COCA Site Visits

Important guidelines

Accreditation site visit policies & procedures

Understand the responsibilities of COCA team members with these helpful resources.

The COM Evaluator Manual helps members of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation’s (COCA) Evaluators Registry prepare to fulfill their responsibilities before, during and after a site accreditation visit to a college of osteopathic medicine (COM).

Team members are responsible for thoroughly reviewing and understanding the COCA’s Standards and Procedures to assess the COM’s compliance with them. If you’re new to the accreditation process, check out the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors’ overview of the process.

In addition to outlining team members’ site visit responsibilities, the manual details AOA policies and procedures for traveling to and from a site visit, meals, accommodations and reimbursement. It also describes the different types of site visits and how COCA staff schedules and plans each visit.

For COCA evaluators

Submitting travel expenses

As a COCA site evaluator, you will likely travel on behalf of the commission to complete site visits at colleges of osteopathic medicine across the nation. The following information is intended to guide you through the process of documenting and submitting your trip expenses for reimbursement.

Please note, all expenses should be submitted to COCA staff no more than two weeks after a site visit concludes.

Remember to keep all itemized receipts during the duration of your trip and/or take photos of your receipts so they are stored on your phone for easy submission. Note: AmTrav offers an expense report feature via their website and app where where you can upload your receipts and create a mock-up expense report. You will still need to fill out the expense voucher provided by COCA Staff, however, the expense report feature in AmTrav can be a valuable tool to make creating your report easier.

Entering receipts in AmTrav

Follow the steps outlined below to keep track of your travel receipts and generate an expense report in AmTrav.

Log into AmTrav.
From the left-side menu in AmTrav, select the “Expense Reports” option under the “See” section.
Select “Start Report” under “My Expense Reports.”
A box should appear on your screen asking for a “Report Title.” Please use the COM name as the report title.
You should now see a blank expense report.
Under “Inbox” in the Expense Report section, select “+ Add” to upload copies of your receipts.
After uploading your receipts, you will be able to drag each receipt over to the designated slot in the expense report, as shown below.
As a final step, you have the option to “Download Report” or “Email Report” and save to your files.

Completing your expense voucher

Please follow the steps outlined below for submitting your expense voucher.

Always enter your name and address in the top right corner. The address entered here should match the address submitted on your direct deposit form when you first became an evaluator. If this address has changed, please contact Monte Coulter at [email protected] to have the finance department update your info.
Fill out the COM name, location and date of site visit. Make sure you enter the appropriate number of days for the honorarium (Note: the honorarium includes travel days, plus days on site).
Make sure all sections of the expense voucher (e.g., meals, transportation, honorarium) are filled out properly. The total expense should be entered in the yellow highlighted box shown below, not under the section title. Additionally, please ensure all section totals are included in the final total reimbursement box.
Please ensure you have all receipts for each expense. The expense voucher and all receipts should be in a single PDF document when submitted to the COCA for reimbursement.
Sign your expense form and submit all vouchers to [email protected] (you may also CC your team secretary).

Contact the COCA

You may contact the Department of Accreditation at:
Phone: (312) 202-8124
[email protected]