Approving Travel Requests & Expense Reports

Reviewing & Approving a Travel Request

The approver will see requests awaiting approval under Authorization Requests on the Concur home page. Trip elements cannot be booked until approval occurs.

1. Select the Request you wish to approve by clicking the Request Name.
2. Review the Request Header and the Expense Summary. 
   1. Review destination and see if banned state or alerts for high hazard destinations are noted.
   2. Take note of any personal days and consider that estimated costs are prorated accordingly (i.e. daily meal allowances, incidentals, etc.).
   3. Review attachments to obtain further information about purpose of trip.
   4. Review all expenses for reasonableness and completeness.
3. There are three approval options:
   1. Approve – approve the Request.
   2. Approve & Forward – Approve and Forward the Request for additional approval. In the User-Added Approver box, type in the last name of the approver and select from the dropdown box. You can only select users who are already designated as approvers in the system.
   3. Send Back Request – Return the Request to the traveler. Use the Comment field in the Send Back Report window to explain the reason the report is being returned, then click OK.

Once Travel Requests have been acted on by the approver, notification regarding the status will be sent to the traveler (and delegate if opted into notifications) and the status will be noted on the traveler’s Manage Requests page.

Reviewing an Expense Report

1. On the home page, in the Required Approvals section of My Tasks, click on Required Approvals title of the blue arrow to the right. 

OR

   On the home page, in the Quick Task Bar, click the Required Approvals tile.

   The Reports Pending your Approval page lists the awaiting reports. Select the report you want to open.

 
2. Review the report. Things to consider:

a. Review dates and locations of expenses compared to the original request.

b. Take note of any personal days on the request and whether expenses were claimed on those dates.

c. Compare the total amount being claimed for reimbursement with what was requested.

   

    To verify it is attached, click Receipts, then View Receipts in new window. This will combine ALL attachments (agenda, receipts, etc.) into one file for your review.
   

e. Review all expenses for reasonableness and completeness.

Approving an Expense Report

If you are satisfied with the Expense Report, click Approve in the top right corner of the screen.

Sending Back an Expense Report

During your review, you may choose to return the entire expense report to the employee for correction.

To return a report:

1. Click Send Back to User. The Send Back Report window appears.
2. Enter a Comment for the employee explaining why you are returning the report.
3. Click OK.

Adding an Additional Reviewer/Approver Step

You will have the ability to send the report to another approver. To approve and forward a report:

1. Click the Approve & Forward button in the top right of the screen.
2. Enter the User-Added Approver, and add a comment, as needed.
3. Click Approve & Forward to approve the Expense Report and send to the next approver.

Delegating Approver Duties

In the case of an absence an approver can delegate the approval step to another person for a temporary window of time. 

To add a delegate:

1. Click Profile > Profile Settings, on the left hand side of the page under the Request Settings header click Request Delegates.

2. On the Request Delegates page, click Add. The search area appears.

3. Type at least the first three letters of the employee's last name to search for the person you wish to add as a Delegate, and click Add.

4. Check the boxes that correspond with the permissions you are granting to the delegate. In the example below, if you wanted to delegate the approval function only you would check “can approve temporary” add the dates of temporary approval authority and check the “receives approval emails” so that they are also notified as submissions occur.

(*)  The option to delegate approver rights will only be available for Approvers in the system. The approver’s rights can also only be delegated to another user who also has approval rights in the system. This function can be used for times when an approver is unavailable and approval tasks will be covered by another person in their absence (i.e. Dean unavailable and approvals would be routed to Provost).

1. Click Save.
2. To delete a delegate click the checkbox to select the person, click Delete, and confirm deletion.