1-1: Employee payments general policies and procedures

Effective: July 1, 1994
Revised: October 15, 2025
Approved by: Van Christensen
References: 10-6: Reimbursement requests, 21-1: P-card general policies and procedures

Purpose

This policy outlines how agencies pay for employee business expenses and incentive awards, what documentation must be included, and who must approve the payments.

This policy doesn’t apply to travel expenses. See 10-6: Reimbursement requests.

Definitions

Agency – Any agency, board, bureau, commission, office, department, or other administrative subunit of the executive branch of state government.

Concur – Software used by the state to manage travel, reimbursements, and p-card transactions.

Vantage Financial – The financial management system used by the state for accounting, budget control, and reporting.

Sufficient documentation – The documents that show the merchant, amount paid, method of payment, date incurred, and description of the item purchased or service received. A combination of supporting documents may be needed to verify each element of the expense. Sufficient documentation includes the following official evidence of transaction:

Itemized receipts
Invoices
Cash register tape receipts
Canceled checks or other documents reflecting proof of payment or electronic funds transferred
Account statements
Credit card statements

Policy

A – Agencies may pay for employees’ business expenses

1 – Employees may be reimbursed for business expenses directly related to performing their job. Employees may be provided an allowance for certain expense types as documented in the specific employee payment type policy. Agencies may also pay vendors directly for employee business expenses under policies 5: Payments and 21-1: P-card policy.

2 – All reimbursement requests must be submitted within 60 days of the initial purchase.

3 – Employees may be paid other compensation or benefits in accordance with the policies of the GovOps Division of Human Resource Management.

B – Agencies may reimburse or pay employees

1 – Vantage Financial: Agencies may enter employee reimbursements in Vantage Financial with a General Accounting Expense (GAX) transaction.

2 – Concur: Employees may request reimbursements in Concur by entering a reimbursement request. See travel policy 10-6: Reimbursement requests.

3 – Payroll system: Agencies may request reimbursements and payments through the payroll system. The GovOps Division of Finance payroll team, ERICpayroll team, or agency payroll coordinators enter reimbursements and other payments into the payroll system.

C – Taxability determines the method of payment

1 – To determine whether a payment is taxable, see the individual policy.

2 – Agencies must process taxable reimbursements and cash payments, like incentive awards and allowances, through the payroll system so that amounts are included in the employee’s taxable income.

3 – Agencies may pay nontaxable employee reimbursements or payments through Vantage Financial, Concur, or the payroll system.

4 – When agencies pay vendors directly for taxable employee expenses or give employees taxable non-cash awards, agencies must report them to the GovOps Division of Finance payroll team, ERICpayroll team, or agency payroll coordinators so that amounts are included in the employee’s taxable income. Amounts are reported to the GovOps Division of Finance payroll team by submitting a ticket to [email protected].

D – Required documentation must support payments

1 – All reimbursements or payments to employees must have the required documentation uploaded into Vantage Financial, Concur, the payroll system, or any other approved system.

2 – All reimbursement requests must have a receipt or other sufficient documentation for each transaction. The documentation must show the following information:

the items or services;
merchant;
dates the items were purchased or services incurred;
quantities;
cost of each item;
total cost; and
proof of payment.

2a – If employees are unable to obtain sufficient documentation, see section E.

3 – Employee expenses paid through Vantage Financial and/or the payroll system must have a completed form FI 48: Employee reimbursement/earning request.

4 – Some expense types may have additional required documentation. See individual policies.

E – Insufficient documentation requires a missing receipt affidavit

1 – The use of a missing receipt affidavit is not a substitute for responsible record-keeping. Employees are expected to obtain and submit itemized receipts for all business expenses. The affidavit process should be used infrequently and only after all reasonable efforts to obtain a copy of the receipt have failed.

2 – Employees must make a good-faith effort to contact the merchant and request a copy of the itemized receipt before initiating an affidavit. The level of effort put into obtaining the copy of the receipt should be based on the dollar amount and frequency of lost receipts by the employee.

3 – Employees must not use the missing receipt affidavit for lodging, airfare, and rental car costs or booking fees. Employees must contact the merchant to get a copy of the itemized receipt for these expenses.

4 – Employees who are unable to obtain a copy of a receipt from a merchant must use the missing receipt affidavit option in Concur or submit form FI 49: Missing receipt affidavit to be reimbursed.

4a – The missing receipt affidavit or Concur expense information must show the merchant, date, items purchased, amount, and description of the employee’s efforts to obtain a copy of the receipt.

5 – Employees must attach credit card or bank statements showing the vendor name, date, and amount for all affidavits.

5a – In Concur, attach the missing receipt affidavit to the expense and add the other documentation using the option manage receipts then manage attachments. Concur will consider any attachment added to the expense as receipts and will prevent the use of the missing receipt affidavit. Employees must upload the attachments as described.

6 – Employees must certify that they lost the receipt and the costs are valid business expenses, including an acknowledgement that they might be responsible to repay any reimbursement not deemed valid business expenses.

7 – Approvers may deny the reimbursement of any expense using the missing receipt affidavit, especially when its use is considered unreasonable or abusive. Approvers should consider how often the employee uses the missing receipt affidavit and the employee’s familiarity and compliance history with policy before approving.

8 – Agencies are required to monitor the use of missing receipt affidavits and take appropriate corrective action when their use becomes frequent.

F – Reimbursements and payments must be approved

1 – All employee reimbursements and payments must be approved by:

budget officer;
the employee’s supervisor; and
the division director (or agency equivalent).

2 – Certain employee expense types may have additional required approvals. See individual policies.

G – Approvers must review reimbursements and payments

1 – Approvers must make sure employee payments are accurate and comply with employee payment policies. Approvers must:

confirm that all necessary documents are attached to the reimbursement request or payment (see section D and section E if the missing receipt affidavit was used);
review documentation to make sure expenses have a valid business purpose, and represent actual goods or services received, as applicable;
confirm that expenses are correctly coded;
ensure that employees aren’t reimbursed for expenses already paid through another system or by a p-card; and
ensure taxable payments are paid through the payroll system or reported to the payroll team.

H – Agencies must collect overpayments

1 – Agencies are responsible for collecting and depositing employee overpayments within 60 days of identifying the overpayment.