Travel & Expense Management - Home | Western … · 2018-04-12 · Introduction ... Approvals: Workflow ... Travel & Expense Management: Approver Guide Page 4 Introduction This guid

Travel & Expense ManagementApprover Guide

Western Washington University Business and Financial Affairs 01-May-2013

Travel & Expense Management: Approver Guide Page 3

Contents

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Travel Documents: TEM ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Approvals: Workflow ................................................................................................................................................. 5 Supporting Documents: Nolij ..................................................................................................................................... 5

TEM Document Types ........................................................................................................................................ 6

Stages of TEM Approval ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Approver Email Notification ............................................................................................................................... 8

Workflow – Summary information ..................................................................................................................... 9

TEM – Document Details ................................................................................................................................... 11 Preview Report, page 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Preview Report, page 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Preview Report, page 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 15 Preview Report, page 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 16 Status History........................................................................................................................................................... 17 Related Documents.................................................................................................................................................. 19

Nolij – Attachments .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Open “Travel Documents” ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Search for attachments ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Attachment legibility ............................................................................................................................................... 24 Logging out.............................................................................................................................................................. 24

Workflow – Approval decision........................................................................................................................... 25

Appendix A: Alternate budget authority approvers.......................................................................................... 27

Last Update: 1-May-13, 4:30 PM For more information on TEM, visit: www.wwu.edu/bs/travel/tem

www.wwu.edu/bs/travel/tem

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Travel Documentts: TEM

WWU is immplementingg TEM to stan dardize and aautomate ourr manual travvel processes,, and provide best-in-class trravel services. TEM featur es include:

• Automatic calcculation of peer diem for meals and lodgging, based onn the destination • Automatic calcculation of m ileage rates • Automatic creaation of encuumbrances fo r travel authoorizations • Eaasy generatioon of expensee reports • Ellectronic pre--defined apprrovals, by botth supervisorss and budget authorities

For travelers, TEM pro vides a user-ffriendly interfface where thhey can: • crreate travel authorizationss which includde estimated expenses • reequest advances against thheir TA • crreate travel reeimbursemennts for actual expenses • query on the aapproval statuus of their traavel documennts • apppoint delegaates, i.e. stafff who act on ttheir behalf too create docuuments

For approovers, TEM provides a simi lar interface wwhether theyy can: • Review the itinnerary, expennses, funding strings and oother details oof a TA or TR • Review the do cument’s appproval historyy

When a trravel authorizzation is apprroved, the traaveler can turrn this into a rreimbursemeent with one cclick of a buttoon. All detail s on the TA wwill be copied into a reimbuursement doccument, and details can thhen be modifi ed as necessaary to match actual expen ses.

Last Upddate: 1-May-13, 44:30 PM FFor more informattion on TEM, visit: www.wwu.edu/b/bs/travel/tem

www.wwu.edu/b/bs/travel/tem


Approvals: Workflow

Workflow manages the approvals processing for TEM. Each approver will receive an email when it is their turn to approve a document. This includes a link to a workflow form which:

• shows summary information for that travel document • provides a link to TEM where the approver can review document details and approval history • provides buttons to mark the document as Approved, Denied, or Returned for Correction • provides a comment box for the approver to explain why a document was Denied or Returned

for Correction

If an approver will be out of the office, they can appoint a proxy to act on their behalf to approve documents. Proxies will receive the same email as the approver, and will be able to perform the same review and approval steps in workflow and TEM.

Supporting Documents: Nolij

Receipts and other supporting documents must be scanned and copied to the TEM Nolij application.

TEM Nolij access will be granted to travelers, delegates, approvers, and proxies so that: • Travelers/delegates can attach images of their receipts when they submit travel documents • Approvers/proxies can review these attachments when deciding whether to approve

Here are some of the features of Nolij: • A separate folder is automatically created in Nolij for each travel document: the folder name is

the document number. • Travelers/delegates can scan receipts to a directory (e.g. network drive, My Documents), then

drag-and-drop copies of those images into the Nolij folder. • Scanned images can be in JPF, TIF, or GIF format. • Travelers can also attach other documents such as PDF files, Excel spreadsheets, or Word

documents.




TEM Document Types

Three types of travel documents can go through approvals. Each travel document is given a unique document number, and the document type can be identified by the first two letters of that document number. For example, travel authorization document numbers all start with “TA”, e.g. TA000112.

