Options for Creating Expense Templates
An expense template is a grouping of related expense types that are defined for a specific business unit. Examples of groupings of related expense types include expense templates for travel, education, and relocation.
Expense templates enable companies to control the expense types visible to each business unit. Additionally, if your company processes card transactions and you want expense types automatically assigned during card transaction processing, you must set a default template.
When creating expense templates, it's advisable to consider the following actions:
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Using expense templates
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Defining default expense templates
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Inactivating expense templates
Using Expense Templates
When employees create expense items in the Create Expense Item dialog box to add to new or existing reports, they select a specific expense template.
The following rules apply to expense templates:
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Each business unit can have multiple expense templates associated with it.
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Expense templates can't be shared across business units.
Note: If your company operates in multiple countries, you must create one expense template per business unit. If your users use multiple languages within a business unit, then you must implement expense templates in each of those languages.
Defining Default Expense Templates
A default expense template is the first expense template that you create on the Create Expense Template page with corporate card expense type mapping. The application automatically sets the first template as the default template. This action occurs whether or not you select the Set as default check box on the Create Expense Template page. You can also change the default template, as long as the one you're changing to has corporate card expense type mapping.
The purpose of a default expense template is to automatically populate expense types to credit card transactions. Thus, when employees or contingent workers create expense reports, they can see the expense types assigned to the corporate card transactions. The default expense template uses the corporate card expense type mapping to associate expense types with the corporate card transactions. This association occurs when the corporate card feed file containing corporate card charges is uploaded to Expenses.
The following rules apply to default expense templates:
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Each business unit can have only one default expense template.
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For any business unit, you can have a default expense template with additional expense templates.
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For any business unit, you can have a default expense template with no additional expense templates.
Inactivating Expense Templates
Deploying companies don't typically inactivate expense templates because they can't use them after the end date. It's therefore advisable to leave the Effective End Date field blank, unless you intend to retire the expense template. Any expenses that are incurred after an end date can't be reported using an inactivated expense template. It's more likely that you would inactivate individual expense types, rather than inactivate an expense template.
To inactivate an expense template, enter a date in the Effective End Date field on the Create Expense Template page. You can also inactivate individual expense types in the same way on the Create or Edit Expense Type page. However, the expense template end date overrides the end date for individual expense types. Note that employees can still use inactivated templates to enter expenses on a report for the period in which the expense report was active.