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What is the recommended internet browser to use with Concur?
The latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Safari are all supporting browsers for Concur.
For best performance, Concur should be used with Google Chrome.
Find more information from SAP Concur.
Can another individual prepare a Request or Expense Report on your behalf?
Yes, employee payees/travelers/hosts must first add delegates in Concur and select permissions to allow delegates to prepare Concur Requests and/or Expense Reports on their behalf.
Note: Travelers/Cardholders must still certify the accuracy of their expenses by reviewing expense information and clicking on the Submit Report button in the Concur document.
How can you easily provide the preparer (delegate) with the necessary receipts/documentation?
If you haven’t already, we recommend that you download the Concur Mobile App onto any of your mobile devices. You can easily snap a photo of your receipts and upload them to the Concur Mobile App
You can also easily turn your receipt images into expense entries with the mobile app and add them to your expense report.
Do UCSD employees need to set up a payee account before submitting Expense Reports?
No, UCPath employee information is imported into Concur so all active employees can simply log in and start the reimbursement process.
It is advised that you enter your chart string information before taking any other steps. Go to your Profile > Profile Settings > Expense Information > then enter your accounting string.
Confer with your fund manager or Financial Unit Approver for assistance with your chartstring (COA/POETAF) information.
Note: Non-employee payees for events/travel will still need to be registered via PaymentWorks
How do you know whether or not a supplier/non-employee payee is active in Oracle?
You can got to the Business Analytics Hub and click on Budget and Finance. From there you will locate the Procure-to-Pay Panorama and select it. To look up the status of a supplier/traveler, click on Supplier Inquiry and then you can search by your preferred parameter (e.g. Supplier, Supplier Type, etc). Once you look up the Supplier, you will know if they're Active or Inactive based on the information the Supplier Profile Status column in the report.
What is the difference between a Concur Expense Type and a PPM Expenditure Type?
An Expense Type is strictly a Concur term required to categorize the expenses being claimed on a Concur document. Each Concur Expense Type is associated with a particular Account segment (i.e. Account Code) from UCSD’s accounting string.
An Expenditure Type also specifies the type of expense but on a more granular level. It is one accounting segment of the POET information required for Projects in the Oracle Project Portfolio Management (PPM) module.
How can you check an individual's level of approval authority?
Concur approvers derive from the roles granted through Oracle. The User Roles Report in Oracle can be used to query for the roles of any UC San Diego employee. Access to the Reports & Analytics module (UCSD BI Consumer JR role) will be required to run this report. Refer to the video guide on requesting standard roles and the KBA on how to access the User Roles Report
How do you add Concur approvers to your Financial Unit(s)?
You would submit an Oracle and Concur Role Request form and attach the necessary delegation of authority forms as applicable. Refer to the Knowledge Base Article on How to Request a Concur Approver Role.
Can approvers attach additional documentation to the Expense Report?
Concur approvers can attach additional documentation, including receipt images, to Expense Reports sent to them for review and approval. This process is similar to attaching receipts to your own expense reports. Follow the steps in Upload a Receipt Image to an Expense or Expense Report.
How do I pay for a Virtual Conference Registration?
To pay for a virtual conference registration, faculty and staff should use their Procurement Card. Then you can claim the charge on your monthly Procurement Card Expense Report.
However, if you inadvertently paid for the virtual conference registration out-of-pocket or with your Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card, there is guidance on how to reconcile the expense. If there are no travel expenses, then you may submit an expense report using the report type of Events Expenses. For employee reimbursement, select Other Reimbursements (Non-Event) from the Report Type field. If you used your T&E Card, select the Business/Technical Meeting as the Event Business Purpose Type. Then add the Conferences and Training Expense Type.
What constitutes “proof of payment”?
Proof of payment is generally a receipt with the total amount of the expense as well as information on how it was paid “Ex: Paid XXXXXX9999”. All receipts that are required to be provided (see Travel Receipts: Reimbursement Requirements for more information), especially those that indicate the traveler/event host paid out-of-pocket for an expense, should have proof of payment to ensure that payment was actually made out-of-pocket. Reservation confirmations, statements of work, invoices, and hand-written notes generally do not qualify as proof of payment. If you have any questions on a specific receipt, please contact us via Services & Support.
How do you pay for business travel expenses?
Airfare is paid up front by UC San Diego when using Concur Travel. UCSD employee travelers should obtain and utilize a Travel & Entertainment Card to pay for all other travel expenses, including Concur hotel and rental car reservations.
How do you get reimbursed for business travel expenses?
Before the trip, travelers (Concur users) or travel preparers (Concur delegates) must create a Travel Request in Concur to preauthorize the trip.
After the trip occurs, travelers or their delegates will reconcile and claim expenses on a Travel Expense Report, linked to the respective Travel Request, through Concur.
Is a Concur Travel Request required for every Concur Travel Expense Report?
No, you are able to submit Mileage Only reimbursements and Airfare Refunds on an expense report without a Travel Request or Form for Essential Travel.
