Expert Systems in Data Processing: California Travel Expense Claim System

The CALTREC project automated the process of creating travel expense claims for the state of California. This project is a good representative of the types of projects expected to be done by the state. The application is heavily embedded in traditional data processing systems, which added much additional work outside the scope of what is considered to be knowledge engineering. The state of California employs about 200,000 people who work for over 200 departments and belong to 20 collective bargaining units. Each year, approximately one third of these people travel on state business and incur expenses in the course of their trips. In addition, while conducting state business, many employees incur a wide range of nontravel-related expenses, including business expenses and overtime meal expenses. Everyone who incurs expenses on state business is entitled to be