The Concur application is for processing of all reimbursements related to Columbia Business including all requests for guest speakers. Reimbursements can be processed for all faculty, employees, and students and outside non profiled employees.
Note, payee(s) who is (are) faculty and employee(s) is (are) to submit their own expense in Concur. They have the option of selecting a delegate to process the data entry on their behalf but have the responsibility of submitting in Concur. Students and Outside parties cannot submit in concur but rely on ISERP Business Office to process and upload all related expense backup in Concur.
Delegates for ISERP Business Office are as follows;
- Karen Del Aguila for all unrestricted related chart strings, ie projects prefix EN, GT,& UR
- Karen Del Aguila for all restricted/Grant related chart strings ie projects prefix GG & PG
Financial Reviewers for ISERP Business Office are as follows;
- Dralca Mercado for all unrestricted related chart strings
- Stacy Royster for all restricted/Grant related chart strings
All Travel related management is also viable through this system with the assistance of World Travel. All such charges/expenses with World Travel are automatically charged to Central Pay or Corporate Card on file. These expenses are to be reconciled weekly or by the hard close dates on a monthly basis.
Note the Central Pay is solely for expenses related to Air and Rail.
Note, the above Delegates also serve as Travel Arrangers for the ISERP Business Office. They will assist in all travel related management and Book flight reservations on behalf of employees and faculty.
The essence of this Concur application is to foster the University community to adhere to compliance to both Federal and University laws. All reimbursements must have written, specific and detailed explanation of its business purposes.
Features of a reimbursement must have the following benchmarks;
- What- Nature of expense
- Who- Status of the payee/attendees and affiliation to the University
- Where- Location
- When – Transaction Dates
- Business Purpose- Explain in detail how is related to CU business
Receipts
Note all receipts related to the expense must be provided, especially expenses of $50 or more.
The following must be provided by payee in case of Missing receipts and uploaded in Concur;
- Detailed justification for missing receipts
- Financial Approver Acknowledgement
- Missing Receipts Affidavits
Reimbursement submission deadlines
Expenses must be within 120 days from the trip end date or the date a business expense was incurred.
Failure to submit within the 120 days will require the Payee to;
- Provide detailed justification
- Financial Approver Acknowledgement
Important Note with regards to late Submission
- Late submissions of over 120 days will incur taxes as the income is considered taxable.
- Expense of over 365 days from date of expenses are not allowed in Concur and therefore cannot be reimbursed.
- Too busy to submit on time is not an acceptable justification
- Non Administrative support to prepare the expense report is not acceptable justification
- Lack of policy knowledge is not an acceptable justification
Note, Reimbursement of Employee for Expenses related to Gifts, Prizes and Awards will be via concur.
Circumstances to Use Check Request and Process via ARC
1. Honoraria and other taxable events
2. Gifts, Prizes and Awards to recipients
Gifts of $100 are given to employees for;
a) Recognition for exemplary work in the University.
b) Life changing events such as birth, death in a family, hospital stay or adoption
Note, Gifts of $400 are presented to only employees who are retiring from the University and their tenure is more than 5years.
3. Cash equivalents in any amounts such as Gift Cards are taxable to the recipient(s
4. Human Subject Related Expenses/Reimbursements cannot be classified as Business expenses.
A). Recipients must be set up as an outside supplier to ensure processing of payment
B). All expenses over $600, 00 must be accompanied by IRB approval and justification protocol
C). Documentation outlining the breakdown of payments to research participants must be provided
D). Note, a one-time payment of $600.00 or more to a Human Research Participant is taxable to the recipient but not to the PI/Student who incurred/paid out this expense.
CU Concur Tip
/sites/default/files/Create an Expense Report on behalf of a someone else_.pdf
/sites/default/files/Choose an Initial Reviewer when submitting an Expense Report_.pdf
/sites/default/files/View the approval status of an Expense Report I approved_.pdf
/sites/default/files/View the approval status of my Expense Report_.p
Concur Resources
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Creating_Expense_Reports.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Natural_Accounts.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Profile_Delegates.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Policy_Exception_Approval_Workflow%20%281%29.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Missing_Receipt_Declaration%20%281%29.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Itemizing_Lodging.pdf
/sites/default/files/Job_Aid_Concur_Uber_Lyft.pdf
/sites/default/files/Training_Guide_Concur_Profile_Non-Travel.pdf
/sites/default/files/Training_Guide_Concur_Profile_Travel.pdf
/sites/default/files/Travel%20Expense%20Policy.pdf
/sites/default/files/Business%20Expense%20Policy.pdf
Note Q & A from Workshop prepared by Audrey for additional Information
Q: Can a faculty member assign more than 1 preparer delegate?