Are you allowed to claim multiple months of mileage on a single expense report?
What if you are trying to claim mileage expenses incurred prior to the current year/mileage rate?
The Mileage Calculator within the Personal Car Mileage - Business Expense Type in Concur is now able to calculate mileage rates from different calendar years. If the mileage expense being submitted is over a year old, please provide a justification for the late submission in the comment field. For more information on mileage rates, please refer to Blink.
Can you request payment for Guest Travelers and Group Travel?
Yes, you have the ability to request Guest and Group Travel within Concur. You would indicate the Traveler Type in the Request/Report Header of the Concur document.
For Guest Travel, selecting Traveler Type: Non-Employee (Guest), selecting Payment Type: Payment to Non-Employee, and completing the Payee Non-Employee Name & Remittance Address fields will indicate payment to a non-employee Guest Traveler.
Note: Guest Travel bookings are to be managed through Concur Travel.
For Group Travel, you would create the expense report under the employee Group Leader’s Concur user account and select Traveler Type: Group. The Expense Types specific to Group Travel expenses are Hotel Group and Group Meals & Incidentals .
Note: When traveling with a group of three or more, a group leader can use their Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card to cover the expenses of the other travelers, as long as they are all participating in the same trip. This is the only time a Travel & Entertainment Card can be used to pay for the expenses of others.
What receipts are required?
Supporting documentation and receipts are required for the following travel expenses:
- Airfare (proof of payment and airfare itinerary details)
- Rental car
- Lodging/Hotel
- Registration
- Travel expense $75 or over
What if you have additional expenses to claim after the Expense Report was processed?
An approved Travel Request can be associated with multiple Expense Reports. You can create additional Expense Reports as amendment trips tied to the original Travel Request. However, it is best practice is to place all expenses related to the same trip on one expense report.
How would I process travel expenses that are related to services? (e.g, vendor incurring travel costs to come to campus and perform services)
How do I process travel when personal travel/other delays are present?
If travel dates are changed or extended for any non-business reason, or if travel is extended to include personal travel, the traveler may only be reimbursed for expenses incurred within the business travel dates. If airfare is involved, a comparable airfare (airfare that follows the business travel dates) must be found at time of booking. The traveler is eligible to receive reimbursement for whichever amount is lower.
Example: Traveler is going to a conference from 1/11 and returning on 1/14, but would like to stay until 1/17 as personal travel. When booking the airfare from 1/11-1/17, a comparable quote must be found for 1/11-1/14 (as if the traveler did not take personal travel). The lesser amount between the actual expenses and the comparable is reimbursable.
This also applies if the traveler travels to a different place for personal reasons before returning to San Diego (or the origin of their trip).
Example: Traveler travels from San Diego on 1/11 to Dallas for a conference. After the conference, the traveler flies to Denver on 1/14 for personal travel. They then fly from Denver to San Diego on 1/17. When booking the airfare, a comparable quote must be found for a flight from San Diego - Dallas on 1/11 and Dallas - San Diego on 1/14 (as if the traveler did not take personal travel). The lesser amount between the actual expenses and the comparable is reimbursable.
If there is a valid business purpose to extend the travel or to travel to a different location before returning to the origin of the trip, then the actual expenses are reimbursable. Ensure that the business purpose is clearly stated and additional backup documentation is included when claiming expenses.
Example: Traveler travels from San Diego to Dallas for a conference. After the conference, the traveler flies to Salt Lake City to meet with a key collaboration partner before returning to San Diego. No comparison airfare is needed and actual expenses are reimbursable.
How do you pay for meeting meals and event expenses?
UCSD employee hosts and meeting coordinators should obtain and utilize a Travel & Entertainment Card to pay for their meeting meal and event expenses (e.g. meals, A/V equipment rental). The T&E Card is corporate-billed so entertainment expenses are prepaid by the University.
How do you get reimbursed for meeting and entertainment expenses (non-catering)?
Meeting/event hosts (Concur users) or preparers (Concur delegates) should obtain a Travel & Entertainment Card to pay for business meal and entertainment expenses. However, if employees incurred out-of-pocket expenses, then you would also claim those event expenses via Concur.
After the event occurs, event hosts or their delegates will submit an Event Expense Report through Concur.
Which Expense Type should you generally use for meals?
For general meal expenses (food and non-alcoholic beverages), use the Food - Dine In, Delivery, Pickup Expense Type. In instances such as the host/meeting coordinator buying food at a store or paying for the business meal at a restaurant, the host would have paid for the sales tax and thus claim the full amount (including tax and tip) for reimbursement.
For catering events, use the Expense Type: Prepared Food/Catering Srvc On-Campus for the total amount of expenses on the invoice that is taxable. This Expense Type is tied to a taxable account code to ensure that proper sales/use tax is applied for catering invoices.
The Event Expense Types Blink page offers a list of all Concur Expense Type categories as well as their associated Account values, their taxability and examples of when to use each one. Use this page as a guide when deciding which Expense Type to use.
What is the process for hiring outside caterers for full-service on-campus catering events?
