This appendix covers the following topics:
Oracle Internet Expenses Audit provides the following pages for auditing expense reports:
Audit Expense Reports
Manage Expense Reports
Receive Receipts Package
The Audit Expense Reports page displays the detailed information of a single expense report for you to conduct an audit. Click on the Manage Expense Reports subtab or the Advanced Search link in the Audit Expense Reports page to display the Manage Expense Reports page. The Manage Expense Reports page displays a table of expense report headers that matches either the view you have selected or the advance search query criteria you have entered. You can click on an expense report number in the Manage Expense Reports page to drill down to the expense report in the Audit Expense Reports page.
Receipt based audit refers to auditing expense reports with a printed confirmation page and paper receipts. If your expense report audit process is receipt-based, then most of the time you will use the Audit Expense Report page. You can enter an expense report number in the quick search field, then click Go to display and audit the report.
Note: Internet Expenses can generate and print a bar code on the expense report confirmation page, which Payables personnel can later scan to "check in" a receipts package. If this functionality is enabled, then auditors can scan the bar code on both the Audit Expense Report and Manage Expense Reports pages.
Paperless audit refers to auditing expense reports from the audit queue without the receipt package. If you are making use of paperless audit and auditing expense reports from the audit queue, then you first use the Manage Expense Reports page to identify expense reports for audit, then click on a report number link to audit the report. To streamline this process, you can define a personalized view that contains your audit queue.
Note: You cannot use the Expense Reports window in Oracle Payables to query, for audit purposes, expense reports created in Internet Expenses.
You can create personalizable views in the Manage Expense Reports page. You can personalize the table display in these ways:
Show/hide specific rows or columns
Change column order
Change column labels
Determine the sort order
Determine the number of rows displayed per page
Enable project expenditure organization
You can also set a default personalized view. When you access the page, Internet Expenses displays information using the default view.
You can create a personalized view that shows the expense reports assigned to you that are pending approval from payables. Use this view to follow up on expense reports which you have rejected or returned for more information. Once the preparer has responded or resubmitted the expense report, it will appear in this view.
To create a pending Payables approval view:
Navigate to the Manage Expense Reports page.
Click the Personalize button.
Click the Create View button.
Complete the required fields.
If you want this view to be your default view, select the Set as Default check box.
If Last Audited By is not displayed in the Search Query to Filter Data in Table section, choose Last Audited By from the Add Column choice list and click Add.
Select is <your name> for Last Audited By.
If Report Status is not displayed in the Search Query to Filter Data in Table section, choose Report Status from the Add Column choice list and click Add.
Select is Pending Payables Approval for the Report Status.
Click the Apply button.
You can use the Return to Audit Expense Report Search link to return to the Manage Expense Reports page.
The Manage Expense Reports page has one seeded view: Paperless Audit Queue. This views shows all expense reports that require paperless audit. If you are auditing expense reports from the audit queue, you can define your own default view that shows your audit queue and then set this as your default view.
To create a paperless audit view:
Navigate to the Manage Expense Reports page.
Click the Personalize button.
Click the Create View button.
Select the Search results where each must contain all values entered radio button.
Complete the required fields.
If you want this view to be your default view, select the Set as Default check box.
If Requires Paperless Audit is not displayed in the Search Query to Filter Data in Table section, choose Requires Paperless Audit from the Add Column choice list and click Add.
Select is Yes for Requires Paperless Audit.
Select is <your name> for Auditor.
You can use the Return to Audit Expense Report Search link to return to the Manage Expense Reports page.
The audit manager defines and maintains the list of audit queue auditors and how much time they devote to paperless audit. Paperless audit refers to auditing expense reports from the audit queue without the receipt package. You can create an audit rule set that determines when expense reports are routed for paperless audit. For more information, see: Creating an Audit Rule Set.
Based on the audit queue auditor setup, the Internet Expenses audit queue engine assigns expense reports requiring paperless audit to the audit queue auditor with the smallest workload. The engine takes into account the audit queue auditor's workload, the number of expense reports in each auditor's queue, and the complexity of the expense report. Audit queue auditors are considered active if their workload for the day is greater than 0 and they have a valid audit queue security profile assignment.
You can create new auditors using the Auditors page accessed from the Auditor Setup tab of the Internet Expenses Audit Manager responsibility. The Auditors page displays the current list of audit queue auditors, each auditor's workload, the report count of each auditor's audit queue, and each auditor's security profile. Auditors can access expense reports of multiple operating units based on the MO: Security Profile profile option value of the Internet Expenses Audit responsibility. The security profile determines the operating units that each audit queue auditor receives expense reports from for paperless audit.
