Adlerdriver

Hotel funds never expire. So, one thing I've learned from this new expense process so far is almost never use the hotel funds box at the bottom of your expense report when you're submitting it. Most of the time it's better to wait until the appropriate expense reports are closed and you're certain you still actually have a deficit. At that point, request the hotel funds be applied to that month via Insite. Use of hotel funds is an irreversible action, so always try to use the DBA with a finite half-life first.



Specifically:
If you're submitting July with a deficit, you need to wait until July is closed AND June and August are closed as well. That way you can see the final numbers on any DBA that was transferred from June (and earlier months) and August (backwards to July). Only then will you know exactly how much of a the July deficit wasn't covered by DBA.


The only reason I say "almost never" use the hotel fund box is to address a situation when you know you have no DBA coming forward from earlier months and the month after your deficit month has no trips (vacation, training, etc). If you're 100% certain that no DBA money is going to be applied to your deficit month, then you could apply hotel funds during your expense report submission.

One final gotcha: To figure out the correct amount to request from your hotel bank.
Go to the summary section at the bottom of the expense report for the month with the deficit. Use the amount labeled "Net Travel Bank Balance". It's on the last line in the upper section labeled "Travel Bank Summary".
Subtract any DBA money applied to this month from that number.
Whatever remains is what should be requested from your hotel bank.
Doing it this way will account for any out of pocket expenses that weren't covered in addition to the deficit (which, by this point has probably been payroll deducted).

Obviously if the amount required exceeds the funds in your hotel bank, then you just ask to empty your hotel bank.