The table below shows the type of documents that can be created in TEM. More importantly, it also shows what you are being asked to approve for each document type:

Document Type

Doc# Starts What are you approving for this document type?

Travel Authorization TA You are approving the act of travel and estimated expenses.

TAs are submitted prior to start of travel.

Travel Advance TV You are approving an advance of funds against a TA.

Advances are optionally requested with a TA.

Travel Reimbursement TR You are approving the reimbursement of actual expenses.

TRs can be submitted before or after travel has occurred.




Stages of TEM Approval

TEM uses pre-defined approvals. No ad-hoc (“spur-of-the-moment”, “FYI”) approvals are allowed. Travel documents will go through several stages of approval, depending on the document type.

Travel authorizations and advances go through three stages of approval ~

1) Travel Desk o Ensures no violations of travel policy o Approver: Travel Desk (Erica Dean)

2) Supervisory o Approves the act of travel o Approvers: Supervisor(s) for each traveler, as identified on the traveler’s

enrollment form

3) Budget authority o Approves estimated expenses o Approvers: BAs set up as approvers in TEM queues

Queues are largely based on Orgn code For expenses against a grant fund, RSP will also approve For expenses against chart 2, Foundation will also approve

Reimbursements go through two stages of approval ~

1) Travel Desk o Ensures no violations of travel policy o Approvers: Same as for TA’s

2) Budget authority o Approves actual expenses o Approvers: Same as for TA’s

Approvals flow automatically from one stage to the next: • TAs will automatically be routed first to the Travel Desk, then to the traveler’s supervisory

approvers, and finally to the appropriate budget authority approvers. When the last budget authority has approved, the TA will be marked “Approved” in TEM.

• TRs will automatically be routed first to the Travel Desk and then to the appropriate budget authority approvers. When the last budget authority has approved, the TR will be marked “Approved” in TEM.

Note: For any given document, no one needs to approve more than once. For example, if you are acting as both a supervisory and budget authority approver, you will approve only once.




Approover Emaail Notifiication

Approveer action: Open thee email, clicck on the WWorkflow link.

Email notification is se nt to each appprover in turrn, as they be ecome “next” on the approoval chain. Notificatioons are sent tto the approvver’s WWU emmail address. If an approv er has appoinnted a proxy, their proxy will receive a “Ccc” copy of thee email.

Here’s a ssample email.. In this case,, approval is bbeing requestted for both aa travel authoorization and an advance, for traveler LLeslie Pinkstonn. This email went to app rover Wannaa VanCuren, wwith a CC to h er

The emaiil subject line shows the foollowing inforrmation: • Trraveler namee • Trravel documeent number(s )

The emaill body shows the followingg informationn: • Trravel documeent number(s ) • Trraveler namee • Enntered By ((person who eentered the ddocument, i.e. . the traveler or their deleggate) • Purpose/Descrription of tripp • Comments (aadditional infoormation on tthis trip, e.g. ttravel justificcation) • Reimbursemennt Amount • Advance Amouunt and Commments (if an advance wass requested)

proxy Emmett Folk:

Click heree




Workfflow – Suummaryy informaation

Appprover acttion: Reviiew, then cclick on thee Travel && Expense PPage link.

Note: When workfloow initially opeens, you will bee asked to signn on with your universal loginn and passwordd.

Here’s a ssample of the workflow paage that openns from the emmail Workfloww link:

2. Click heree

1. RReview

Workfloww displays more informatioon than the emmail, providinng a high-leveel overview off what you arre being ask ed to approvee, including:

• Document nummber(s) • Trraveler namee • Trraveler affilia tion (Employyee, Non-empployee, Studeent) • Report Type (Foreign Travvel, In State TTravel, Out of State Travel))




• Entered By (person who entered the document, i.e. the traveler or their delegate) • Purpose/Description of trip • Comments (additional information on this trip, e.g. travel justification) • Expense subtotals:

o Expense Amount = non-per-diem expenses o Per Diem Amount = per-diem expenses o Reimbursable Amount = amount to be reimbursed to the traveler o Non-Reimbursable Amount = expenses paid by Western - included as part of the trip

total cost, but not reimbursable to the traveler o Total Amount = total trip cost, for both reimbursable and non-reimbursable expenses

• Advance Amount and Comment (if an advance was requested)

Workflow does not show the expense item breakdown or approval history – those details are available when you click on the Travel and Expense Page link.