- A: A faculty member can assign more than one Preparer Delegate in his/her profile. Only one delegate would prepare any given transaction. Even with delegates assigned, a faculty member can choose to prepare their own expense report if they so choose.
Q: For guest speakers, can we still use check requests to reimburse their travel/business expenses?
- A: These expenses would be reimbursed in Concur. The guest should be set up as a vendor in the vendor management system, submitting all required documentation. Once they are in the system as a vendor, you would go into Concur and prepare an expense report, using the following steps:
- Select Expense
- Select Create New Report
- For type of report, select CU Non-Profiled Payee
- For vendor type, select either Student Employee, Student Non-Employee or Outside Party
- For vendor name/ID, select the individual’s name from the dropdown.
Q: What would be the best way to reimburse business expenses incurred by students?
- A: You would follow the steps, outlined above.
Q: Can a delegate choose another delegate?
- A: No, a delegate cannot delegate their delegation.
Q: It’s not clear what the process is for an expense report generated through Concur after it has been submitted - does it move into ARC? If so, does it auto-generate a voucher with a voucher number or populate a voucher's invoice information?
- A: It posts into ARC nightly and a voucher will be generated, using one of the following voucher types:
Voucher Type E = Employee Reimbursement
Voucher Type X = Corporate Card Transaction
Voucher Type Y = BTA Transaction
Q: Do the documents uploaded via Concur integrate with ARC and EDM? It would be really helpful to better understand whether and how the two apps interface.
- A: The uploaded documents remain in Concur; they will not be available in ARC.
Q: Why are there 2 approval roles? Does the Initial Reviewer role replace the initiator role in ARC?
- A: Concur is designed to have a minimum of two approvers for each transaction. The Preparer Delegate role is analogous to the Initiator role in ARC. The Initial Reviewer or Supervisor role is an approver role, and is responsible for reviewing expense reports and requests for appropriateness and compliance with both central University and school or administrative unit policy. The Financial Approver is responsible for approving after reviewing for accurate and appropriate chartstrings, budget impact, and compliance with policies.
A&S CONCUR ADVICE #1 FROM AUDREY-November 19TH 2020
Make Sure That You Are Generating a Payment for the Correct Person:
Preparer Delegate
If you are a Preparer Delegate for a faculty member, when you enter an Expense Report, please make sure that you are acting as a delegate before you begin entering expenses.
Log into Concur
Click on the icon at top right that says “Profile.”
On the bottom half of the box that will pop up, be sure to put in the name of the faculty member who is to receive the reimbursem
“Acting as Other User?”
Enter the name or search from the list if you are a delegate for more than one person.
Click “Start Session.”
Verify that the window at top right now says “Acting As ………”
Verify that the name under the Columbia University logo is the name of the person for whom you are acting as a delegate. This person will be the payee to whom the payment will be issued; if you select the wrong person to “act as,” or if you do this under your own profile instead of “acting as,” the payment may be issued to the wrong person.
When you finish acting as the delegate, make sure to end that session, especially if you are going to enter another Expense Report for a different payee. Go to the upper right, where it says “Acting As,” and either sign out of Concur, or click on the bottom of the box where it says “Done Acting for Others.”
Initial Reviewer or a Financial Approver
If you are an Initial Reviewer or a Financial Approver, please be sure to check the information on the Expense Report Header, under the heading “Details” to make sure that the vendor name is correct. The vendor name in the Expense Report Header should match the name on the receipts that have been uploaded. The report name, assigned when the Expense Report is put into the system, is not a verification of who will be receiving payment.