Per Regents Policy 5402, all full-service catering performed on-campus must be performed by UC San Diego Catering.
In the event UC San Diego Catering cannot perform the services, you must receive approval from Labor Relations before hiring an outside catering company to perform service. You would create a Catering Event Request in Concur to route for Labor Relations approval. Then once approved and the event has occurred, you would submit an Event Expense Report to process payment. Catering invoices should be paid with the Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card. Don’t have a T&E Card? Take a look at the Knowledge Base Article on how to request the University card.
For more information, review the Catering & Bar Services Blink page.
What is the allowed amount for event deposits?
Generally, event payments should occur after the event occurs to ensure policy compliance and that the food is as negotiated.
However, should the event/hotel supplier require a deposit for your event, deposits are not to exceed 50% of total event costs. Also, deposits and/or final payments should be paid with the Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card. Don’t have a T&E Card? Take a look at the Knowledge Base Article on how to request the University card.
What Payee Type do you select on the Header of an Event Expense Report?
When completing the header for an Event Expense Report, you have three options for Payee Type: Employee, Student, T/E Supplier.
- If the host paid for the event expenses out of pocket or with their Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card, please select Employee as the Payee Type
- If the individual to be reimbursed/paid is a non-employee student, then select Student as the Payee Type
- If this expense report is a prepayment, or direct payment to an event supplier, please select T/E Supplier as the Payee Type
The option, T/E Supplier, should only be used when making direct payments to the event supplier. This identifies that there is a prepayment, such as a hotel deposit, as opposed to payments made by the host/User.
When the User pays with their Travel & Entertainment (T&E) Card, the proper Payee Type on the header is Employee. The system will indicate when the payment method is the T&E Card on the expense entry level.
What are the different approvals and when are they required?
The levels of approvals for events include:
- Financial Unit Approval
- Department Head Approval
- Special Entertainment Approval
- Exceptional Approval
- Central Office (Travel & Expense Team)
The first level in the workflow is Financial Unit Approval (i.e., the department fund/fiscal manager). Financial Unit Approvers review all Concur documents.
Additional review and approval is required by the Department Head for standard entertainment, or standard business entertainment expenses. Meetings and events that are social in nature; e.g. meeting held off-campus, an event where alcohol was provided, an event with non-UCSD guests in attendance.
The highest level of department approval would be Special Entertainment Approval. Special Entertainment Approval is required for certain entertainment expenses. The nature of the event typically falls under the Concur Business Purpose Types: Employee Morale Building (ex: employee holiday party) & Fundraising/Tickets (ex: Purchase of table/tickets for local activities). Additionally, Special Entertainment Approval is also required when the Cost Per Person exceeds the maximum allowable amount for the meal type and/or when a spouse/partner/relative is in attendance.
If the cost per person exceeds the allowed per-person maximum by 200% or more, the workflow will include Exceptional Approval which is the individual who follows appropriate hierarchy for Chancellor designee approval.
For more information on entertainment approvers, review approving meetings and entertainment.
What is a commitment?
How does Concur create a commitment?
Concur commitments are created when a Travel Request or Event Request with a Project value is approved in Concur. The commitment will appear in the Costs module the day after the Request is fully approved.
How do you lift a Concur-related commitment?
Once the actual expenses for the business travel or event are reconciled in Concur, the commitment should be lifted as the estimated costs no longer need to be recorded
- Concur commitments are lifted in Oracle when:
- The attached Expense Report has been fully Approved/Sent for Payment in Concur; or
- The Request is manually closed in Concur
Review the How to Lift Concur Travel or Event Request Commitments KBA for further instruction on lifting an external Concur commitment.
How do you distribute expenses to multiple chart strings in Concur?
Allocate is a Concur function where employees can split costs across accounting distributions, or distribute expenses to different chartstrings, within the same expense report.
In a single Expense Report, each expense will be charged to the Chart of Accounts (COA) information on the Report Header unless you need to distribute any of the expenses to a different COA. Then you can use the Allocate function in the Expense Details page. This feature would be helpful to avoid having to claim related business expenses on separate Expense Reports or doing a cost transfer. Take a look at How to Allocate Expenses in Concur.
Why is my chart string value not saving?
Google Chrome’s Autofill feature might interfere with entering your chart string information in Concur. The Autofill feature will display values to facilitate data entry, but these selections do not transfer to Concur.
After clicking into the form field, the auto-fill will clear after you start typing in the chart string value when creating a Request, Expense Report, or Allocation.
To turn off Google Chrome's Autofill feature:
- Open your settings
- Select Autofill from the left-hand navigation bar
- Select Addresses and more
- Uncheck the Save and fill addresses slider
How do we know which Expenditure Type to use?
A full listing of Expenditure Types is available at
reports.ucsd.edu >
Budget & Finance tab >
UCSD-DSH Project Information > Click on the
Expenditure Type tab. If you require additional guidance, then consider asking your fund manager or Financial Unit Approver.
Where can I find more information on Budget & Finance?