TEM –– Document Detaails

Approverr action: RReview exppense breaakdown annd other ddetails.

Note: This sccreen will be prrobably be minnimized when iit first opens. TTo see more deetail, use the scroll bar at the right--hand side of t he screen, or eexpand the winndow to its maaximum

size byy clicking on thhe Maximize buutton (top righht-hand corner of the windoww).

Here’s a ssample of the TEM review screen that oopens from thhe workflow TTravel and Exxpense Page link:

Click o links addit

pa

n these to see tional ges

Several paages are availlable, throughh links at the left and bott om of the scrreen. These ppages show yyou informatioon not seen oon the email oor in workfloww:

• Preview Repo rt, page 1: Trraveler’s itineerary • Preview Repo rt, page 2: Reeimbursable expense itemm breakdown • Preview Repo rt, page 3: Fuunding summmary by FOAPAAL • Preview Repo rt, page 4: Non-reimbursaable expense item breakd own • Sttatus Historyy: Approval h istory for the document(s)) • Related Documments: For a TA, any relatted advance. For a reimbuursement, thee TA that precceded

it (if one was eentered).




Previeww Report, page 1

This is thee default pagee when the TEEM review sccreen first opeens. The screeen shot below shows the details vissible when th is page is maxximized. In a ddition to infformation preeviously seenn on the email or in workflow, here you ca n see the travveler’s itineraary:

• “FFrom” = the ccity they are ddeparting fromm, and the daate/time of thhat departuree • “TTo” = their deestination cityy, and the datte/time they return • If there is mor e than one “l eg” to their t rip, this sectioon will show multiple recoords





This page shows the tootal reimbursaable amount at the top, annd the expen nse item brea kdown beloww that. The reimbursabl e total is whaat will be paidd to the trave ler. Expense items are sorted by date:

show their fu

m will expand

Expense ittems can be eexpanded to unding by clic cking on the buttonn.

Click

When youu click that buutton, the item d to look like this:



u click on tha nd to look like

C

e this. To coll

Click to expa

l

and all items

ms back down

s


Or... to exxpand all expeense items att once, click oon the Expandd All link:

When you tt link, the itemms will expan apse the item n, click on thhe Collapse A ll link:

Cllick to collappse all itemss





This page shows the fuunding summ ary by FOAPAAL for the reimmbursable ammount:

NNote: “FOAPAAL” is an acron ym for “Fund, Organization, Account, Proggram, Activity, Location”.





This page shows the noon-reimbursaable expense item breakdoown. These ittems form paart of the totaal cost of th e trip, but wi ll not be reimmbursed to th e traveler. Thhese items w will have been paid for separatelyy, e.g. via pcaard or purcha se order.

You can eexpand items by clicking onn the blue arrrow, or all items by clickingg on the Expaand All link:




Status HHistory

To see the

C o

e history of a

lick on this t overall docu

pprovals for t

tab to see th ument status

this documen

he s

nt, click on the

Click on t previous

e Status Histo

this tab to se approver ac

ory link:

ee the ctions

There aree two tabs avaailable on thiss page:

• “AAuthorizationn and Advance Report” = s hows the oveerall status off the docume ent. If this is aa TA wwhich also inclludes an advaance, the screeen will be spplit to show booth documennts.

• “WWorkflow Approvals” = shows the sequuence of actioons taken by pprevious approvers.

NNote: The “Vie w or Submit R eport” button currently doess not work.




