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Cornell University

Travel Reimbursement, Simplified

Travel Reimbursement, Simplified

Shared Services Center approvers must process a high volume of travel reimbursement requests from faculty and staff, with receipts that vary dramatically in format and readability. The submission and review workflow is manual, policy-driven, and inefficient, creating delays that frustrate both travelers and approvers and increase administrative cost. Reimbursement requests are often itemized incorrectly, especially for group meals, requiring the processors to send expense reports back to travelers for correction. Processors must also ensure expenses meet university policy and applicable regulatory requirements. An AI assistant reads and itemizes uploaded receipts, identifying unallowed expenses and discrepancies between the conference agenda to the meals claimed in the per diem. The anticipated benefits include reduced processing errors, faster reimbursements, increased efficiency, decreased staff burnout, improved compliance, and increased satisfaction for SSC staff and requesters.