Your Ideas Matter
Jayhawks Elevate is successful because of you. Your ideas make us better. Below are some examples of processes being improved by your peer's ideas. Check out changes being made. Perhaps you have an idea to submit too!
Automate Supplier ID Creation in Concur
Diane Bracciano was becoming frustrated with having to manually fill in a request form for Employees in Concur when a supplier ID didn't exist on Travel Requests. Through the efforts in Pay in 30 and Concur automations, the manual requests will no longer need to be done. This will be a completely automated process for supplier IDs to be created and attached to employee profiles in Concur for both Travel and Non-Travel reimbursement requests. With the automated process, it will also reduce the number of suppliers to be manually setup in Oracle with W9 and direct deposit documents.
Fellow Change Agents:
Judy Hamner, Stephanie Howser, Micheal Lewis, Nolan Haire, Sarah Kramps, Karen Schaller, Cindy Jacobson, Aimee Losey, Jeff Day, Claire Bays, Hunter Rabe, Morgan Philippi
Impact of idea:
$10,130 annually in efficiency savings
Allow Full Upfront Payment for Hotel without Pre-approval
Ani Kokobobo was frustrated with the requirement of getting pre-approval or an after the fact exception to pay for the full lodging stay upfront as existing State P-card policy said only one night in advance payment was allowed. This created problems for our travelers who use AirBnbs and for some hotels that required upfront payment to reserve rooms. We evaluated our policies and because KU/KUCR has our own P-Card program, we were able to remove that pre-approval requirement to make it easier on our travelers.
Fellow Change Agents:
Craig Alexander, Katrina Yoakum, Mike Lewis, and Michael Leitch
Impact of idea:
At least $500 in annual efficiency savings
Remove the Requirement for Excessive Lodging Form Approvals
A recently retired SSC Finance employee suggested that we remove the requirement of the Excessive Lodging form in P-Card transaction approvals. This is a duplication of effort considering that Concur already presents a warning for excessive lodging when processing Travel Expense reimbursements. Our existing process required a separate excessive lodging form submission with the P-Card approval and required our staff to manually evaluate room rates vs State/Federal approved lodging rates. Today, we have improved this process by no longer requiring the submission of an Excessive Lodging Form and therefore relieving these duplicate efforts. Instead, across all of KU, the approval of this Concur expense line related to lodging indicates the appropriate approval of the excess lodging expense.
Fellow Change Agents:
Judy Hamner, Stephanie Howser, Mike Lewis, Nolan Haire, Karen Schaller, Colette Gillespie, Aimee Losey, Amy Carlson, Caitlin Day Wedel, Chris Bell, Tim Spencer, Cindy Jacobson, Lori Gutsch, Dawn Kilburn, Morgan Philippi
Impact of idea:
$2,000 annually in efficiency savings
Send Traveler Checklist When Travel Request Approved
Susan Franks, who retired earlier this year, recommended a Travel Reimbursement Checklist be sent to the requestor in advance of their trip, with the idea being to aid with pre‐travel plans & submission of the traveler’s post Travel Expense Reimbursement (TER) request. The current process was to send such a travel documentation checklist upon the traveler’s return from their trip, often making it too late to capture receipts and other travel documents and causing a lag in reimbursement turnaround time. This idea submission prompted a change to switch to today’s new process which now automatically sends a pre-trip email notification 7 days prior to the traveler’s departure. This email pre-notification contains a link to a Traveler Checklist and a Resource Guide.
Fellow Change Agents:
Judy Hamner, Stephanie Howser, Mike Lewis, Nolan Haire, Karen Schaller, Colette Gillespie, Aimee Losey, Amy Carlson, Caitlin Day Wedel, Chris Bell, Tim Spencer, Cindy Jacobson, Lori Gutsch, Dawn Kilburn, Morgan Philippi
Impact of idea:
Creates better traveler awareness and preparation for turning in reimbursement documentation on time.
Concur Per Diem Calculation Alignment
Xuejun Zhang expressed that the Concur calculation of partial day per diem travel inputs were inaccurate for KUCR line item. She suggested that this calculation be adjusted to keep KU Departments aligned with the Travel policy and prevent the need for multiple administrative reviews. This led to where are today with Concur being the system of record for per diem calculations and is now standard across both KUCR and KU, resulting in quicker turnaround times for Travel TER submissions and reimbursements. This was implemented as part of our Pay in 30 project.
Fellow Change Agents:
Judy Hamner, Stephanie Howser, Mike Lewis, Nolan Haire, Karen Schaller, Colette Gillespie, Aimee Losey, Amy Carlson, Caitlin Day Wedel, Chris Bell, Tim Spencer, Cindy Jacobson, Lori Gutsch, Dawn Kilburn, Morgan Philippi
Impact of idea:
$1,750 annually in efficiency savings
