Monthly Closing Calendars

The October 2020 period in the general ledger has closed. When running your reports, please keep in mind that the reporting environment has a 24-hour delay in displaying data. The current and future month-end processing deadline schedules are located at Monthly Closing Deadlines.

Avis Budget Group Auto Rental

The State of Florida Department of Management Services has executed a new contract with Avis Budget Group, Inc. for rental vehicles. This contract is effective as of September 30, 2020. FIU will use this contract for all individuals that travel on behalf of the University. The rental class is restricted to a compact (Class B) vehicle unless traveling with multiple FIU travelers. Please review the Florida Department of Management Services Rental Vehicle Pricing.

The FIU Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number for making reservations is B-133407 and the FIU Budget Corporate Discount (BCD) number is T-417711. Please review the User Reference Guide for rental vehicles by Avis Budget Group.

Note: Budget Corporate Discount (BCD) number changed to T-417711. This number is unique for FIU use only.

Customers may make reservations and rent vehicles from any location for either brand; use the Avis Website and Budget Website to determine the most convenient location for either brand. Customers are strongly encouraged to only use airport locations for trips involving air travel.

Reservations can also be made by contacting the Avis/Budget toll-free number at 1-800-338-8211.

Avis-Budget Rent-A-Car / National Car Rental Transition: Third Party Payments

As we complete our transition over to Avis-Budget Rent-A-Car, in order to facilitate 3rd party car rentals using your university PCard, you must complete the forms below to obtain a Wizard number. These Wizard Billing ID’s will be used to reserve on behalf of an individual traveling on behalf the University. Cardholders are authorized to sign the forms, authorizing their participation in the program.

• Budget Rent-A-Car Applicant Program Agreement (to establish a wizard number for 3rd party rentals)
• Avis Rent-A-Car Global Electronic Billing Agreement (to establish a wizard number for 3rd party rentals)

Additionally, please DO NOT complete the shared card number agreement, as that will facilitate the renter booking rentals and it charging back to your card, circumventing you, the cardholder. We have notified Avis/Budget that FIU will not be participating in shared card number agreements.

Travel

Help us to expedite approving Travel Authorizations, Cash Advances, and Expense Reports. Documents that have not been completely finalized and are older than 90 days will be cancelled or deleted by the Travel Department. A list of pending documents is located here. Information regarding report status abbreviations and how to close or cancel Travel Authorizations and/or Expense Reports can be found here.

Departmental Card Deadline

As a reminder, departmental card billing transactions regularly load the first business day of the month; program participants will have 10 days to process this activity in its entirety. This month’s billing statement (dated October 30, 2020) loaded into PantherSoft on November 2, 2020 and must be completely processed by the end of the business day on November 13, 2020.

Any charges not processed by the closing deadline will be automatically charged to the cardholder’s default accounting on file and will not be eligible for a transfer. Cardholders with three unjustified non-approvals in the same fiscal year will have their card suspended until they complete a retraining session.