To create new auditors:
Create HR security profiles. For more information, see: Setting Up Security Profiles.
Create auditor responsibilities. Customers can use the seeded Internet Expenses Auditor as a template. For more information, see: Assigning Responsibilities to Users.
Assign auditor responsibilities to auditors. For more information see: Assigning Responsibilities to Users.
Assign HR security profile to MO: Security Profile profile option. See Setting Up Security Profiles, Assign the security profiles.
Enable auditors using the Internet Expenses Audit Manager responsibility. Access the Auditors page, select an auditor on the Define Auditors page and select the security profile assigned to the auditor's responsibility on the Auditors page.
Note: Auditors are not visible on the Define Auditors page until an Internet Expenses Auditor responsibility is assigned to them. Only one HR security profile can be assigned to each auditor. Therefore plan your HR security profiles properly.
If an expense report is routed for paperless audit from an operating unit that none of the active audit queue auditors can access, the audit queue engine assigns the expense report to the fall-back auditor. The fall-back auditor is a seeded audit queue auditor that you cannot delete from the system. If you do not want the audit queue engine to assign expense reports to the fall-back auditor, you must ensure that you have active audit queue auditors for every operating unit in your company where employees submit expense reports.
To redistribute the expense reports in an auditor's audit queue, click the Redistribute icon. Internet Expenses redistributes the expense reports to active audit queue auditors with access to the same operating unit. If an auditor has rejected, requested more information, or shortpaid an expense report, the audit queue reassigns the expense report to the same auditor when it is resubmitted, provided that the original auditor is still active. Internet Expenses assigns all expense reports that do not match an active auditor to the fall-back auditor. You can try to redistribute the fall-back auditor's audit queue by clicking the Redistribute icon. If the queue count does not decrease, this means that none of the active audit queue auditors can access the expense reports in the fall-back auditor's queue. You can then redistribute the fall-back auditor queue manually, by displaying the corresponding expense reports in the Manage Expense Reports page and entering a new auditor name in the Auditor fields.
If you change the security profile assignment for the responsibility an audit queue auditor uses to access Internet Expense Audit to perform paperless audit, it is possible that the auditor would lose access to the expense reports in his/her audit queue. To ensure that audit queue auditors always have access to the expense reports in their audit queue, run the Reassign Inaccessible Expense Reports program each time you change the MO: Security Profile profile option for the Internet Expenses Audit responsibilities. This program reassigns the expense reports as necessary to ensure that each audit queue auditor can access the expense reports in his/her audit queue.
Use the Audit Expense Report page to view expense report details and to audit expense reports. The details of each expense report is presented such that for itemized expense lines, both the parent lines and itemized lines will be displayed. Auditors can also update itemization information.
The auditor can query multiple expense reports through the Manage Expense Reports page and navigate through them by using the Back and Next buttons.
The information in the expense reports is grouped under the following tabs, based on the tasks that the auditor normally performs:
Verify Expenses tab. The Verify Expenses tab lets auditors verify receipts and complete an audit if all required receipts are available. On the Verify Expenses page, the auditor can optionally proceed to the other tabs to complete the audit.
Note: The Receipts Verified check box is updatable only for lines that require receipts.
Process Exceptions tab. The Process Exceptions tab lets auditors adjust amounts, mark policy non-compliant expenses, adjust exchange rates, and short pay expenses. In addition, auditors can use this tab to enter audit issues and additional instructions.
Note: The Receipts Verified check box is updatable only for lines that require receipts.
Review Allocations tab. The Review Allocations tab lets auditors review and update account allocations. Auditors can also review project, tasks, awards, and expenditure organization details, as well as update the expenditure organization information.
Note: When multiple project and account allocations exist for an expense line, you can click the Expense Allocations icon to view the details of project and account allocation information.
Review Tax tab. The Review Tax tab lets auditors review and modify tax details and related merchant information.
View All Data tab. The View All Data tab lets you see all the information displayed under the other four tabs.
You can use personalization to display this tab, which is hidden by default. See: Using Personalizable Views.
Note: The regular, non-inverse exchange rate is always displayed, even if the Journals: Display Inverse Rate profile option was set to Yes when the expense report was created.
To audit an expense report:
In the Audit Expense Reports Page, query the expense report that you want to audit. You can search for an expense report either by searching with the expense report number or by scanning the bar code from the Confirmation page.
Note: If bar code functionality is enabled, then the search criterion automatically defaults to Bar Code.
Check the Expense Verified box for each line item to verify that the accounts payable department has a valid receipt and all required information. If a line item requires a receipt and the receipt is not verified, the item is subject to shortpay. You can use the Mark All Receipts Verified check box to check or uncheck the Receipt Verified box for all expense lines.
