Colleagues,

Our KU travel policies and processes are based on a number of goals; none more important than the safety of KU travelers. We are introducing a revised Concur Travel Request process that will improve traveler safety for international trips while also building more accountability and efficiency into the travel request process. 

Concur Travel Requests as of March 31 will follow the revised processes below. Here are the key changes: 

There are two changes to the request process for travel within the United States. The first change is that supervisors must approve Travel Requests in Concur, regardless of funding source. This added step does not replace the funding approval workflow step, rather it provides transparency and accountability by ensuring supervisors know when and where their faculty and staff are traveling. The second change is that delegates/proxies can begin a Travel Request in Concur as needed, but the traveler must log in to review and submit the request themselves. This change ensures the traveler is personally acknowledging the accuracy of the trip data when submitting a Travel Request.

Changes to the Travel Request process for international trips are more extensive. Like domestic travel, international Travel Requests will require supervisor approval and require employee travelers to acknowledge high-risk alerts and trip data accuracy before submitting their Travel Request.  Additionally, international Travel Requests will include an automated risk assessment of international destinations using a tool called Riskline. Riskline uses real-time data and analysis to evaluate and provide information on safety and security in countries and cities around the world.

The Concur Travel Request process changes for international trips are designed to increase traveler safety while automating and streamlining the pre-trip review and approval process within Concur. Here are the steps of the revised process:

The KU Travel team has worked with our campus partners to ensure the revised review and approval requirements won’t add time to the pre-trip approval process. Our goal is for domestic Travel Requests to be approved within 3-5 business days and for international Travel Requests to be approved within 5-7 business days. 

Visit the KU Travel Services Travel Training Library webpage to sign up for Travel Request and Booking training, request a one-on-one training session, or to access the Travel Request training materials for both employee travelers and approvers. 

Respectfully,

Lori

Lori Gutsch
Assistant Director, Travel Services
travel@ku.edu
Concur assistance email: concurhelpdesk@ku.edu

Visit the Travel Services website at travel.ku.edu

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