This is whhat informatioon on the “Woorkflow Apprrovals” tab loooks like. Evennts are listed with the mosst recent event at the topp, and earlier events in desscending ord er below it. YYou can see tthe date/timee each approver was notified (Status = “Peending approvval”), the datee/time they ttook action, wwhat action wwas taken (Staatus = “Approoved” or “Ret urned for Corrrection”), annd any commeents they ma de:

You can a djust the widdth of the coluumns by hoveering your moouse over thee intersectionn between collumn headers uuntil it turns t o the symbol. Then cclick and holdd down your l left mouse buutton, and draag to the left too make the coolumn narrowwer, or the rigght to make itt wider:




Relatedd Documennts

To see doocuments assoociated with tthe one you aare reviewingg, click on the e Related Doc uments link:

• If you are apprroving a TA wwith an advancce, both the TTA and TV do ocuments will be listed herre • If you are apprroving a TR (r eimbursemennt) and a TA ppreceded it, bboth the TA aand TR documments

wwill be listed h ere




To see moore details onn a travel advaance, double--click on the ““TV” documeent record:

Doublle-click on thhis record

And this aadditional infoormation will be displayedd:

This page is also usefu l when you arre being askeed to approvee a reimburse ment, and waant to compaare expense ittem and fundding details too the precedi ng TA. In tha at case, doubl le-click on thee TA docume nt number –– the screen wwill redraw to display all thhe details of t hat TA.




Nolij –– Attachmments

Approveer action: Open document foldder, revieww attachmments.

For each ttravel docum ent, a dedica ted folder is aautomaticallyy created in t he Nolij TEM application. The folder namme will alwayys be the docuument numbeer. For example, when traavel authorizaation TA0001112 is keyed, a NNolij folder naamed “TA0000112” is autommatically creaated.

Before th e traveler subbmits their document for approval, theey must copyy the requiredd supporting documents into that ddocument’s NNolij folder, soo that they’ree available foor approver reeview. If theese documents include scaanned receiptts, the scans mmust be legibble when viewwed in Nolij.

The definition of “requuired support ing documennts” varies, deepending on tthe type of doocument and departmeental practice :

• TAA: Departmeental requiremments for TA ssupporting doocuments difffer: some havve a checklistt that iss used prior too travel, and tthey may wis h to see that copied to Noolij.

• TR: All expensse reimbursemments requiree supporting documents inn the form off hotel bills, photocopied r eceipts, etc.

Open “TTravel Doccuments”

To open the Nolij appliication for TEEM:

1) Loog in to myWWestern. 2) Seelect the “Emmployee” tab. 3) Loook for the “TTechnology Tools” pane. 4) Inn that pane, cclick on the Noolijweb link.

When Nolij opens, cheeck the top rigght-corner of the screen foor the applicaation name. IIf this does noot default too “Travel Docuuments”, then click on thaat field, and a drop-down list will appeaar. Select “Traavel Documents” from the list:

1

2

1. Click he

2. Select th

ere

his




Here’s an example of aan attachmennt displayed inn Nolij. In thiis case, the atttachment is a PDF versionn of a hotel reseervation, atta ched to the f older for travvel authorizattion TA0001112:

1

2

1

1 2 3 4 5

Enter ddocument nuumber here Documment folder apppears here Documment attachmments are listeed here Selecteed attachmennt displays heere Logouut button

3

4

55



nter>.

attaop

elect it.

chment to sepen it.

elect it.

1


Search for attachhments

Noote: Searches are case-sensittive, so enter ““TA” or “TR” inn uppercase.

Type the Hit <E

Click on t

Single-clic Or... doub

Typ

document #

The folder f

he folder to s

Attachme

ck on an ble-click to

Selecti

pe the doc

into the sear

for that docum

s

nts in that fol

ing an attach

Click o

Single-c or...Doubl

cument #,

rch field.

ment will app

lder will appe

ment display

on the fold

click to sele le-click to o

hit <Enter>

ear in

ear in

ys it in

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3

der

ect open

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You can ddo wildcard seearches with tthe % charactter...or searc h using the twwo fields thatt appear to thhe right of Reeport ID: Repport Name annd Name. Some exampless:

• Report ID: Ennter TA%112 (instead of hhaving to typee the entire nnumber) • Report Name: Enter Phila delphia% too find all repo orts that start with that cityy • NName: Enter Leslie% to find all travele rs that have tthat first namme • NName: Enter %Pinkston to find all travvelers that ha ve that last nname




Attachment legibility

With the rollout of TEM, our policy on travel attachment retention will be “scan and toss”. In other words, we will advise departments they can throw away their paper receipts once the reimbursement is paid. With this new policy, the Nolij attachment becomes the original for travel receipts. Therefore, it is essential that approvers ensure all attachments are legible in Nolij.

