Travel expenses made easy

The Transportation Department's Web-based travel and expense service will be connected to DOT's FedTrip.gov online booking engine, which the FAA is piloting. When the two are interfaced, this is how the service would work:

1. A federal employee books a flight, hotel and/or car rental on the FedTrip site using a federally issued travel charge card.

2. Information about the trip — such as location, reason for travel and approximate cost — is sent electronically to the person who approves that agency's travel.

3. The data is automatically transferred to an authorization form, which allows the traveler to take the trip.

4. When the traveler returns, he or she adds information about taxes and fees. Information from the authorization is automatically entered into the voucher, which calculates the reimbursement based on government per diem rates.

5. That data feeds into the agency's accounting system, which issues payment to the traveler in two to three days.