Expenses Checklist & Process Steps Guide

Purpose:  Use this document as a reference to assist in the standard Finance processes in chronological order for a specific Module.

Audience:  Finance Staff, Local Security, Travel & Expense Administrators

The following spreadsheet below provides the standard key processes to Travel and Expenses, such as:

Expense Type w/Account numbers, Expense Roles by Nav path, Expense Queries, Checklists for: Initial setup, Budget checking Expense Documents, Canceling EX Payments, Cash Advance Reconciliation, Paying out Expenses, Unposting Expense Reports, and On and Offboarding Employees for Expenses.

Or for better accessibility, use the following drop-down checklist style for the Expense Checklist & Process Steps Guide:

Expense Type List with GL Account Number
Expense Type General Ledger Account Number
Airline in State of Washington 5080020
Airline International 5080060
Airline Outside State of Washington 5080060
Automobile Rental 5080040
Communication Miscellaneous 5081260
Hotel in State of Washington 5080010
Hotel International 5080050
Hotel Outside State of Washington 5080050
Hotel Room Tax (INSTATE) 5080010
Hotel Room Tax (OUT OF STATE) 5080050
Hotels Misc no per diem 5080010
Meal in State of Washington Breakfast 5080010
Meal in State of Washington Breakfast
5080010
Meal in State of Washington Lunch
5080010
Meal in State of Washington Dinner
5080010
Meal Outside State of Washington Breakfast
5080050
Meal Outside State of Washington Lunch
5080050
Meal Outside State of Washington Dinner
5080050
Meals International 5080050
Meals no per diem 5080010
Miscellaneous 5080040
Registration 5080040
Supplies 5030010
Transportation Mileage 5080030
Transportation Other 5080040
Transportation Parking 5080040
Transportation Toll 5080040
EX Roles with Access

Please use link above titled Expenses Checklist and Process Steps Guide

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Common EX Queries
Query Name Description
QFS_EX_CA_ALL_STATUS Cash Advances All Status
QFS_EX_CA_NOT_CLOSED Cash Advances Not Closed
QFS_EX_ER_ALL_STATUS Expense Reports All Status
QFS_EX_NOT_CLOSED Expense Reports Not Closed
QFS_EX_TRAVEL_SUTH_ALL_STATUS Travel Auth All Status
QFS_EX_TRAVEL_AUTH_NOT_CLOSED Travel Auth Not Closed
QFS_GL_EX_ACCTG_LINE EX Accounting Line Detail
QFS_GL_JRNL_ACCT_ANALYSIS_POST Jrnl GL Acct Analysis Posted
QFS_SEC_USER_ROLES_BY_UNIT Job, Company, with Unit Prompt User List with Roles

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Initial Setup

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It's a local business process decision, but using a single default chartfield value makes cash advance reconciliation easier.

A single EMPLID is system wide. For those instances where multiple institutions are in proximity to each other, where employees may work at more than one institution or switch institutions, care must be taken with regards to travel and expenses. he single EMPLID will have one traveler profile with multiple job records. There can still be only one default profile, and it needs to be set to the institution the employee is traveling for.

Related QRG(s)

Enter Default Chartfield Values, or in the least - Oper Unit value (required field).  Verify 'default' Profile is set correctly. This must be done before your end users enter Expense Documents

Related QRG(s)

  • Editing Employee Organizational Data
  • NOTE:  This can only be performed by a Travel Administrator. Users do not have access to update their own EX Profile default chartfield values.
    If Oper Unit Value is updated after EX documents are started, the documents will need to be deleted, and new ones entered, AFTER the Oper Unit value is populated.

A Transportation ID is required if employees will be claiming personal mileage.  

Related QRG(s)

Verify and/or update the Employee's Default Payment Method for Expenses.

Related QRG(s)

  • Maintaining Employee Banking Data
  • This can be performed by a Travel Administrator. Travelers can view their Banking Data through Employee Self Service>Travel and Expenses>Review/Edit Profile, but cannot edit it.

Review your EX Approvers for Appropriate Security Roles. This step is optional. If your users are having trouble creating and submitting EX transactions. You can verify that they have the correct roles assigned as part of your troubleshooting.

Related QRG(s)

Employees need to be authorized expense users for themselves. Also, Anyone that will be entering EX documents for others, needs to be set as an authorized expense user for those employees. This may have already have been setup for you during conversion, but needs to be maintained locally.

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Budget Checking EX Documents

Budget Checking can be done either ways - Depending on your set up, budget checking will need to either be done by the first "approver", or before EX documents can be staged for payment OR, must have Travel Authorizations or Expense Reports that have a budget status of "Not Checked" or "Error" to be eligible for budget checking.

Related QRG(s)

EX documents must pass budget checking in order to be eligible to be "staged" for payment.

Budget Checking - Provide a list of the common budget exceptions and corrective actions to take.

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Canceling AP Payments

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Review the linked QRG below for this action.

Related QRG(s)

NOTE:  If you chose the 'Do Not Reissue/Close Liability', it will 'close' the expense document after the next step is completed. If you need to re-issue payment to this expense document, make sure you chose 'Re-Open Voucher(s)/Re-Issue' option in the payment cancellation.

This process cancels an expense or cash advance set up for payment.  This action generates the correct accounting entries associated with the cancellation.