If an expense item is not reimbursable under your current policy guidelines, or if you want to adjust the amount for another reason, then adjust the amount of the expense item in the Amount field. Include the reason for this adjustment in the Audit Issue and, optionally, the Additional Instructions columns. The contents of the Audit Issue and Additional Instructions columns are included in a notification to the preparer.
Note: The Allowable Amount field only contains a value if the receipt for the Accommodations, Car Rental, Meals, or Miscellaneous categories contains a policy violation.
Note: You cannot adjust mileage expenses. If mileage expenses are incorrect, you must either short pay or reject the expense report. It is also recommended that you not adjust per diem expenses.
Depending on the advances setup, you may be able to view, enter or update advance information.
If your setup allows it, optionally drill down to an expense line's account distributions and update accounting allocations and project expenditure organization information for split expense lines.
See: Expense Allocations.
If necessary, review or add any attachments to this expense report.
If you want to add this employee to the audit list, click the Always Audit Employee button.
After completing your review and audit of an expense report, including receipt verification and adjustment, you can choose to complete the audit, waive receipts and complete the audit, reject the expense report, manually release the hold on the expense report if applicable, or return the expense report to the preparer for more information. Use the Action Reason choice list to apply the action that you want.
The Action Reason choice list values are defined by the OIE_AUD_RETURN_REASONS lookup. The Reason choice list values for the Waive Receipts and Complete Audit action are defined by the OIE_AUD_WAIVE_REASONS lookup. The Reason choice list values for the Release Hold action are defined by the OIE_AUD_HOLD_REASONS lookup. The Action Reason choice list only displays the values that apply to the expense report. For example, if an expense report does not require receipts, then the choice list does not include the Waive Receipts and Complete Audit action. See: Defining Payables Lookups for Oracle Internet Expenses.
To reject an expense report:
Complete the Process Expense Report Section.
Choose Reject Report and click Apply. The preparer will receive a notification that includes your Return Reason, Standard Instructions, and any Additional Instructions. The preparer can view any Approval Notes you include through the notification Expense Details link in the notification. The preparer must resubmit the rejected expense report before it can be approved.
Note: If you reject the expense report, Internet Expenses discards any adjustments you have made.
To return an expense report for more information:
Complete the Process Expense Report Section.
Choose Request More Information and click Apply.
Choose the reason for the request, enter any additional comments, and click Apply.
The preparer receives a notification that includes your Return Reason, Standard Instructions, Additional Instructions, and expense line level Audit Issues and Additional Instructions. The preparer can view any Approval Notes you include through the Expense Details link in the notification. The preparer will not need to resubmit the returned expense report. Preparers will need to reply to the notification before the reimbursement process can continue.
To manually release a hold on an expense report:
Complete the Process Expense Report Section.
Choose Release Hold and click Apply.
Choose the reason for releasing the hold, enter a justification , and click Apply.
To complete an expense report audit:
Choose Complete Audit or Waive Receipts and Complete Audit, then click Apply.
If you are waiving receipts, choose the reason, enter the justification, and click Apply.
You can waive receipts only for auto-approved expense reports that require receipts.
Once you have completed an audit, you can no longer change the receipt level information for the expense report. If you have indicated that a required receipt is missing or selected the Policy Non-Compliance check box, the expense is shortpaid and these expenses transferred to a new expense report. The preparer will receive a notification that includes your Audit Reason, along with Additional Instructions.
The preparer can view any Approver Communication notes you include through the Expense Details link in the notification. Preparers will need to reply to the notification before the reimbursement process can continue.
Tip: Do not append a dash or a period and a number, for example -1 or .1, to the expense report number. This naming convention is already used by workflow for shortpaid expense reports. See: Shortpay Unverified Receipt Items Process Activities.
Use the Receive Receipt Package page to record the receipts as they arrive in the AP department.
If you are using an audit list rule set with the "Receipt package received after the maximum number of days" option, you must complete the Date field for all expense reports, including auto-approved expense reports and expense reports routed for paperless audit.
Internet Expenses can generate and print a bar code on the expense report confirmation page. If you enable this functionality, then your Payables personnel can later scan the bar code to "check in" a receipts package and query an expense report.
You can use the Approval Notes to view or add additional notes for expense reports. Approval Notes include notes from auditors, preparers, and approvers. You can only enter an approval note if the expense report is pending payables approval or pending manager approval. The preparer can view any Approval Notes you include through the Expense Details link in the notification. Auditor Only Notes can only be viewed by auditors.