Chrome River, U-M’s new expense reporting system, went live on August 1, 2024. All employee cash advances, out-of-pocket reimbursements, and new card transactions must now be submitted through Chrome River. 

Chrome River resources 

• Training & Office Hours: Attend an Introduction to Chrome River training or a Chrome River Q&A/Office Hours session
• Approver Training: Take the Approver Training and complete the assessment (required for all expense report approvers)
• Knowledge Base: Bookmark the Chrome River Knowledge Base landing page for work instructions and additional support
• Project Page: Visit the Chrome River project page for updates, resources and FAQ
• Expense Reporting Webpage: Visit the Procurement Services Expense Reporting webpage for announcements, policy information, and expense reporting FAQ

All PCard, Travel Card, and CTA transactions pending in Concur must be submitted through Concur and approved by a unit approver by September 15. In the coming weeks, you’ll receive email reminders and reporting updates. As the deadline approaches, employees may be contacted on an individual basis to resolve any outstanding transactions. 

As of August 7, there are approximately 4,600 card transactions that must be cleared from Concur. Please review this Outstanding Card Transaction Dashboard and submit any transactions in Concur as soon as possible.

Effective August 1, CTA transactions began routing to travel arrangers in Chrome River. (In Concur, transactions were routed to the traveler.)  This change was based on feedback from U-M employees and also includes CTP receipt data. The new routing model reduces the time it takes to create an expense line in Chrome River. 

Note: if employees book their own airfare, CTA transactions will route to them.

Booking travel through CTP provides a wide variety of benefits to U-M travelers, including 24 hour assistance, group booking, tracking and applying unused tickets and e-credits, and discounted airfare, hotels, and rental cars.

The university has contracts with Delta, United, and Southwest that offer discounts ranging from two to 10 percent, with an average savings of four percent over retail pricing. To take advantage of these negotiated savings and other airline benefits, travelers and arrangers must book through CTP.

And with Chrome River’s recent launch, expense reporting for travel booked through CTP is now even easier. Flights and other travel arrangements are automatically billed to U-M’s Central Travel Account (CTA). Now, CTA transactions are uploaded to the travel arranger’s profile in Chrome River, and CTP automatically transmits the receipt to match to the CTA transaction.

With this process, the administrative burden of out-of-pocket reimbursements is eliminated for travelers and arrangers. The expense transaction is automatically generated, with some fields pre-filled. There is no longer any need to upload a receipt. The transaction simply needs to be moved to a new or open expense report and any remaining required fields be completed.

Trip, our new Travel & Expense AI assistant, will be going live in the coming days. Trip is an efficient, robust tool that will be able to answer questions about U-M's travel booking and expense policies and procedures.

When Trip launches, you'll be able to access the tool by simply clicking on the animated suitcase icon in the bottom right-hand corner of our travel and expense webpages. Once there, you will be able to request answers to pre-populated questions or pose a question of your own.

For your convenience, Trip will offer options to copy the answer you receive to your clipboard or create a PDF for your reference. These options will be located in the upper right-hand corner of Trip’s search box.

Trip's content is generated solely by AI tools, and there's no option to interact with a live representative. If you need more information on a particular topic, you'll be able to create a ticket for the Travel Program Team, which will provide further assistance. This option will appear at the bottom of Trip's pop-up window once a response is provided.

With Trip, answers to your travel and expense questions will be just a click away. Stay tuned for details on the official launch date of Trip!

Save the date for the Fall Travel Supplier Showcase! Meet some of the university’s preferred travel suppliers, learn more about U-M’s travel program, watch CTP and Chrome River demos, enroll in TSA PreCheck, enter to win some fantastic prizes, and pick up some swag.

The details for the show appear below:

• Tuesday, October 15
• 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• Jack Roth Stadium Club, Michigan Stadium
• Employees must bring their Mcard to enter the show
• Light refreshments will be served

Invitations will be sent next month, but more information is available now on the Travel Supplier Showcase webpage.

Delta has simplified its aircraft boarding process by assigning numbers to all boarding zones. Previously, Delta boarded in this order: First Class, Diamond Medallion, Comfort Plus, and Sky Priority, which were followed by numbered boarding zones in the main cabin. The first four classes are now Zones 1 through 4, and what was previously Main Cabin 1 is now Zone 5. 

The actual boarding order remains the same, however, tickets booked via CTP will now display Zone 5. To ensure space for your carry-on bag and get early main-cabin boarding as a Corporate Traveler, be sure to book any U-M travel with CTP, even if you’re not a SkyMiles Loyalty Program member. Learn more about SkyMiles and join the program.

Would you like to earn promotional A-List status on Southwest Airlines? Starting September 2, you can sign up to earn 90 days of A-List status! Plus, you could extend your status for an additional 12 months if you complete the promotion requirements. Benefits of A-List status include:

• Priority boarding for everyone on your reservation
• Priority and express lane access
• Same-day change and standby
• 25 percent Rapid Rewards earning bonus on qualifying flights

Additional information will be posted to the Slack channel (join below) and the CTP portal at the start of the promotion period.

Not a Rapid Rewards member? Sign up here so that you are ready to enroll in the promotion once it launches!

Representatives from both CTP and the U-M Travel Program will be available to answer your travel-related questions during the following virtual sessions. We look forward to seeing you and encourage you to add these dates to your calendar. 

• August 13, 2024, 10 to 11 a.m.—Group booking training
• August 20, 2024, 2 to 3 p.m.—U-M travel booking refresher training
• September 5, 2024, 11 a.m. to noon—Office hours Q & A
• September 18, 2024, 1 to 2 p.m.—U-M travel booking refresher training

Use this Zoom link and passcode below for all 2024 sessions.

https://umich.zoom.us/j/96013633019

Passcode: 684564

Dates for additional sessions will be published on the Procurement Services travel webpage as they are scheduled.

We encourage you to join the U-M Travel Program’s new Slack channel, #travel-program, to stay up-to-date on all things related to U-M travel, including program updates, announcements, travel tips, events, and more. 

If you haven’t heard of Slack, we encourage you to check it out! Creating an account is easy and we hope to see you on Slack soon!