Related QRG(s)

NOTE:  If you chose 'Do Not Reissue/Close Liability' in step 1, then the EX document will be in a status of 'Closed' after this process is completed. If you chose  'Re-Open Voucher(s)/Re-Issue' in step 1, then the EX document will be in a status of 'staged' and can then be picked up in a new EX paycycle, or can be Unstaged, if edits are needed.

Must have one or more Expense Report and/or Cash Advance payments successfully staged.

If you need to modify or close a travel document in 'Paid' status, first you will need to Cancel payment, then you will need to Unstage it. Then it can be Closed. If you need to modify the document, you will need to run the Unpost process after Unstaging it.

Use the Close page to mark an Expense Report or Cash Advance for close if it has been approved for payment processing but not staged for payments. Also, the document must be posted.

To Unpost an ER, you Must have an expense report where liabilities have been posted.

See Tab - Unposting & Reposting Expense Reports

In order to Modify an EX Document, it must be "unposted".   This is optional, your EX document may not need to be unposted.

Use this document as a reference on how to modify or edit an Expense Document that has been fully approved, but not Posted.

This is optional, your EX document may not need to be modified.

Use this Navigation to update banking info and payment method of Staged EX Documents - Navigation: Travel and Expenses > Process Expenses > Update Staged Payments

Search by Employee Name or Empl ID.  you can change the bank account and/or payment method for payments that are in status of "staged".

This checklist provides all the steps and processes required to issue EX payments.

See Tab - Paying Out Expenses to Re-Issue Payment

This step may or may not apply to your situation, depending on if you closed the EX Document.

Use this Navigation to update 'default' banking info and payment method in Employee's EX Profile.

Navigation: Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expenses > Review/Edit Profile

Go to the 'Bank Accounts' tab to update the default payment information for Employee.

The Information entered here is pulled into all EX payments for this Employee.

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Cash Advance Reconciliation

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All or part of a cash advance can be applied to an expense report, or multiple expense reports.

Notes:

Cash Advances are automatically reconciled when applied to an expense report.  When the Expense Report Liabilities are posted, The Cash Advance accounting entries are reversed and the actual expenditures listed on the Expense Report are recorded.  

The 'total applied' amount on the 'Apply Cash Advance' pagelet, must be less than or equal to the the total expense lines contained on the expense report.  

The expense lines on the expense report cannot be 'pre-paid','pcard' or 'non-reimbursable'. There has to be a balance due to the employee, in order to apply a cash advance, as the cash advance reduces the 'amount due to employee' (available to view on the summary page).

Unused Cash Advance Funds Received Cashiering Via AR Direct Journal Deposit.

Post Cash received to the same chart string that was contained on the Cash Advance.  You May need to get this information from a Travel Admin or A/P.  A Receipt should be provided to the employee returning the funds.

If any balance of a cash advance was unused, you must perform a manual reconciliation. (If the full amount of the Cash Advance was applied to an expense report, this step is not necessary.)

Make sure if any balance is to be applied to an Expense Report, that you apply it (and Expense Report needs to be fully approved and in status of 'paid' before performing this step.  

Traveler or Delegate would provide a copy of the receipt received in step 2, as evidence of Cash Returned.

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Paying Out Expenses

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To 'Stage' Expense Reports and Cash Advances to be picked up by A/P when running an EX Pay cycle

NOTE:

Expense Reports must have a valid budget check and receipts must be marked as received, or they will not be picked up by this process.

You can run the budget check in Batch, or singly at Travel and Expenses/Approve Transactions/Modify Approved Transactions (an EX approver must do this). You can also  mark receipts received at this navigation path.

Use this document as a reference for running an EX pay cycle using the A/P Pay Cycle Manager in ctcLink.

Must have completed the AP Pay Cycle Payment Creation step for one or more Expense Report and/or Cash Advance payments.

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Unposting & Reposting Expense Reports

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To Unpost an ER, you must have an expense report where liabilities have been posted.

Must have successfully marked an Expense Report for Unposting.

NOTE: This process will stage reversing accounting entries in the current period, that will be picked up by GL when the Journal Generate process runs.

ER's can only be re-posted if it is dated in the current period. Use this navigation path to update sections of the ER that are not available to be edited in step 4.

Navigation: Travel and Expenses > Approve Transactions > Modify Approve Transactions

Expense Report MUST be opened from this navigation, or it will not be eligible to be re-posted. Once you open it, select 'SAVE' and then you can close the window if you do not have any other edits to make.

Navigation: Travel and Expenses > Manage Accounting > View/Adjust Accounting Entries > Update Unposted Expense Report

You can make updates to chart strings and add attachments.  If you need to make other changes, then go to Travel and Expenses/Approve Transactions/Modify Approved Transactions first to make your changes.Then come to this navigation to open and 'save' to reset the status.

If you unposted an ER in error, you are still required to at least open it from this navigation and then select 'save' to make sure it can be re-posted.

Run the Post Liabilities process to create new accounting entries in the current period.

NOTE:  Make sure all steps are completed in the same period.

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On and Offboarding Employees for Expenses

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There are manual housekeeping items in Expenses that need to be maintained in order for it to function correctly.  Because the primary focus of the document is to merely provide recommendations, suggestions and best practices, it is the responsibility of each individual college to approach and maintain the on boarding and off boarding processes uniquely.

Security QRG that reviews all offboarding procedures. When an employee offboards from an institution, it is critical to clean up their security access within the system.

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You are done. Great job!

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