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To allow university employees and students to attend conferences while performing official university business.
All employees, students and official volunteers traveling on official university business, regardless of the funding source.
Registration fees may be reimbursable as a part of travel expenses after the event. Registration fees should be paid using the departmental purchasing card when possible.
See FIS 410-06: Memberships and Dues.
Conference lodging may be reimbursed at actual and reasonable cost with appropriate documentation when attended by a majority of persons who are non-OSU employees.
Appropriate documentation regarding the conference lodging rate should include a copy of conference registration information showing location, dates of conference, conference hotel(s), and single room rate.
If registration materials are not available from the traveler or the conference website, the head of the department should sign and date a statement specifying that the event meets the criteria for a “conference exception”. The statement must also include a brief description of the event, the agenda, the date(s), location, attendees, and the single room lodging rate. This statement must accompany each attending employee’s travel reimbursement request and will be retained for audit.
The OSU Purchasing Card is the preferred method for registration. This card may not be used to pay any costs associated with conference social functions.
Contact your departmental purchasing card custodian. Keep a copy of the registration form to submit with the Travel Reimbursement Request form (xls), DO NOT claim this expense on the traveler’s reimbursement form, since it has already been paid. Note that it has been paid with the purchasing card in the OTHER EXPENSES section of the form. The same instructions apply if any meals are associated with the registration fee. See FIS 1402-12: OSU Purchasing Card.
A conference host maybe willing to invoice the department for a traveler attending the conference.
“Prepaid” is when the university (not the traveler) pays the registration fee for the traveler before the conference, function, or event takes place. Attach a completed original registration form and one copy of the registration form to the Payment Request form (xls). The registration form should show the amount of the registration fee. Send these documents to Business Affairs Accounts Payable, where a check is prepared and mailed (with the original registration form) to the vendor, unless other instructions are given regarding the mailing of the check. Include an addressed envelope to speed processing.
Keep an additional copy of the registration form showing the dates of the conference to include when submitting the Travel Reimbursement form. On the Travel Reimbursement form, put a notation in OTHER EXPENSES section stating that the registration fee has been prepaid. Do not carry the amount over into the total column of the reimbursement form.
Prepayment of a registration fee that is requested in international currency needs to be done all in one day, since the international exchange rates change daily.
When stating the name of the vendor, do not use initials or acronyms. State the full name of the vendor, since this information is required for the vendor history file. However, if the initials are the name of the vendor, not that fact on the Payment Request.
Determine if the vendor is already set up In FIS. If not, process a Vendor Maintenance form.
A person’s name cannot be listed as the vendor when paying a registration fee. The check must be made out to the conference name, although the check can be mailed to a person. It is very important to read the registration form to determine where the check is to be sent, since that address may be different from the place where the conference is being held.
A conference attendee traveling on official university business may pay the registration fee, and be reimbursed for it after the event. Claim reimbursement in the OTHER EXPENSES section of the reimbursement form. Reimbursements to travelers require either:
Another option, if the registration fee is over $200.00 U.S. is to have Cashiers do a wire transfer. This requires a wire transfer form, a copy of the registration form, and the wire transfer number that is written on the registration form. With a wire transfer number on a Wire Transfer form the Cashiers office can do this for the department. Please phone the Cashiers office or the Accounts Payable office for more information on this procedure. Forms can be obtained from either of those offices.
For County Extension Offices and Experiment Stations, it may be impossible to process an international draft in this manner due to time and distance factors. If this situation occurs in your office, please phone the Business Affairs Accounts Payable office for alternative instructions.
A Journal Voucher (JV) may be used for a registration fee when a department on campus sponsors a conference. The debit will go to the attending department’s general fund on an expense account code 2XXXX. The credit will go to the sponsor’s workshop fund on an income account 06XXX.
A journal voucher actually transfers funds between OSU accounts only. If a department submits a Cash to Accompany form when a Journal Voucher should be used, the Cash to Accompany form is returned with the request that a Journal Voucher be submitted.
Registration Fees Including Meals and Lodging
When the registration includes meals and lodging, these items should be broken out into their proper account codes, if possible. If not possible, include all in the registration account code. Do not request reimbursement for meals included or prepaid with the conference.
See Part 4 - Expenses of Others in TRA 305-03: Miscellaneous Travel Expenses.
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