Monthly Archives: March 2015

New Concur Tips

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The Staff Travel,Training and Development Committee has posted additional tips on reporting travel expenses on the Concur Tips page:

Auto mileage-70220- Because Fondren limits the transportation amount to 1/2 of a normal (coach) airfare it’s probable that you will not be able to use the Mileage Calculator link, which cannot be itemized between reimbursable and personal expenses. You will want to approximate as closely as possible the amount approved for transportation on the Staff Travel Request Form. To calculate this, enter a mileage amount in the required “Distance” field that will result in the desired reimbursable amount. For example: if you have been approved for $100 in transportation expense, enter 174 in the Distance field. You may wish to add a comment that the amount is the reimbursable portion of round trip mileage expense to the destination.

Hotel/Accommodations-72344- Staff have found that the Concur system prefers that the Vendor field, which is not required, be filled in. While there is a drop down to select major hotels, you can also simply enter the name of your hotel in the field. Concur will accept a new name in the field.

Thanks to Scott Vieira for sharing his experiences in the system. We look forward to hearing from you all as you have additional questions about the Concur process.

Executive Committee Summaries (February 26 and March 5)

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February 26

The Executive Committee discussed the new organizational structure for IT.

The Executive Committee discussed the charge to the Horizon Committee to facilitate strategic planning. The Committee will arrange for leaders of educational and research initiatives across Rice to make brief presentations about their work.  The Horizon Committee will facilitate breakout sessions in which library staff will discuss potential ways that the library might support these initiatives, then synthesize the recommendations.

March 5

The Executive Committee approved a change to the Horizon Committee strategic planning charge that will extend the timeline and hopefully allow more staff to participate.

The Executive Committee discussed with whom Ithaka should meet when they come to Rice to share results of their upcoming survey. Meetings will be set up with the library committee, library staff, and groups interested in particular reports, such as research data.

Lowman gave an update on the budget meeting.

CMACS Social Media Meeting February 18

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Sean Rieger, Web Developer for Rice University Office of Public Affairs, gave a presentation to CMACS on Rice University’s social media: best practices, their adoption of new social media channels, engaging users, tracking and analyzing user behavior and engagement, and risk management. It was very insightful!

CMACS is planning a Fondren Library Social Media Town Hall most likely in late May, and we have asked Sean to speak, and basically give the same presentation to the full library staff. Then we will have some time to talk about Fondren Library social media channels, and the goals of our social media.

Concur Revisited

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The Staff Travel, Training and Development Committee has offered a second series of classes to allow staff to ask questions about uploading receipts into Concur for preparing expense reports. The meetings were held in the Collaboration Space on two dates: at 9:30 AM on Friday February 13th and at 1:00 PM on Wednesday February 18th. This is the second series of classes provided by the STTD committee to help provide support for the transition to the Concur system for reporting expenses. The first series, held in December 2014, provided training in creating a personal profile for staff in the system.

There was a demonstration of the process of creating travel expense reports and uploading receipts into the report in a test environment for those attending. Staff members were encouraged to ask questions about particulars related to their travel expense experiences. The committee gathered helpful information from the discussions and will create a list of tips for Concur based on the feedback from users. The Concur Tips page will be uploaded to the Staff Travel, Training and Development home page in Fondranet.

As you discover issues or helpful items please contact the committee and we will add your suggestions to the Tips page. Your Staff Travel, Training and Development Committee are: Dara Flinn, Lauren Mueller, Nadalia Liu, Shannon Kipphut-Smith, Judy Howell, Mary Brower, Andy Damico, and Nyssa Juneau-Kimbrell.

Tips for Concur:
1. Travel expense reimbursement requests must be submitted within 60 days from the last day of the trip.
2. Itemized receipts must be included for each expense of $25.00 or more. There is an option to enter an expense if you have lost the receipt which can be found in the drop-down under “receipts” in your expense report.
3. Meals and parking should be paid for separately, rather than included with lodging in your hotel bills. This will simplify the audit process from the Concur side.
4. It’s possible to submit multi-page receipts, or add pages to receipts already in the system.
5. Any alcohol (such as a glass of wine with a meal) must be itemized and the alcoholic beverages account used for the expense (70880).