Review some of the most common questions regarding Concur Requests and Expense Reports as they relate to travel and entertainment policies.
For frequently asked questions regarding pre-trip activity and paying for travel and entertainment expenses, see:
The latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari are all supporting browsers for Concur.
For best performance, Concur should be used with Google Chrome.
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.
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.
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. The only time a Non-Employee does not need to register in PaymentWorks is if they are traveling on behalf of the University, and they do not have any out-of-pocket expenses due back to them after the trip (i.e. all of their expenses were paid with a University Card product).
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.
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 UC San Diego’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.
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.
Health Employees: For UCSD Health employees looking to request Financial Unit Signature Authorization for invoices for Oracle, Concur and/or Premier systems, please complete the request on the Health Supply Chain service portal. For guidance on how to submit, modify or remove an approver role, review pages 6-8 in this PDF (login required).
When an expense report has multiple levels of approval (Financial Unit, Department Head, Special Entertainment), the approver has the ability to update the Approval Flow. For example, If the report is already in your Approvals queue and you spot an incorrect routing (e.g., the wrong Department Head or Special Entertainment approver), you as the Financial Unit approver can change the flow before you approve it. This is also possible for a Department Head approver who needs to point the report to a different Special Entertainment approver. To update the approval flow, click on the Details dropdown and select Approval Flow, and you can make the updates and then select the Save Workflow button.
However, please note that if the approver you want the expense report to route to is not showing up under the Department Head approver or Special Entertainment approver fields, then they might not be set up as an approver for the specific Financial Unit used in the chart string. To confirm this, look up the Financial Unit code in the Campus User Roles report in the Business Analytics Hub. To run the report, select “All Roles and Access” under the Display Prompts section and in the Role Name Contains field enter in the Financial Unit code, then click “Finish”.
Note: Using the “user-added approver” feature does not update the Department Head and Special Entertainment approver fields, it will just add an additional level of approval.
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 and the Event Type of Business/Technical Meeting. For employee reimbursement, select Other Reimbursements (Non-Event) from the Report Type field. Then add the Conferences and Training Expense Type.
For additional guidance on how to clear red alerts in an Expense Report, please refer to these two KBAs:
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.
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, you will need to select one of the available Traveler Types: Non-Employee (ACH or Check), Non-employee (Card charges only) or Non-Employee (Wire). If there is an out-of-pocket reimbursement due to the Guest Traveler (i.e. you chose the Traveler Type of Non-Employee (ACH or Check) or Non-employee (Wire) in the report header), when you begin adding expenses to your Expense Report you will need to select the Payment Type of *Payment to Payee (Non-employee) - ACH, Check or *Payment to Payee (Non-employee) - Wire, and complete the Payee Non-Employee Name & Remittance Address fields which will ensure that the payment is routed to the non-employee Guest Traveler.
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.
Supporting documentation and receipts are required for the following travel expenses:
An approved Travel Request can be associated with multiple Travel 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.
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 and the comparable airfare must be attached to the Travel Expense Report. 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.
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.
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 Services 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 Expenditure Type Spreasheet offers a list of all Concur Expense/Expenditure Type categories as well as their associated Account values, and their taxability. Use this spreadsheet as a guide when deciding which Expense/Expenditure Type to use.
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.
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.
The levels of approvals for events include:
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.
There are two ways to pay UC San Diego back for an uncleared Concur Credit Memo: The first option is to use the Concur Credit Memo Electronic Repayment Portal where you can enter your bank’s account and routing number and repay the University back electronically. A 50 cent non-refundable fee will be automatically applied to your total.
The second option is to submit a Cashiers Deposit form and then drop-off/mail-in a paper check to the TritonPay (Cashiers) Office.
For step-by-step guidance on both options, please refer to the section titled “Repayment Methods – deposit funds to clear outstanding credit memos (when applicable)” in the How to Process Personal/Non-Reimbursable Card Charges in Concur KBA.
NOTE: Before making a deposit, please ensure that the credit memo is showing up in Oracle. For step-by-step guidance, review the How to look up Concur-related Credit Memos in Oracle KBA.
Please do not pay US Bank directly for any personal/non-reimbursable expenses. For any questions/concerns regarding Concur credit memos, please submit a Services & Support case.
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.
Note: A commitment will only be created if the Travel/Event Request has future dates. A commitment won't be created for a trip or event that has already occurred.
Review the How to Lift Concur Travel or Event Request Commitments KBA for further instruction on lifting an external Concur commitment.
Allocate is a Concur function where employees can split costs across accounting distributions, or distribute expenses to different chart strings, within the same expense report.
In a single Expense Report, each expense will be charged to the chart string entered in the Allocate section. For more information on allocating expenses, review the How to Allocate Expenses in Concur KBA.
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:
Use TritonGPT or browse our Knowledge Base for immediate assistance. If you need further support, contact us through the Services & Support portal.