Auditing Expense Reports

This chapter provides an overview of the audit process and discusses how to audit and expense report.

Understanding the Expense Report Audit Process

You use the Auditor's Workbench program to review and approve expense reports that are in these statuses:

After expense reports have been submitted and, if necessary, approved, they might need to be audited. You specify the types of expenses that require auditing by setting the processing options for Auditor's Workbench (P09E115).

• 310: Verify Receipts Required

  The system displays expense reports in this status in blue.

• 320: Audit Required

  The system displays expense reports in this status in red.

  Note. The status Approval Required refers to manager approval, not auditor approval. Managers cannot approve expense reports from the Auditor's Workbench.

  See Approving Expense Reports.

When you audit an expense report, the system displays a checklist that you can use to track the expenses that you have reviewed. If the processing options are set appropriately, expenses that require a receipt or are marked as an exception must be approved (checked) before you can accept the report.

After you complete the checklist, the system displays the expense report details, which you can use to verify or revise expenses before you accept or reject the report.

Verifying Receipts Received

Depending on the policy and the routing rules established, as the auditor, you might be required to verify receipts. Typically, the employee writes the expense report number on the envelope that contains the associated receipts. You can use this number to locate the expense report. Processing options specify whether you can approve the report without approving expense items that require a receipt.

An Approve option is available from a Row menu on the Auditor's Workbench when either of these conditions is true:

• You set the processing option for Required Receipts to blank (Do not require verification).

• The status of the expense report is 320 (Verify Receipts Received).

If the processing option is set to blank, but the report is not at status 320, you must select the report. The system does not require you to approve (check) the expense items that require receipts.

If the processing option for Required Receipts is set to 1 (Require auditor verification), you must use the Auditor's Checklist and approve (check) each expense item that requires a receipt. By approving the expense item, you indicate to the system that you have examined the receipt and that the receipt amount matches the amount expensed. You can also verify that the total amount of receipts received is the same as the amount in the Total Expenses field (less nonreimbursable expenses and expenses that do not require receipts).

Auditing Expense Reports

You audit expense reports by reviewing expense items and approving them, if required, and then accepting or rejecting the expense report. Expense items that the system marked as exceptions must be approved (checked) unless you set the processing option for Policy Exceptions to blank (Do not require approval). If you do not require expense items that are exceptions to the policy to be approved, you can bypass the auditor's checklist by clicking OK. The system provides the checklist for you to use according to your auditing practices.

Note. Regardless of processing option settings, expense reports identified as having duplicate expenses must be approved by the auditor.

After you complete the checklist, the system displays the expense report details. If necessary and if you have the authority, you can revise expense amounts or other information about the expense item before you accept or reject the report.

If you accept an expense report, the system changes its status to Reimbursement Process and the report is ready for reimbursement. If you reject an expense report, you must specify a reason. The system provides you with predefined reasons that you can use, or you can specify your own reason. The employee whose expense report was rejected receives a notification message, and the expense report must be modified and resubmitted. The system assigns rejected expense reports the status Employee Review from Auditor. When the employee resubmits the expense report, the system routes it to the same auditor to review and approve it.

Resetting the Expense Report Status

During the reimbursement process, which begins when you submit an expense report, the system assigns and updates the expense report status. The value it assigns depends on the expense report routing rules that you have set up for the type of expense report that you submit. Managers use the status to monitor the reimbursement progress, as well as to manage approval and audit processes.

Employees with access to the Auditor's Workbench program (P09E115) can change the status of an expense report by choosing it, and then selecting Reset Report from the Row menu. You can reset an expense report only under these conditions:

• An error occurs during the reimbursement process; the expense report status is Error During Reimbursement (910).

  If an error occurs when you run the Expense Report Reimbursement program (R20110), the system assigns the status Error During Reimbursement to the expense report and sends a message to the work center identifying the reason for the error.

  To complete the reimbursement process, you must resolve the problem and reset the status on the expense report so that it can be reprocessed. When you reset an expense report that is assigned the status Error During Reimbursement, the system changes the expense report status to Reimbursement Process (900).

  Note. The system sends a workflow message about the expense report error only to the person who runs the Expense Report Reimbursement program (R20110). You locate the message in the Submitted Jobs queue.

• A manager or auditor wants to audit an expense report; the expense report status is Reimbursement Process (900).

  If the expense report status is Reimbursement Process and you reset the expense report status, the system changes the status to Audit Required (310).

If you try to reset an expense report that is at a status other than Error During Reimbursement or Reimbursement Process (910 and 900), nothing happens and no error message is returned.

Auditing an Expense Report

This section discusses how to:

• Set processing options for the Auditor's Workbench.

• Audit an expense report.

Forms Used to Audit Expense Reports

Setting Processing Options for Auditor's Workbench (P09E115)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs and reports.

Edits

These processing options specify whether expenses that are exceptions to policy must be approved and whether expense report receipts must be verified before the expense report can be approved.

Defaults

These processing options specify the default values to use to display expense reports.

