Accounts Payable & Travel Accounting Update for April

[Accounting and Fiscal Services]

 

April 2026 Accounts Payable Check Enclosures and Special Handling Guide When creating a Disbursement Voucher (DV) or Travel and Event Management (TEM) e-Document in KFS, users can select three special check handling options: Enclose additional documents with a check Print a check for pick up at Financial Services in Aldrich Hall Force a check to be printed when the payee has ACH direct deposit set up Please note the preferred payment method is electronic (e.g., direct deposit or Payment Plus). If the payee is set up for direct deposit and no documentation needs to be sent with the payment, please DO NOT click on check enclosures or special handling. For more information, please see the Check Enclosures and Special Handling Guide. Accounts Payable Prepare for Fiscal Year End Fiscal year-end close is right around the corner. Please keep in mind that invoices for products and services rendered before June 30, 2026, must include a valid purchase order for payment to be processed. The purchase order must have the following: o   PO must be open and not expired. o   PO must be fully approved and finalized. o   PO must have enough funds to pay all open invoices through June 30, 2026. o   PO must be mended and finalized prior to June 30, 2026. Important Note: Please notify Accounts Payable (AP) once your PO has been approved and finalized so AP can process invoices prior to the June 30th deadline. Please send all invoices/payment inquiries to accounts...@uci.edu. Accounts Payable PaymentWorks: Encourage Payees to Use Direct Deposit If you have suppliers or other payees onboarding in PaymentWorks, please encourage them to sign up to be paid by direct deposit. There are plenty of good reasons for payees to sign up for direct deposit: Fast & Secure: Payments are deposited directly into bank accounts — no waiting for checks or trips to the bank. Convenient: No risk of lost or stolen checks Environmentally Friendly: Reduces paper waste. Enrolling is simple! Payees can sign up through PaymentWorks or contact accounts...@uci.edu for questions regarding direct deposit enrollment. By promoting direct deposit within your department, you help us streamline operations and improve the payment experience for everyone. Accounts Payable Payment Plus: A Faster Way to Pay Suppliers As shared in the previous newsletter, UC Irvine Procurement in collaboration with Accounts Payable, has launched Payment Plus, a new program in partnership with U.S. Bank that automates supplier payments via Visa commercial virtual cards. Several suppliers have already signed up for the program. U.S. Bank and Visa will continue to campaign and reach out to additional vendors in collaboration with their third-party vendor ROI Solutions via emails and phone calls. Learn More: Payment Plus Questions? Contact Tanya Harris or Jennifer Chey Travel Accounting CTS Ghost Card Account – Declined Transactions CTS cardholders occasionally request to add merchant codes or MCC codes to their CTS accounts after a CTS account is declined. Unfortunately, our bank has advised the Accounting Office that it is not possible to add merchant codes or MCC codes to CTS accounts – no exceptions. Only hotels, airlines, and travel agencies are allowed to charge a CTS account. Some hotels use third-party “business services” merchants to process their online payments. Charges from business services merchants are also not allowed on a CTS account and will be declined. The best way to ensure successful CTS transactions is to book directly with the hotel front desk or through ConnexUC. Please discuss internally with your unit’s financial management or department heads on alternate methods to arrange travel if your CTS account continues to be declined. For questions about university travel policy or CTS accounts, contact travel-a...@uci.edu. Travel Accounting Get Answers to CTS Ghost Card Account Questions Travel Accounting often gets questions from CTS cardholders about topics like how to reconcile CTS refund credits. For questions like these, the best first step is to review the CTS (Ghost Card) Account Training available in the UC Learning Center. For example, Lesson 18: “Reconciling CTS Credits” of the training details how to reconcile refund credits. All CTS cardholders must complete and pass this training before being issued their CTS accounts, but the training is always available to all employees as a self-paced, virtual training. Please note that Travel Accounting cannot assist with General Error Correction (GEC) documents. For assistance with processing a GEC Document, please contact your department’s financial management and department heads. If there are further questions after reviewing the training, please contact travel-a...@uci.edu. Travel Accounting Reminder: Review the TEM Arranger Dashboard Regularly The TEM Arranger Dashboard should be reviewed regularly to ensure timely reimbursement and reconciliation for corporate cards and CTS ghost card accounts, and to comply with the bank’s fraud reporting deadlines. As we approach the end of the fiscal year, it is very important to ensure all corporate card and CTS expenses are reconciled before the deadlines. Anyone who has the KSAMS role of “TEM Organization Profile Arranger” can view this dashboard. The TEM Arranger Dashboard is an effective tool for departments to track all CTS and Corporate Card expenses for their cardholders and ensure expenses are reconciled within the 45-day deadline set by university policy. Please visit our website for information on the TEM Arranger Dashboard and how to access it. Questions regarding the TEM Arranger Dashboard or KFS roles can be directed to the experts on the KFS Help Desk at k...