Privilege Needed: Expense User
There are two screens to enter a user's expenses. By clicking Add under the Expense Menu, you will see a screen similar to the one shown below. This is called the Project Allocation screen. Its simply where you can define (down to the task level - if wanted) all the projects that will be used on this expense report. All expenses must be charged to atleast one project.
Una$ense also has the added capability of splitting an expense into any
number of projects and/or tasks from a percent allocation that you decide. By
entering a number into the text box to the left of the insert new row icon (
) and clicking on the insert new row icon (), you can add that number of projects/tasks and
assign an allocation to them. Then, when entering the detail of an expense item, you
can apply that split allocation. Each line on the Detail Page will allow you to
either apply the expense to exactly one project or to be allocated by the percentage you
specified.
An example of using the Project Allocation feature: You may have incurred an expense that is being shared by two separate projects. Maybe a travel expense of mileage driven, or a flight taken. You may want one project to reimburse for 75% of an expense and another project only 25%. This is the example used below.
The purpose and location fields of every expense report can be defined by the web administrator to make each one required or not required. See section of setting up the
unanet.properties file for how this is defined by the web administrator.
By expanding the Request menu, you will see another set of sub menus for Add, Active, and History. These options follow the exact same requirements of an Expense Report, except that these are requests for expenses. Once a Request is approved by the manager(s), then that Request is moved automatically to the Active area of that Expense User's menu.
Also, Request's for Expenses also show a faded watermark in the background to help distinguish a Request from an actual Expense Report. This watermark is shown throughout the Request and that request's approval process, until the request becomes an Expense Report.
Once the Projects and Split Allocations have been entered, the details of
the expense report can be entered by pressing the details button (
). The project allocation can also be changed from the Detail Screen at
anytime by pressing the purpose button at the bottom of the screen (
). The
icons of the expense detail are defined in the table below:
 |
Indicates a warning that the defined threshold for this expense type has been
exceeded. To view all the thresholds in the system, press the threshold button ( ). To set the thresholds
of an expense type, See: Setting Up Expense Types |
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Delete that detail row from the expense report. |
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Open a wizard for that expense detail line. Here you can enter the vendor, receipt information, and comments along with any other information specific to that expense type. |
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Current row selected for the Wizard Summary and Comments Window. |
Although every expense has a wizard (for entering vendors, receipt
information, and comments), there are also seven (7) other wizards that have built-in
programming logic behind them. These expense types are AIR, ENTERTAINMENT, LODGING,
MILEAGE, CELL-PHONE, COMPANY_CAR, and CASH-RETURN. If any of these wizards are
selected in the detail page, then additional information (other than vendor, receipts, and
comments) is captured as shown in a pop-up windows below. For each wizard, the
information is summarized and displayed in the Wizard Summary window next to the comments
for easy readability on the detail screen. You can open a wizard in one of two ways.
You can press the wizard icon () on the appropriate detail line, or you can click in the Amount field on the
appropriate detail line.
|
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NOTE: There is one expense type that acts differently from all other expense types, but is not associated with a wizard. If you create an expense type called ADVANCE, then the amount entered in that field is treated as a deduction from the total reimbursment of the expense report. See expense types for more documentation.
Anyone can view the current thresholds of each expense type that was entered by an
administrator. By pressing the threshold button (), you will see a window pop up similar to the one
shown below: If, for each line on the detail page, a threshold is exceeded for an
expense type, you will see a warning icon () in that detail line. Thresholds are defined when creating expense
types. See expense types for more
documentation. An example is shown as follows:
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When a user is saving their Expense Report or Expense Request, if a threshold has been
exceeded, there is a flag in the system that you can turn on that will force a comment to
explain why the threshold was exceeded. The name of this parameter (that goes in the
unanet.properties file) is called unasense.threshold.exceeded.need_comments.
Set this value to true or false to turn on or off
respectively. See the Help / Settings menu for
more information with Unanet.
From the Detail Page, you can press the print button (
). This will
show a summary of the Expense Report that you can print to a printer. The Wizard
summary and Comments and concatenated together in the far right hand column. See image
below: This is also the format that a manager who approves expenses will see the
report.
Once a user submits their expense report, control is passed to the first person in the Approval Group that the user belongs to for expense approvals. See Person Page for setting up people in the system. In this case, control of the expense report is passed to George James (Gary's manager defined in the system) and the Status of the expense report is set to SUBMITTED. George James would now see Gary's expenses in the Manager Menu under Approve Expenses. The Approval History is also shown at the bottom of the page. See example below.
Up until an Expense Report has been through the entire approval process and is set to
COMPLETED, a user can press the edit button (
), to get his/her expense report back to make
additional changes or adjustments. That expense report can then be submitted again,
and will go through the entire approval chain again.
Active Expense displays the Voucher number, the amount, the date and time created, etc.
Active Screen is shown when user clicks on Expense - Active or Expense - Request - Active.
You can edit the expense (
), delete the expense (), or edit the expense details (
).
If you want to search for an Expense, click on Expense History or Expense - Request - History.
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