Making connections across campus

What is your role in ConnectionPoint?
I work as a travel and expense administrator in ConnectionPoint, which means I process personal reimbursements for staff, faculty and graduate students, as well as guest speakers and guest researchers who come to visit the university.

This includes processing Concur online claims, paper claims, like cheque requisitions, and petty cash claims. If someone needs assistance completing an expense report for personal reimbursement or learning how the process works, we provide the support. Once someone sends in a claim, we review it to make sure all the expenses are aligned with the policies and procedures of the university. Our team can also book travel for members of our university community. If you require any help booking travel or want us to make hotel or car rental arrangements, we can do that.

We also provide Concur support for the university community. If you have a question about Concur, you can contact us for help.

What happens when you find an error?
We offer to make the correction ourselves and resubmit the claim on the individual’s behalf. We also give them the option of doing it themselves and offer to walk them through the necessary steps. We let people know what the error is and what the policies and guidelines specifically state.

If I was new to the university, would I ever need to learn how to use Concur?
Not if you don’t want to. Most will find it easier to provide the information to ConnectionPoint and we can take care of the claim on their behalf. This will save them a lot of time that could be better used to focus on their research or teaching. There are self-serve options like accessing Concur in PAWS and through the mobile app for those comfortable using it.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
ConnectionPoint services make life easier for the university community and it really feels good when you help people with their day-to-day expenses. I really enjoy that we get a lot of opportunities to learn. I worked at the university for one year before I joined ConnectionPoint and even though I had past experience here, I learned a lot about how university processes work after I joined ConnectionPoint. 

Can you highlight an improvement that has been made because of user feedback?
Every day we focus on improving our systems to provide our services more efficiently and effectively. We realize some people want their reimbursements back as soon as possible, so we try to make that happen. We’ve done a lot of work to ensure the expenses are aligned with university guidelines, procedures and policies. When we do it right the first time, it doesn’t have to go back-and-forth before it’s approved.

What do you want the university community to know about ConnectionPoint?
Our great team of individuals are friendly, knowledgeable and eager to help provide services to the university community, so that you have more time to focus on the academic and research mission.

ConnectionPoint is moving: Visit Jaspreet at the ConnectionPoint location soon in the Arts Building, Room 258. You can also contact ConnectionPoint by phone at 306-966-2000, via email at connectionpoint@usask.ca or in PAWS under Admin Services.