Using the Travel & Expense App in UBI

The recent Travel & Expense Expo showcased a day’s worth of travel and expense-related information to a large contingent of UVA travelers and travel planners in just its second year running.

Matt Douglas explaining the new Travel & Expense App

Attendees visited with dozens of partnering vendors in the travel, expense, and business logistics sectors to learn more about their respective product and service offerings. Breakout seminars throughout the day also offered attendees a preview of new and upcoming travel and expense-related projects at the University.

At one of the Expo seminars, Matt Douglas, Training Developer with University Business Intelligence, presented a brand new module for the UBI data reporting tool: the Travel & Expense App. The demo session offered attendees a unique, first-hand look at the module that helps analyze data sourced from their submitted and approved expense reports and expenses.

The app’s Dashboard provides high level data such as Total Spending, Average Report Spending, Compliance Percentages, and can be filtered by Year or by Month. From there, users can analyze their organization’s Spending by Category, Compliance Exceptions, Expense Reports, Credit Card Usage, and Detail Reporting. UBI developers created the app with the intent of an accessible, user-friendly – and analytical – tool that allows users to make decisions regarding their organization’s travel and non-travel expenses. With the full transition to UBI for data reporting well underway, this app streamlines processes. More users are familiar with UBI and are aware they don’t need to learn a new reporting tool or design their own reports.

We spoke with Matt about the Travel & Expense App and what UBI users can expect with the app’s addition into the UBI reporting environment.

What is the function of the Travel & Expense App? There are two primary functions. The first is to analyze travel and non-travel related business expenses reimbursed to academic employees. The second is to allow for reporting on University Travel and Expense card transactions.

How did the T&E App come to be? While expenses can easily be input into the system, there was a need for centralized reporting on both expenses (travel and non-travel) and payment methods. The Travel & Expense Reporting module addresses these needs.

Who should use the app? Anyone who needs to track department expenses, travel or card spend.

What problem does the T&E App solve and how does the app help users? It allows for very quick reporting on department T&E spend, resulting in time savings.

For more information and a Quick Reference Guide on the Travel & Expense App, please visit the UBI Community. To learn more about data reporting with UBI, please visit the UBI website or the UBI Community.