The University of Tennessee Accounts Payable staff apologizes for recent delays in processing travel reimbursements. The office is now back to the normal turnaround time of processing a reimbursement within 3 to 5 working days from the date that it is received.
The Accounts Payable office is currently processing travel that was received on Tuesday, Jan. 25, and staffers appreciate your patience during this time. The delays were due to staffing issues and increased volume related to stimulus and research funding. The office always has had 3.5 full-time employees processing travel. Like everyone, budget cuts have impacted the office’s staff and they now have 2.5 employees processing travel. At one point that number fell to just 1.5 full-time employees. However, the Accounts Payable staff worked overtime and very diligently to get caught up and get reimbursements to UT faculty and staff as quickly as possible. The office processes over 21,000 claims totaling over $15 million per year.
To prevent future delays, plans include increasing the staff level back to 3.5 employees. Policy is being revised in hopes of reducing the number of exceptions and to begin a paperless process. This process will significantly reduce the turnaround time since documents will not travel through campus mail and will not have to be matched to the electronic transaction by Accounts Payable staff. This is currently being tested by some departments and additional information will be provided soon. To further improve the process, anyone who travels, processes travel or approves travel should attend the Travel Regulations class offered through Human Resources.
Please contact Mark Paganelli at mpaganel@utk.edu with any questions.