End dates of the business travel
    • No other expense types should be used
    • Do not attach a Chrome River Pre-Approval
    • Select the traveler’s Authorized Approver
  2. Track the Travel Advance in Chrome River

    The travel advance request will reside in the “Submitted Expenses” queue and can be tracked like other expense reports in Chrome River using the “tracking” button.

    Once the travel advance has been fully approved in Chrome River it will be sent to Banner and will indicate a status of “Exported.”

    Once the travel advance has been paid, the status will change to “Paid” and the traveler’s Chrome River Dashboard will show the “Cash Advance” bank in red.

    When a traveler has a Cash Advance Bank, all expense reimbursement requests submitted in Chrome River will reduce the Cash Advance Bank amount.

  3. Reconcile within 30 Days after the Trip

    Complete an expense report in Chrome River to reconcile your business travel expenses to the travel advance amount.

    If the reconciliation expense report shows travel expenses were more than the travel advance, the traveler will receive a reimbursement for the difference.

    If the reconciliation expense report shows travel expenses were less than the travel advance, the traveler must repay VCU the balance of the travel advance amount. This must match the Cash Advance Bank amount shown in Chrome River

  4. Repayment of Travel Advance

    Once the final balance is known, repayment must be submitted to the Cashier’s office.
    Payment Methods Accepted: Cash, Check, Money Order, or Credit Card.
    Checks and Money orders should be made payable to “VCU”. DO NOT MAIL or DROP OFF CASH. Obtain the Travel Advance Repayment deposit form from the travel team and include it with your deposit. Add your V# and Name to the description and the total deposit amount and sign the bottom.

    Delivery Method for Repayment:
    IN PERSON (All Payment types):
    Harris Hall
    1015 Floyd Ave
    Richmond, VA 23220
    Window Hours 8am-4:30pm

    DROP BOX (Check or Money order only):
    Monroe Park Campus drop box located at Harris Hall outside room 1002
    VCU Medical Center Drop Box located at VMI Building 2nd Floor, just off elevator

    MAIL (Check or Money order only):
    VCU Cashier’s Office
    BOX 842506
    Richmond, Virginia 23298

    Once payment is submitted you MUST email TRAVEL@VCU.EDU to notify Travel Services that payment has been made. Please include your payment method. Travel Services will remove the balance from your dashboard once the Cashier’s Office has processed the payment.

For More Information

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For help, please submit a Cherwell service ticket
Look Under School/Unit IT Support
Under Procurement Services, select Travel and Reimbursement

Edit | Last updated: 02/28/2024