CC Expenses

This processing option specifies the number of days prior to the expense report ending date for the system to use to calculate the default beginning expense date for reviewing credit card expenses.

Versions

These processing options specify the versions of the Credit Card Expenses program (P09E150) and the Expense Entry program (P09E2011) to use when these programs are accessed from the Auditor's Workbench.

Auditing Expense Reports

Access the Work With Auditor's Workbench form.

To audit an expense report:

1. On Work With Auditor's Workbench, locate an expense report that requires an audit.

2. Perform one of these actions:

   • To approve the report without approving individual expenses, select the report and select Approve Report from the Row menu.

     You can approve the report without approving individual expenses only when the expense report status is Verify Receipts Received and the processing option for Required Receipts is blank.

     The system completes the Audit Complete Date field and changes the status of the expense report to Reimbursement Process (900).

   • To review individual expenses, select the report and click Select and continue to the next step.

     The form that the system displays depends on the setting of the Policy Exceptions processing option.

   • To review credit card transactions that were applied to the expense report, select the report and select CC Expenses from the Row menu, and then enter the desired search criteria to review the transactions.

3. Perform one of these actions:

   • If the processing option is set to require an audit, the system displays the Auditor's Checklist form. Proceed to step 6.

   • If the processing option is set to not require an audit, the system displays the Edit Expense Report Information form. Continue to the next step.

4. On Edit Expense Report Information, review the expenses on the expense report.

   The system provides these visual queues to assist you with the audit:

   • If the expense amount exceeds the audit amount in the policy, a red X appears to the left of the expense category. You can review the policy limit for the expense from the Auditor's Checklist.

   • If a preferred supplier was not used, as required by the policy, a green check mark appears to the left of the expense.

5. Perform one of these actions:

   • Click Accept to approve the report.

     The system completes the Audit Complete Date field and changes the status of the expense report to Reimbursement Process (900).

   • Click Reject and continue to step 12.

     When you reject an expense report, you must provide a reason. The system displays the Expense Report Messages form for you to complete.

   • Click Auditor's Checklist on the bottom of the form to approve individual expenses and to review policy limits. Continue to the next step.

6. On Auditor's Checklist, select one of the options to display the expense items that you want.

7. To approve an expense, select the expense, verify the information on the receipt, and then select Approve Expense from the Row menu.

   The system marks the expense with a check mark to indicate that you approved it. If you approve the wrong expense, select Approve again to remove the check mark.

   Although you can use the checklist to assist you in approving expenses, the system requires approval only for expenses that require a receipt, expenses that are policy exceptions, or expenses that are duplicate, depending on how the processing options are set.

   To assist you in the audit process, the system displays the policy limit for the expense category. The system displays a policy limit amount only when the expense exceeds the audit amount established for the policy. The policy limit does not apply to expenses that exceed the daily allowance.

   If the expense amount exceeds the per diem amount (that is established by the daily allowance in the policy), the system completes the Per Diem Exceeded field with the amount that exceeded the rule, as well as displays the corresponding per diem expense category.

8. Continue approving expense items, as necessary, and then click OK.

9. On Edit Expense Report Information, examine the expense report details as necessary.

   Note. Information about expense exceptions might be available. If the envelope button appears in the upper right corner of the Edit Expense Report Information form, click it to read existing comments or make additional notes about the expense report.

10. If you have the authority and you need to revise expense report details, select the expense and change the desired information.

    A processing option for the Expense Entry program (P09E2011) specifies whether the auditor has authority to modify the expense report.

11. After you review the expense report details, click one of these buttons:

    • Accept

      The system completes the Audit Complete Date field and changes the status of the expense report to Reimbursement Process (900).

    • Reject

      When you reject an expense report, you must provide a reason. The system displays the Expense Report Messages form for you to complete. Proceed to the next step.

    • Close

      The system saves changes to the report, but does not change the status of the report.

12. On Expense Report Messages, click the options that specify the reasons that you rejected the expense report and whether you want to receive or send a copy of it to the manager.

13. Click the Send Message button.

    If you selected Free Form Text Message, the system displays a window that you use to enter the rejection reason. Click OK when you complete your message.

14. Click Yes in the Confirmation window to reject the expense report.

    The system changes the status of the expense report to Employee Review from Auditor and sends the employee a notification message that the report must be revised and resubmitted for approval.

Resetting the Status of an Expense Report

Access the Work With Auditor's Workbench form.

Manager ID	Enter the address book number of the employee's manager.
Auditor ID	Enter the address book number of the auditor. The system does not assign the auditor address book number to an expense report until you approve, reject, or save it using the Audit Expense Report form. Therefore, you can use this search criterion only for reports that were previously audited.
Expense Report Number	Enter a number that uniquely identifies an expense report.
Expense Report Date	Enter the last day that expenses can be included on the expense report. Allowable dates are defined in the processing options of the Expense Entry program (P09E2011).
Report Status From and To	Enter a user-defined code (09E/RS) that indicates the progress of the expense report during the reimbursement process. Examples include: Pending Completion Approval Required Audit Required