During official travel, you will need to create a voucher in Defense System Travel (DTS). According to the Defense Travel System (DTS) site, a voucher is a claim for reimbursement of expenses incurred and payment allowances that you earned. When you create a voucher in DTS, the DTS system will update the estimates with actual trip costs.
As the voucher should always show accurate cost and trip information, make sure to always update the voucher from estimated charges to actual based on the trip. Certainly, creating a voucher must be correct and you will be responsible for the voucher.
So, how to create a voucher while TDY? You do not have to worry, as we will give you a guide of how to create a voucher that will ease you creating a voucher before or during your TDY. Here you go!
Creating a Voucher While TDY, Here’s How!
You can create a voucher by going to the DTS Dashboard. Then, choose ‘Create New Document’. After that, select the ‘Voucher’ option. DTS will then show a list of authorization which allows you to create a voucher.
Here, you need to choose ‘Create Voucher’ beside the authorization that you want to use in creating the voucher. Afterwards, the ‘Review Trip Voucher’ screen will appear that allows you to review all the information provided in the voucher.
From here, you need to navigate to any DTS module by choosing the ‘Go to <module>’ links in order to access any module or select an item from the Progress Bar located in the left column. Then, you will need to Add Comments to the Approving Official regarding the trip.
Afterwards, you can also use the ‘Expand All/ Collapse All’ option to view or reduce the trip specific details. Here, you can print the trip date and Add Reference.
How to Update the Trip Details?
If your travel itinerary (travel days, TDY location) or trip details (Trip Purposes) changed from what the AO approved on the authorization, you will need to choose ‘Edit Itinerary’ from the Progress Bar. By doing this, the Update Itinerary screen will appear.
Well, the fields on the screen previously populate with the information that you entered on the authorization. It’s important to note, Trip Type and TANUM data can only be viewed. Then, you can add or change the following points:
- Arriving and Departing dates
- TDY Location
- Leaving From*/ Returning On* locations
- (Trip) Purpose
- Trip Duration
- (Optional) Description
- (Optional) Reference
- Are You Attending a Conference or Event?
After you update all the fields, you will need to choose ‘Continue’. Once you get a pop-up that reminds you to verify or update your reservation costs, expenses and per diem information, the voucher will then open on the ‘Enter Expenses’ screen.
To note: The voucher does not contain a Reservation module. It means that you need to create all reservation changes such as costs on the ‘Enter Expenses’ screen.
How to Update Expenses and Allowances?
Initially, the Expenses Module will show you all the estimated expenses and allowances the AO has approved on the authorization. As those are only estimates, you may need to adjust them to indicate what actually occurred on your trip.
When it has been performed, each expense should exactly match the amount you paid. Then, each allowance should be accurate to make sure that you receive the proper reimbursement. You can then open the Expenses module by choosing ‘Expenses’ from the Progress Bar.
After that, the ‘Enter Expenses’ window will appear and show you a single running list of reservation and other entered expenses and allowances. You also need to choose the ‘Sort By’ drop-down menu to change the display options for the listing.
Well, on the screen, you can do some following actions:
- Choose ‘Add’ to enter all new expenses or mileage entries.
- Choose ‘Details’ to see or ‘Update’ recorded expense information.
- Choose ‘Details’ in order to add, browse, and upload files to expenses or Documents.
- Choose three dots option to ‘Delete Expense’ or ‘Duplicate Expense’ for other entered expenses and mileage allowances.
- Choose ‘Add’ and also ‘Add Expense’ from GTCC to import into the voucher.
- You can also ‘Import’ a PDF to attach a file to an expense or Documents.
- You can download all ‘Attachments’. It’s important to note, the icon will only show after you attach a file to an expense or Documents.
- Choose the ‘Expand All / Collapse All’ option.
- See the ‘Receipt’ requirements.
The ‘Enter Expenses’ screen will communicate and execute any tasks via the extensive use of icons. You need to be aware of duplicate expenses entries due to those can cause overpayments. You can then check the ‘Review Trip Voucher’ screen to check if you have over-claimed any expenses or allowance, if you are still in doubt about it.
How to Update Per Diem Information?
When you select the ‘Review Per Diem Amounts’ screen, it will identify the per diem allowances which the AO approved in your authorization. You can choose ‘Per Diem’ from the ‘Progress Bar’ in order to access the ‘Review Per Diem Amounts’ page to create allowance changes.
Need to know, you can choose the ‘Lodging’ quick access option to ‘Edit Per Diem’ on the ‘Enter Expenses’ screen.
A bunch of options that are the same on the voucher are for changing, adding and removing situations which modify your per diem allowances and the explanations of these options. You can choose ‘Adjust Per Diem Amount’ and a new window will appear.
Then, choose the date range and enter the updated information in some sections including Meals, Duty Conditions, Other Entitlements and Lodging Cost. After that, you can choose ‘Save Adjustments’.
If some changes will affect your per diem conditions, you may ease to use the ‘Reset’ link to delete all of a day’s manually entered allowance changes. In this case, the ‘Reset’ link will return all options on the selected day to their initial default settings. Then, you are able to enter all necessary changes before you can save them.
Certainly, there are still a lot of documents that you may need while you were TDY. But, we only show you the information related to the voucher.
