TAN registers

Offline TAN registers are created to be used for individual level 3 TAN prefixes. They can be created by an STS TAN Administrator, a Department TAN Administrator, a System Administrator or a TAN holder. At present in the Government of Canada, Department TAN Holders are the custodians of the offline TAN Register.

The offline TAN process is used by:

1. Modular departments - Travellers belonging to modular departments that have not adopted the expense management tool must still use a TAN to book air, rail, sea and land transportation, and to reserve accommodation and rental vehicles through the agency or online booking tool.
2. Full-solution Departments - On occasion, a traveller belonging to a full-solution department must bypass the travel request and automated TAN issuance process. This may occur when travel is urgent and when the regular approval process cannot be executed in time for travel. For example, if it is late in the afternoon and travel is suddenly required when an approver is not available or the system is down and travel authorization cannot be obtained online. Offline TANs are also used to allow a traveller to create a travel request once the travel dates have elapsed. Note that this occurs on an exceptional basis and is not part of standard procedure.
3. Non Public Servants regardless of whether the department uses the full or modular solution - Processes for non public servants vary across departments. For some full-solution departments, non public servants who travel on behalf of the Government of Canada will obtain an offline TAN, since they are not always a user in the system (they might only travel once for that department).

When an offline TAN is required, a traveller or travel arranger will contact a Department TAN holder and request an offline TAN. The Department TAN Holder follows department specific approval processes for offline TAN issuance and records information regarding the traveller/trip on the paper register or spreadsheet. Since capture of this information is manual, it can be lost, inaccurate, and uncontrolled.

Some departments have their own travel authorization and expense management system and may have automated TAN issuance in their department. In such cases, the departments load the offline TANs into their department specific system(s) using the Offline TAN Register digital spreadsheet that is issued by TAN Administration Vendor.