Travel Payment Services

Central Travel Account (CTA)

CTAs are nonphysical cards used as the agency's primary form of payment for airline, rail, car rental and travel agency fees through the state’s contracted Travel Management Services provider.

Each agency will have two CTA numbers:  a centrally billed card and a centrally billed account.  The card account is where the transactions are processed. These card transactions roll into the account, which is used for accepting payments.

Virtual Card Account (VCA)

VCAs, or virtual payments, are one-time use credit card numbers used to pay for hotel room, tax, resort fees (if applicable) and self-parking. Virtual payments are authorized for a specific transaction amount, a specific merchant, and a set time period. The unique number is generated digitally during the reservation process (through the state’s Travel Management Services provider) and transmitted to the hotel through a virtual process by issuing a credit card authorization form via secured fax or email to the hotel. Once the transaction is complete, the card is inactive/disabled. 

For more information on the VCA program, please navigate to the VCA Resources page.

Meeting Card (MTG)

MTG accounts are centrally billed physical cards for payment of state-conducted meetings, conferences, and events. See the State Administrative Manual, Section 4117.5 for more information.

Individually Billed Travel (IBT)

IBT accounts are individual liability travel cards used by frequent travelers for payment of business-related travel expenses. IBT cards have a $5,000 monthly spend limit which includes a $500 monthly retail limit. Business meals, parking, gasoline, and other business-related expenses are considered authorized transactions. ATM use and cashback are not authorized. Please see Travel Bulletin 23-06 / Restatement of Established Individual-Billed Government Travel Card Requirements for more information.

Account Statements

Program Administrators (PA) are assigned access to the online account management system. This allows verification of account information, transaction reconciliation, and statement download for each program type. Account statements can be accessed/downloaded online, 24-hours after the cycle cut date or the 26th day of the month. For training guides and video tutorials, please visit the Travel Payment Services Training page.

ACH Payments

Agencies may pay their TPS accounts by using the ACH CCD or ACH CCD+ formats. Both formats are to be used for one (1) payment per billing account. If an agency has three (3) billing accounts, then three (3) separate payments should be made. Refer to the "U.S. Bank Mailing Addresses/ACH Payment Instructions" in the "Resources" section below for ACH instructions.

Check Payment Instructions

(Payment Instructions made outside of FI$Cal)

IMPORTANT - INCLUDE FULL BILLING ACCOUNT NUMBER ON CHECK FRONT

Payments must include the full 16-digit billing account number on the check. Including the payment stub with your check also helps to facilitate posting. The stub is located at the top of the first page of the account statement.

Checks submitted without the full 16-digit billing account number are considered unidentified and could delay posting to the account.

Checks should not be remitted in check and list format (i.e., one check to pay several accounts). This will cause the payment to be misapplied, returned, or delay in posting to the account.

Refer to the "U.S. Bank Mailing Addresses/ACH Payment Instructions" in the "Resources" section below for mailing instructions.

Prompt Payment Rebate

Agencies may be eligible to receive prompt payment rebates for centrally billed accounts based on the average of their annual payment history. Prompt Payment Incentives will be calculated annually based on the average speed of pay in a twelve (12) month period. The speed of pay is the number of days from the monthly statement date to the time the payment is received.

The rebates will be payable retrospectively on an annual basis within 90 days of the contract's start date (November 1). The prompt payment rebate will be paid directly to participating agencies. Rebates can be issued by check, however the preferred method for issuing rebates is ACH.

STP and U.S. Bank have collaborated to provide online training workshops and videos for participating agencies. Available training (provided by the TPS provider) can be found at the Travel Payment Services Training page.

Access Online also provides interactive eLearning lessons, videos, recorded classes, user guides and quick reference guides explaining how to use Access Online. In Access Online, click on the “Training” link on the left navigation menu.