​Introduction

After a voucher is created it is routed to a fiscal coder. A Fiscal Coder enters or updates the fiscal coding on the voucher. They can also attach scanned documents, or route the voucher to an approver or back to the traveler for changes.

As a Fiscal Coder, if you cannot find appropriate PCAs or Indexes, or get errors when entering fiscal coding, be sure the correct budget fiscal year is entered on each line item. If it is not, enter the correct year in the Change Fiscal Year field. The Travel Express administrator will need to ensure that the BFY (in the Agency administration screen) is set for the current fiscal year.

Enter Fiscal Coding on a Voucher

1. On the Travel Express main menu, click Fiscal Coding.

2. On the Fiscal Coder Queue, click Select next to the appropriate voucher listed by the traveler's name.

• ​You can search for vouchers by the traveler's name (click Browse next to Traveler), or by Destination, Group, or the Departed dates. Use these criteris, then click Find, and then click Select next to the appropriate voucher. 
  

Figure 1 - Fiscal coder queue

• A list of summary or detail views will be displayed as well as a list of the expense line items and their fiscal coding fields. Most transaction codes are entered automatically. Other fiscal codes required by the transaction code are highlighted in pink.

3. Enter any expenses that are part of the official travel, but not paid by the traveler (“Paid by Other"..

• If all expenses have been paid by a third party, the voucher will have a zero amount balance on one line with a transaction code of MEM.
• A memo (MEM) line item does not require any fiscal coding, but this type of voucher should still be routed to STARS to document the audit trail.

4.  Warrant advance amounts entered on the voucher will be displayed as a negative amount with a transaction code of MEM. These lines will not be sent to STARS.

5. To display the expenses of the voucher (or request) or the audit trail, click the plus sign next to the Summary or Details views or the AuditTrail. You could compare the request to the voucher by examining both expense details.:

a. To view the line item expenses, click the plus sign next to Voucher Travel Expense Details. Click the minus sign to close a view.

Figure 3 - View details

b. To see the traveler's destination, click the plus sign next to Travel Expense Summary. If the voucher has been created from a request, the Travel Expense Summary will reflect the amounts from the request, not the voucher.

6. Enter a Reference Document (RefDoc) number if needed (e.g., for an encumbrance that has been created in STARS). You can also search for (look up) a Reference Document number to be sure it is valid.

7.  The Description (Desc) field will be populated with first 30 characters of text from the voucher's Purpose of Travel field. Edit the description (Desc) if necessary. Do not use special characters or symbols, including &, ', “, <, and \.

8. Enter the PCA or the Index, or search for a PCA or Index using the look up:

To look up a PCA or Index:

a. Place the cursor in the PCA or Index field and press F3.

b. In the look up dialog box, enter any combination of search criteria. You can enter just the first few numbers or letters or use the wildcard (%).

c. Click Find.

d. Click the PCA or Index you want to use. The code and any other fiscal codes associated with it will be automatically entered. 

Figure 5 - Using a look up

To enter and validate the PCA or Index:

a. Enter a PCA or Index in the PCA or Index field.

b. Press TAB or click into another field. If the PCA or Index is valid, any other fiscal codes associated with it will be automatically entered. If it is invalid, an error message will be displayed. Use the look up to choose a valid PCA or Index.

9. If Travel Express can determine the expenditure subobjects (ExpSub) by the type of transaction (registration fees, lodging, mileage, etc.), these will be automatically entered. You can change or enter the expenditure subobjects as needed. You can also search for (look up) a subobject to be sure you use the correct one. See the lookup example above.

10. To distribute or split costs to different funding sources:

a. Choose a line item expense and then click Dup. (Do not exceed 20 transaction rows. Exceeding this number of transaction rows may cause an error when fiscal coding distribution is completed or when you submit the transactions to an approver.)

Figure 6 - Duplicate Row

b. Enter the amount for the new row, and then click OK. 

• The amount for the new row will be automatically deducted from the original row. You can then change just those fiscal codes that you need to (e.g. PCA).
• If you code expenses to different PCAs, whoever approves the voucher must be able to approve both (or all) PCAs on the voucher.
  

Figure 7 - Amount for new row

11. To add a new line item expense, click Add Row. Do not exceed 20 transaction rows of a fiscal coding distribution. Exceeding this number of transaction rows may cause an error when fiscal coding distribution is completed or when you submit the transactions to an approver.

12. Complete the fiscal coding of each line item. You can save the document even if it isn't complete and re-open the voucher and complete it later.

13. Click Save. When finished, route the voucher as described below.

Route to an Approver or Back to Traveler

1. Click the Choose One drop down menu and select Route to approver.

2. Click the Select Approver drop down menu, select the name of the approver, enter any comments if needed, and then click Submit.

Figure 8 - Route to approver

3. To route the voucher back to the traveler so they can change the per diem or other expenses, click the Choose One drop down menu and select Return to traveler, add comments in the Comments text box, and then click Submit.

Travel Advances

P-Card Advances

The traveler should enter the full P-Card advance amount they have been isued when they create the voucher. When the voucher is routed to fiscal coding:

1. The P-Card advance amount is entered automatically with a transaction code 221.

2. That amount is applied automatically to the line item expenses, with each line item given a transaction code 221 R.

3. Any remaining amount of the expenses is given a transaction code 230, and that amount will be due to the traveler.

4. If the advance amount is greater than the expenses, the advance is applied to the expenses and the remaining amount of the advance is due from the traveler.

Warrant Advances

1. An agency person first creates a warrant advance for the traveler in STARS or Payment Services using transaction code 223. (If the traveler is billing another agency, the billing agency would enter the warrant advance in STARS.)

2. The person creating the advance should make a note of the Current Document Number(from STARS) or Document number (from Payment Services), and use it as the Reference Document (RefDoc) number in Travel Express.

3. The traveler enters the warrant advance amount when the traveler creates the voucher. If the traveler knows the Current Document or Document number for the warrant advance, they could enter it in the Comments field on the Advance screen.

4. When the voucher is routed to fiscal coding, the Warrant advance amount is entered automatically with a transaction code MEM. (This transaction code is used only for calculating the amounts in Travel Express and nothing from this line will be sent to STARS.) 

5. The Warrant advance amount is applied automatically to the line item expenses, with each line item given a transaction code 224.

6. Enter the STARS Current Document and Suffix numbers or the Payment Services Document Number in the RefDoc and Sfx fields of each line item expense that the Warrant advance applies to (indicated by the TC224). You could also use the lookup to search for the Reference Document.

7. After entering the RefDoc/Sfx field, press TAB. Any related fiscal coding from the Reference Document (PCA, Fund, Budget Unit, etc.) will be entered automatically in Travel Express.

Rotary Advances

Similar to a warrant advance, the traveler/requester enters the Rotary advance amount they were issued when they create the voucher. When the voucher is routed to fiscal coding, the Rotary advance amount is entered automatically with a transaction code 730. That amount is applied automatically to the line item expenses with a transaction code 735.

Any remaining amount of the expenses is given a transaction code 230, and that amount will be due to the traveler.

If the advance amount is greater than the expenses, the advance is applied to the expenses and the remaining amount of the advance is due from the traveler.

Because the Rotary amount is a negative amount, it gets uploaded to STARS with a transaction code 730R. This puts cash out of balance and this must be corrected in STARS by entering an adjustment transaction using TC 730, and with double the rotary amount that was entered in Travel Express.