Scanned receipts are the attachments with the highest risk for poor legibility. If scanned receipts are too faint, please contact the traveler (or their delegate). Ask them to re-scan their receipts with the scanner set to a darker toner setting, and then re-load that image into Nolij.

Approvers should not approve a travel document if its attachments are not legible.

Logging out

When you’re ready to exit Nolij Web, you can’t just close the window… you must log out, or it will give you an error message.

Click on the “Logout” button which appears in the top right-hand corner of the screen.




Workfflow – Appproval decisionn

Approver act E tion: Sele Enter com

ct “Approv ments, clic

ve”, “Deny ck on the C

y”, or “Ret Complete b

turn for Co button.

orrection”.

Once you have revieweed the documment details aand Nolij attacchment, you can return too the workfloww page and approve or ddisapprove the document. Your choicees are:

• AApprove (forr TA’s with ann advance, thee advance willl also be appproved) • DDeny • Return for Corrrection (forr TA’s with an advance, thee advance willl be canceledd)

2. Enter commentts

3. C

1. Cli

Click on Com

ick to select

mplete butto

an action

n

If you seleect Approve, comments arre optional. HHowever, if yoou select Denny or Return ffor Correctionn, you must enteer comments :

• If denying, expplain why the document is being deniedd • If returning forr correction, eexplain what needs to be ccorrected, soo that the travveler or deleggate

caan make the cchanges and resubmit it foor re-approvaal.



A

A


After you click on Commplete, the ap proval actionn you selectedd determines what happenns next. If yoou selected ““Approve”, thhe document will move on to the next sstep; if you seelected “Denyy”, processinng ends for tthat documennt; if you sele cted “Return for Correctioon”, the docu ment will go back to the traveler foor correction.

Here are t

Approv • If • If

Deny •

• D • Em

Return •

• Fo ha

• D • Em

the details on

ve this was not this was the o Docum o Email o Docum

Travele pproval routi ocument stat mail is sent to

for Correc pproval routi or TA with an ave to re-ente ocument stat mail is sent to

n what happe

the last appr last approval

ment status is is sent to the

ment posts (T

er cannot re ing ends. tus is changed o the traveler

ction ing ends.

n advance, the er that inform tus is changed o the traveler

ens after each

roval, email is l:

s changed to “ traveler sayi

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esubmit the

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Traveler ca

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“Approved” ng “Docume encumbrance

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Appenndix A: Alternatte budgeet authorrity approvers

TEM budgget authority approval queeues are pre-ddefined, and automate thee approval roouting for estimatedd and actual eexpenses. Eacch budget au thority queuee is set up witth one primaary approver aand one alternnate approveer. Normally, expenses willl be approve d by the primmary approver. But under some circumstaances, approvval will be routed to the altternate approover instead oof the primar ry approver.

When doees the alternaate approve? When both of these condditions are truue: 1) Exxpenses are hhitting the bu dget string deefined for thaat queue. 2) Thhe queue’s prrimary appro ver is also thee traveler.

Using alteernate approvvers ensures tthat no trave ler can act ass an approverr for their ownn TEM expen ses.

Here’s an

The queu • P •

As Primar As Alterna

Scenario # Tr Ex

Scenario # Tr Ex

rimary = Wan lternate = Nic

ry, Wanna app ate, Nicole ap

#1: raveler: xpenses: pprover:

#2: raveler: xpenses: pprover:

llustrate how

ation 5336-Fi nna VanCuren cproves when pproves when

Sharon Col Paid out of Wanna Van

Wanna Van Paid out of Nicole Goo

w this works:

inancial Syste n n other people

n Wanna is tr

man Orgn 5336

nCuren (prim

nCuren Orgn 5336

odman (alter

ems is set up w

e are traveling aveling and e

mary)

rnate, invoked

with these ap

g and expense expenses are

d because tra

pprovers:

es are paid ou paid out of 5

aveler = prima

ut of 5336. 336.

ary approver))

Q: Is the alternate a ““backup” app rover? Can thhey approve when the primmary approveer is away?

A: No, thhey are not a backup approover. If apprrovers need aa backup apprrover, they caan go into Workfloww and appointt a proxy. Th e proxy will bbe CC’d on all their approvval notificatio n emails, andd can act on theeir behalf to aapprove/disappprove TEM ttransactions. See Append ix B for informmation on hoow to appoint a proxy.

