Travel & Relocation
GovTrip FAQs
GovTrip General FAQs
- What is GovTrip?
- What is FATA?
- Who has access to GovTrip?
- When must GovTrip be used?
- How do I access GovTrip?
- How I change the GovTrip from the General Version to the Department of Agriculture?
- When accessing GovTrip why am I seeing the following screen instead of being routed to the eAuthetification portal?
- How do I know what portion of my travel voucher claim (expenses or entitlements) will be paid to me and what portion will be paid directly to my Government Credit Card (GOVCC)?
GovTrip is a web-based travel management tool selected by USDA as the official travel system for all its agencies. The implementation of GovTrip within the REE agencies was effective March 10, 2008. GovTrip is a travel planning, obligating, booking, and payment system. Authorizations, with the exception of open authorizations will obligate funds when the authorization is approved. The use of GovTrip is mandated by the Federal Travel Regulation, Section 301-50.3.
FATA means Federal Agency Travel Administrator. FATAs are responsible for creating and maintaining user profiles including address changes and credit card information. Area FATAs are the main points of contact for travel arrangers requiring assistance.
Within Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES), the use of GovTrip is currently limited to persons designated as travel arrangers and approvers. GovTrip is available for use by all Economics Research Service (ERS) employees.
All travel authorizations and their related vouchers must be created and paid through the GovTrip System, excluding local travel and relocation. GovTrip must be used to purchase all common carrier transportation tickets, including air and train tickets. GovTrip must also be used to reserve rental cars under the government rental car agreement. For lodging, those employees who hold an individually-billed travel card must have room reservations completed in GovTrip.
To access GovTrip, you must be trained on the use of GovTrip and have a completed and signed AD-1143 on file with your agency's security office. For ARS, NASS and CSREES, you must be a trained travel arranger or approver to access GovTrip.
GovTrip is available on the web at http://www.govtrip.com. NOTE: When you access GovTrip for the first time, you must change the edition to the Department of Agriculture’s version.
How do I change the GovTrip from the General Version to the Department of Agriculture?
You may now login to GovTrip. This will route you to the USDA eAuthentication web portal where you will use your eAuthentication User ID and Password to log in.
You must configure your computer to access the USDA version of GovTrip. This version of GovTrip will route to the eAuthentication portal. Please be sure that you see the Department of Agriculture’s banner before you select the "Log In" tab.
How do I know what portion of my travel voucher claim (expenses or entitlements) will be paid to me and what portion will be paid directly to my Government Credit Card (GOVCC)?
When a portion of your entitlements are paid directly to GOVCC and the other portion is paid directly to you, it is called a “split pay disbursement.” To know how the payment will be split, look at the last page of your printed travel voucher “Accounting Detail.” This page summarizes your split pay disbursements. FOR EXAMPLE: The last two lines on this page will read:
| PAY TO GOV’T CHARGE CARD....................... $681.00 | |
| PAY TO TRAVELER .............................................$111.00 |  |
(Note: If you do not see the Accounting Detail page, you may need to change the default settings in GovTrip. To change the default settings, see the instructional diagrams that follow:
Last updated: 08/29/2008
