Every travel claim at a university has to pass two checks: the travel policy and the grant it's charged to. A hotel night after the conference, a glass of wine on a research grant or a hotel the department already paid for is easy to miss in a stack of receipts, and costly if an auditor finds it first. Here, the business office of the Department of Molecular Genetics at Ravenford University, the university we use to show ALK at work, checks the 15 travel claims submitted in September.
Step 1 of 8
Start with your own rules
Ravenford's travel policy sits next to the workflow, word for word. The night of an event's last day is personal unless it ends after 6 pm, meals stop at $95 a day, and nothing paid on a Ravenford card can be claimed again.
Step 2 of 8
15 claims, every receipt read
ALK read all 15 claims submitted in September, each a claim form with its receipts. 5 are ready to reimburse, 3 need a sign-off, 5 go back to the claimant and 2 can't go on the grant they name.
Step 3 of 8
See why, not just what
Abena Mensah claimed four hotel nights at a Montréal symposium that ended at 12:30 pm on September 17. ALK flags the fourth night, $259.46, as personal and writes out why.
Step 4 of 8
The receipt behind it
Her hotel folio opens at the line ALK read: departure on September 18, and $259.46 for the night of the 17th. On the page before, the symposium's own registration receipt shows the closing session ending at 12:30 pm that day.
Step 5 of 8
The note is already written
5 claims go back with a note that says exactly what to fix: a personal hotel night, $34.00 of wine on a research grant, a $57.80 dinner with no receipt, a hotel the university already paid, and $51.45 in lunches the workshop already served. Rafael Corvelo, at the same workshop, claimed no lunches and is ready to reimburse.
Step 6 of 8
Already paid by the university
Dr. Lea Fontaine's Ottawa claim came to $1,460.84, under the $1,500 sign-off line. But her $838.89 hotel was paid on September 17 with the department's travel card ending 2290. Paid as filed, it would have covered the same three nights twice.
Step 7 of 8
The decision: the chair signs off
Dr. Maren Lindqvist's own $2,186.23 trip is charged to her grant, so she can't approve it, even though her claim form names her. It waits for the department chair, Dr. Ruth Calloway. Nothing in this stage is paid until a sign-off.
Step 8 of 8
Where the travel money went
September's claims come to $18,459.43 across five funds. $3,276.48 can be paid today. The rest waits on a fix, a sign-off or a different fund.
What ALK checks in each travel claim
- Claimant, event dates and closing time, trip dates, hotel nights, grant fund and total claimed, read from the claim form and every receipt
- Whether the grant fund is on the department's list, active on every day of the trip and open to travel
- Whether a graduate award is being claimed by its own holder
- Hotel nights against the event's dates and closing time
- Meals against the $95 daily limit, meals the registration already included, and any alcohol charged to a grant
- An itemized receipt for every expense of $25 or more
- Anything already paid on a Ravenford card, matched by the card number on the receipt
- Who must approve the claim, so nobody signs off their own
- Where each claim goes next: grant exceptions, back to the claimant with a note, sign-off or ready to reimburse
Try it on your own travel claims
Send one real travel claim, or a redacted one, and see what ALK finds.