Travel Update – Acknowledgement of Understanding (International Travel)

Effective December 16, 2022, the International Acknowledgement of Understanding Form (AOU) will be launched in Workday as a Questionnaire step for the employee traveler (faculty/staff) to complete with a new Spend Authorization that includes an international destination in a Spend Authorization line. This will replace the DocuSign version that is currently hosted at the Travel Website. The International Acknowledgement of Understanding Form (AOU) was made a requirement for International Travel with the Travel Guidelines released in June 2021, following the university’s travel suspension due to COVID-19.

For all business travel, the Spend Authorization must be in an approved status in advance of purchasing any travel related expenses and before departure.  The Questionnaire step must be completed by the employee traveler in order for the Spend Authorization to proceed through the business process for approval.

• If the Spend Authorization is entered and submitted by the employee traveler, there will be an onscreen prompt to complete the Questionnaire. In addition, there are reminders to complete in the Workday inbox, the home screen prompts awaiting action and email notification.
• If the Spend Authorization is entered and submitted on behalf of the employee traveler by an Expense Data Entry Specialist (EDES), an email will notify the employee traveler, along with reminders to complete in Workday inbox and the home screen prompts awaiting action.

Exception: The prompting of the Questionnaire is based on the destination field being populated by an international location on the Spend Authorization line with certain expense item types (e.g., airfare, lodging) and the validation of an employee name on the Spend Authorization header.  If the Spend Authorization lines are not inclusive of a destination field or the employee traveler is part of a group Spend Authorization (set up with a Group ECM name), the employee traveler must revert to the DocuSign version of the International Acknowledgement of Understanding Form hosted at the Travel Website and attach to the associated Spend Authorization.

For questions, contact the Travel Office at travel@osu.edu or 614-292-9290.