Travel Advances

Travel advances are generally not encouraged since booking travel through the Northwestern travel program allows expenses to be booked directly to a chart string, corporate cards are available to staff that travel regularly, and the reimbursement process has been significantly streamlined for those that do not have a corporate card. However, below are the conditions when a travel advance is necessary:

• Advances are only available for University employees or students.
• Advances must be $500.00 or more.
• Advances should be reconciled within five working days of return from travel but no later than 90 days from date of return. Unreconciled advances will be charged to the traveler's departmental budget, and, as required by federal law, the amount will be reported to the IRS as taxable compensation to the traveler.
• Advances will not be issued to an employee who has not fully accounted for an earlier advance except when this individual must leave for another trip within the five working days following return from the earlier travel.
• The University reserves the right to withhold advance privileges from any individual who fails to abide by University policies.

Refer to the Applying an Advance in NUFinancials Training Guide in Knowledge Base for guidance on the repayment of an unused portion of a cash advance.