Requesting, Reconciling, Withdrawing and Returning Unused Funds from a Cash Advance

This guide will cover:

Policy location for requesting a Cash Advance
Requesting a Cash Advance
Reconciling a Cash Advance for:
- Funds used from the Cash Advance
- Returning unused Funds from a Cash Advance
Withdrawing a Cash Advance Request

Step One

Travel Policy and Procedures

An employee may request a cash advance to support anticipated expenses while on University business (typically used when traveling). Requests should be processed a minimum of one week prior to the date listed as the Trip Start Date. There are specific requirements to determine whether a cash advance is suitable for certain circumstances. Please review the Official University Travel and Reimbursement Policy under UW Standard Administrative Policies and Procedures prior to submitting a cash advance request.

Two methods of distribution are available for cash advances:

Direct Deposit (Automatic Default) - Must have bank account information added in the WyoCloud Travel and Expenses section. For steps on how to add your bank account information, please see Direct Deposit Setup.
1. Even if you have direct deposit set up for your paycheck, you also need to set it up for reimbursements and cash advances
Cash Advance Check - Please contract accounts-payable@uwyo.edu to request payment by check as soon as you submit the cash advance request. Checks will be mailed to the address listed as Home within your Personal Information in WyoCloud. Please attach a special handling foorm to the cash advance request if you prefer the check to be held for pickup. To navigate to the Personal Information section in WyoCloud, follow the instructions found in the Quick Reference Guide.

Note: A delegate may request a cash advance on behalf of another employee. The cash advance submitted by a delegate will route to the employee for approval and then to the employee’s supervisor whom the cash advance is for. All approvals must be completed.

Step Two

Navigating to Expenses to Create a Cash Advance

Upon signing in, click on the Navigator button (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner of the page. The Navigator Bar is where you can find links directing you to all of the modules and pages you have security access for.

First click on My Profile to expand, then click on Expenses.

Following the selection of the Expenses link, the following page will appear.

As a delegate submitting a cash advance on behalf of another employee, the delegate will need to select the employee’s name first from the name drop down list for whom is requesting the cash advance.

To begin the process of creating a Cash Advance request, navigate to the Cash Advance icon on the left side of the screen.

The Cash Advance page will appear. Select Request Cash Advance

In order to complete a request, you must enter information as is required. Explanations as to what each of the fields mean can be found below.

Field	Description
Advance Amount	This is a required field. It will default as a blank field where you can enter the amount of the advance that you are requesting.
Payment Method	This is a drop down selection in which you select between Check or Electronic
Purpose	This is a required field. You should describe the business purpose or reason for requesting a cash advance here. Please make this informative for the auditors in Payment Services.
Advance Type	This is drop down selection in which you will select whether the cash advance request is Travel or Other (used for research expenses).
Trip Start Date	This is a required field that defaults as blank. The date that you should input is the start date of your trip. You may enter this by either: Manually typing in the trip start date, OR Clicking on the Calendar icon for a Calendar to pop up for you to select a date.
Trip End Date	This is a required field that defaults as blank. The date that you should input is the end date of your trip. You may enter this by either: Manually typing in the trip start date, OR Clicking on the Calendar icon for a Calendar to pop up for you to select a date.
Attachment	Advance requests require a detailed itemization of the estimated cash expenses which may only include items that cannot be paid with traditional University payment methods such as a PCard, Non-PO Invoice, or requisition process etc.

Once all the appropriate information is entered, select Save then Submit.

A confirmation box will appear confirming the submission was successful, click OK:

Once submitted, the cash advance will appear on the Cash Advance screen. This will show the status of the Cash Advance (note: it may take a few moments for the report to change from Submitted to Pending Approval status)
- If a delegate submitted the cash advance on behalf of another employee, the employee will be notified and will be required to approve the cash advance
- The approval will also be routed to the supervisor of the employee requesting the cash advance for approval. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to review the line item budget justification attached to the cash advance to ensure it aligns with allowable uses of cash advances and is in line with budget expectations.

Once the Cash Advance has been approved, you will receive a notification and will describe how you will receive the funds based on your method of distribution.

Step Three

Reconciling a Cash Advance

Pursuant to the Travel and Reimbursement Policy mentioned in Step One, you must reconcile the entire cash advance within 10 business days after the Trip End date of the travel period authorized by the cash advance request. In order to reconcile the cash advance, you must obtain and retain appropriate documentation (i.e. receipts) to identify how funds were used.

Once a cash advance is approved, you can reconcile funds used during throughout the duration of the trip, or after the Trip End Date. Please make sure to return any unused funds.

Reconciling Used Funds from Cash Advance

To reconcile funds used from a cash advance, the traveler must create and submit an expense report and attach all related documentation to the appropriate expense lines. To view instructions on how to create and submit an expense report, please review the quick reference guide for Entering an Expense Report.

Upon clicking submit if there are any active cash advances the following box will appear:

Note: Any reimbursable expense reports submitted when you have an outstanding cash advance will prompt this Cash Advance pop-up. If the expenses are unrelated to your cash advances, please click “Don’t apply a Cash Advance”. You will be required to provide a justification for not applying the expenses against a cash advance before submission.

To reconcile these funds, please click the appropriate Cash Advance and then Apply and Submit. The warning below will appear, and you must select “Yes”.

To see the Cash Advance applied:

Returning Unused Funds from Cash Advance

Determine the amount of cash that you have left from the cash advance. Gather the cash or write a check to UW for the amount of cash left.
Fill out a UW Deposit Advice for the amount of cash left.
- Obtain the UW Deposit Advice form from the Cashier’s Office’s website. To locate the form, scroll down to the bottom of the page then click on Deposit Advice Form under Forms and FAQs.

When completing the Deposit Advice, utilize the following Account Code string: 10-75001-105-000001-{Your Org}-550-0000-0000-0
Your Org is the 5 digit organization segment value for your department.

Take the funds and the Deposit Advice to the UW Cashier’s Office in Knight Hall and make the deposit.
After making the deposit, you will receive a receipt from the Cashier’s Office. Please retain this receipt, as it will be entered as an expense item to fully reconcile your outstanding cash advance.
Add an expense item to the current expense report for your cash advance funds if not submitted yet or create a new expense report.
- Expense type selected should be Cash Advance Excess Return.
- Use the exact same account code that was used at the Cashier’s Office to deposit the unused cash on your expense report
- Attach your cashier’s receipt to this item.
- Save and Close
- Click the box next to “I have read and accept the corporate travel and expense policies”
- Click Submit

See the Entering Expense Report Quick Reference Guide for details on how to enter expense items

Withdrawing a Cash Advance

Should you need to withdraw a cash advance, the following steps must be completed prior to any approvals being completed.

On the Travel and Expenses page, navigate to the Cash Advance page by selecting the icon on the left side. Once in the Cash Advance screen, to withdraw a Cash Advance, first select the cash advance report you wish to withdrawn. Then select the Actions drop down menu.