@uci.edu. Reminder: Use of Corporate Credit Cards & PALCards on Campus Corporate credit cards and PALCards cannot be used to pay campus departments. This includes UCI Parking, UCI Ticket Offices or UCI TouchNet Marketplace transactions. cardholders are reminded in their card training and follow up emails regarding such transactions. Travel Accounting Reimbursements & Disbursement Vouchers – Acceptable Form of Payment When submitting a KFS Entertainment Reimbursement (ENT), Travel Reimbursement (TR), Move & Relocation, or Disbursement Voucher (DV), you will need to upload required supporting documentation to the Image Scanning tab. The Reference Guide to Required Supporting Documents website can help determine what receipts, invoices, or proof of payment required to be reimbursed in a timely manner. One of the most common types of backup documentation is proof of payment. The following are examples of proof of payment: Credit card - show receipt with the last four digits of the card number Check - copy of a canceled check (front and back) from the bank Apple Pay and PayPal are acceptable forms of payment Cash, include a note stating, “cash payment” Please Note: For Venmo or Zelle type payments, provide copy of the credit card statement page showing the expense. Travel Accounting International Travel Expenses: Documentation for Conversion to U.S. Dollars When a traveler pays for business expenses using a credit card, please include the pages of the credit card statement that show the foreign transactions converted to U.S. dollars, as this provides the most accurate amount. Ensure that credit card account numbers are redacted. The credit card bank manages the conversions. Conversion sheets are only necessary for CASH transactions. Travel Accounting International Payee Guest or Visitor Required Supporting Documentation Additional supporting documents may be required when reimbursing an international payee or visitor who is not a U.S. citizen or actively enrolled UCI student. This is particularly important for foreign bank wire transfers. International payees are required to provide the foreign traveler documentation referenced on the Required Documents for Foreign Travelers page to support accurate Reporting to UCOP, no exceptions. The current Best Practice is to reimburse a foreign payee post visit using a Travel Reimbursement (TR) eDocument as a “One-time Payee or Student.” If the international visitor is a U.S. citizen or an actively enrolled UCI student, please note it on the TR eDocument and you can move forward with the reimbursement without the required foreign traveler’s documentation. Please be aware however that for prepaid reimbursements, if the trip is canceled, this may be a financial loss to the department. Setting Up Wire Transfer Payment for Foreign Banks Typically, foreign travelers prefer a wire transfer payment because check payments are sometimes lost when mailed internationally. If a wire transfer is preferred, please request the payee to type – do not hand write –their foreign bank information on the wire transfer request form, and sign or Docusign it before uploading the form to Image Scanning Tab. When processing the TR eDocument in KFS, please be sure to change the “Payment Method” to reflect “W-Wire Transfer (Foreign Bank)” on the “Payment Information” tab. Our Bank will not accept/process a Wire Transfer Payment with a UCI Department’s address on the Trip Overview section on the TR eDocument. Please input the Traveler’s home address or the temporary address the Traveler utilized while visiting UCI. Mailing Checks Internationally If a check needs to be mailed to an international address, the best practice is to mark the check for Special Handling: “Pickup-FinServ.”  The department can then pick up the check from the Financial Services office in Aldrich Hall and send the check to the payee using a tracking service (i.e., UPS, FedEx, etc.). Please review the Check Enclosures and Special Handling Guide for more information. For accurate reporting to UCOP and per our UC Policy G-28, pg. 42, the policy states that the traveler, including Foreign Nationals, must sign or Docusign our Non-Employee certification form and upload it to the Image Scanning tab. Good Stewardship Be accurate and ethical. Report actual costs honestly. Be prudent. Avoid unnecessary or excessive expenses. Stay mission focused. Expenses must serve a clear business purpose. Follow the UC Policy G-28 and IRS regulations. Reimbursements must not be considered taxable income, see page five of the policy. Use the Corporate Travel Card. Pay for travel-related expenses with the UCI Corporate Travel card whenever possible. Choose the best value. UC reimburses for the most economical and commonly used travel options.

UC Irvine Accounting & Fiscal Services 228 Aldrich Hall | Irvine, CA 92697-1050 | accounting.uci.edu

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