Approve a request or p-card reconciliation
Travel and p-card
How to approve a request or reconciliation in Concur
For a reimbursement request, if you find expenses that don’t comply with travel policy, notify your executive director in writing. They’ll decide how the traveler can be reimbursed for those expenses.
Open the request
If you're approving a reimbursement request or p-card reconciliation, select the Expense Report tab.
Then select the request or reconciliation you want to approve.
If you're approving a travel request, select the Requests tab.
Then select the request you want to approve.
You’re at the approvals summary screen: it shows an overview of the request or reconciliation. This example shows a reimbursement request.
The Exceptions section lists all the warnings and error messages.
Alerts are shown with an orange triangle icon. Alerts give information about policy to help you know what to look out for in the request. For example, you might see the alert, "Please include airfare comparison documentation." This means the traveler added personal days to their trip and needed to attach an airfare cost comparison document to their request. You need to make sure that document is attached.
Errors are shown with a red circle icon. In requests and reconciliations that are going through the approval process, errors give information about approvers. For example, you might see the error, "One or more cost objects could not be approved by the right authority..." This means that the budget officer didn't approve the reimbursement request in time and it was bumped to the next approver in the process.
The Expenses section lists all of the expenses.
You can select an expense to see more details.
Above the Exceptions section are the menu options: Summary, Details, Receipts, and Print/Email. Now let's review the request!
Review the report header
From the menu, select Details > Report Header.
If you're approving a travel request, it will be labeled Request Header.
A window with the report header details will appear.
Review all the fields to make sure everything is filled in correctly. Be sure to check if the traveler added personal days to their trip.
If you’re a budget officer, make sure the appropriation unit, unit, and accounting template are correct.
When you’re done reviewing the report header, click the blue button Save in the bottom-right corner of the window.
In the Expenses section, expenses that have comments are marked with a blue message icon.
Hover over the blue message icon to read the comment.
To leave your own comment, select an expense to view the expense details. Enter your comment in the Comment field, then click Save.
Review the travel allowance
If you're reviewing a p-card reconciliation, you can skip this step. Go to check each expense.
Travelers can’t be reimbursed for personal days or complimentary meals and should exclude those days or meals from their reimbursement request. You need to review the Adjustments window to make sure the traveler excluded days and meals correctly.
From the menu, select Details > Expenses & Adjustments.
A window labeled Itinerary will appear.
The Itinerary window shows the traveler's start and end locations and start and end dates.
Click Next.
Now you're at the Adjustments window, which shows any meals or lodging the traveler excluded from their request. This window also has a column labeled Use 300 Percent Rule, which should be checked if the traveler needed to book a hotel that cost more than the city's per diem rate.
When you're done reviewing the Adjustments window, click OK.
You also need to review the traveler's lodging summary to make sure they won't be reimbursed more than they should.
From the menu, select Details > Reimbursable Allowances Summary.
You're at the Reimbursable Allowances Summary window.
The Expense Total column shows how much the traveler is requesting to be reimbursed.
The Statutory Limit column shows the city's per diem rate. In this example, the rate is $107.
The Allowance Limit column shows how much the traveler is allowed to be reimbursed. In this example, the traveler used the 300 percent rule on the third day so line 3 shows $321.00—3 times the city's per diem rate.
The Above Limit column shows how much the traveler is over their allowed amount. Each line in this column should be $0. In this example, line 2 says $18. This means the traveler didn't itemize the lodging expense correctly. You should open the lodging expense to check all the details.
The Reimbursable Amount column shows how much the traveler will be reimbursed.
Check each expense
You need to make sure a receipt is attached to each expense and that the information entered in Concur matches the receipt.
If an expense requires additional documentation, you also need to make sure those documents are attached. For example, if the traveler included personal days on their trip, they need to attach a cost comparison to their airfare expense.
Start by opening the receipt images in a new window.
From the menu, select Receipts > View Receipts in new window.
Now, open the PDF report to compare each expense to the receipt quickly and easily. Watch this video to learn how. You'll also learn how to review the itemizations and allocations on the expenses.
If there’s a personal mileage expense, make sure the traveler calculated their miles using the mileage calculator. From the Expenses section, select Personal Car Mileage to open the expense details. Then select Mileage Calculator. A window with a map will appear. If the map is empty, the traveler didn’t use the mileage calculator.
Send it back or approve it
If you found any errors in the request, select the Send Back to Employee button.
A window labeled Send Back Report will appear. In the Comments field, write what the traveler needs to change. Then click OK.
If there are no errors and the expenses requested for reimbursement followed travel policy, select the Approve button.
A window labeled Final Confirmation will appear. Read the message and select Accept.
Some approvers have the option Approve & Forward, which lets you to approve the request and then forward it to an extra approver.
This new approver will have 10 days to approve the request before it’s sent to the next approver in the process
A window labeled Approve & Forward Report will appear. In the User-Added Approver field, enter the name of the new approver.
In the Comment field, add any notes the approver will need.
Then click the Accept & Forward button.
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Read all comments