Initial Reviewer Workflow – How To Make Sure that the Expense Report Routes to the Correct Initial Reviewer:
For instructions on how to select an Initial Reviewer when submitting an Expense Report, please refer to the CU Concur Tip email sent by Finance Training on November 10th. Administrative employees with a supervisor will have their expense reports automatically routed to his or her supervisor. However, if there is no supervisor, which will be the case for faculty, an Initial Reviewer may have to select the Initial Reviewer to whom the Expense Report will route. This selection occurs after the payee submits the Expense Report and clicks “Accept and Continue” and “Submit Report.” A window will pop up for the choice. By entering an asterisk, “*”, all the available Initial Reviewers in the administrative department on the Expense Report will appear. Remember that the workflow for Initial Reviewer is driven by the administrative department, which may not necessarily be the department on the chartstring that is being charged. (The chartstring department will determine the workflow for financial approval.)
Expense Report that is being funded by an entity that is not her or his administrative department
If a faculty member has an Expense Report that is being funded by an entity that is not her or his administrative department, perhaps at an Institute or Center, the Expense Report will need to go to an Initial Reviewer in that Institute or Center. In order to accomplish that, the administrative department on the Expense Report, which defaults to what is in the faculty member’s profile, should be changed to the administrative department for that Institute or Center. There are several ways to accomplish this:
If the faculty member is preparing her/his own Expense Report, s/he can change the administrative department on the report, and then select the appropriate Initial Reviewer when prompted.
The faculty member can have a preparer delegate in the Institute or Center, and that preparer delegate can take care of making sure that the administrative department is changed on the report. When the report is submitted by the faculty member as payee, the appropriate Initial Reviewer can be selected.
Faculty can have more than one Preparer Delegate. We would advise that faculty, whenever possible, have a Preparer Delegate in each of the units in which s/he has funding.
Submitting Expenses for a Non-Profiled Payee
When submitting an Expense Report for a non-profiled payee such as a student or a guest, please make sure that the submitter is someone other than the Financial Approver for the department. The submitter can be either an administrative assistant or financial assistant, or another employee to whom you can assign this task. The Financial Approver cannot submit and approve the same expense report. In cases where the Financial Approver is also the submitter, the Expense Report is going to route directly to Audrey Rosenblatt for approval. Once the volume of travel and business at the University returns to normal, it will not be sustainable for all of those approvals to be done in the EVP Office.
If this is a problem for the business processes in your department, please contact Audrey Rosenblatt or Ellen Binder to discuss.
Relocation Reimbursements
A&S faculty who are being reimbursed for their relocation expenses as part of the hiring agreement should contact Kazue Tomiyama or Audrey Rosenblatt in the EVP Office for guidance on how to proceed with the Expense Report.
If you are processing relocation expenses that are being paid for within your own department, please make sure that you are using “Relocation” as the business purpose on the report. Right now, expenses will map to their respective natural accounts and not to 66040, which was a natural account created expressly for tracking relocation expenses for purposes of taxability. Central is in the process of creating a new expense type, “Movement of Household Goods for Relocation” for the express purpose of capturing these expenses that would have previously gone to 66040. Until that expense type is available in Concur, please make sure that “Relocation” is used for the business purpose.
For tracking purposes, unless the faculty member is using his or her research allocation, startup funding, or some other allocation that has a prescribed chartstring, initiative 41558 (A&S Relocation) should be used in your chartstring, which will allow you to track this type of expenses.
Senior Business Officer Approvals for Exceptions
In cases where there is a policy violation that requires Senior Business Officer (SBO) approval, you will have to insert the SBO into workflow. In order to do that, when you are approving, you should click “Approve and Forward.” Unless you are notified otherwise, the A&S SBO to be named is Ellen Binder. The Supervisor/Initial Reviewer or Financial Approver can insert Ellen. For a list of policy exceptions, and information as to whether they require Financial Approver acknowledgement or SBO approval, please refer to this job aid:
In addition, you can refer to the Travel Expense policy as well as the Business Expense policy, both of which are available on the Columbia Travel and Expense policy page:
https://travel-expense.finance.columbia.edu/content/policies
Miscellaneous Expenses Category
Please do not use Miscellaneous Expenses as the expense category on the Expense Report unless there is nothing else available to be used that fits the expense type. For example, if the expense reimbursement is for the purchase of supplies, then supplies should be chosen as the expense type. Items charged as miscellaneous expenses in Concur will end up on account 66005, and we do not want them there. If we see these types of expenses showing up on account 66005, we will be asking you to do journal vouchers to move them. In order to save yourself time doing corrections, please make sure that you select the appropriate expense category.