FAQs

• Accounts
• Approval
• Browser Settings
• Employees
• ERS Email Notifications
• Entering and Viewing Expenses
• Faxing Receipts
• IBIS
• Itemizing Expenses
• Missing Location
• Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal
• 1-Day Taxable Meal Amount
• Paycheck Deductions
• Purchasing Cards
• Receipts
• Reimbursement
• Reimbursement Reduction
• Using ERS

Accounts

When will new accounts be available for use in ERS?

New accounts can be added to expense reports one business day after the AURA form is processed. The expense form with the new account can be submitted for approval two business days after the AURA form is processed.

What if my Cost Centers are not in the table?

If a cost center is not available in the table, select a cost center that is there so that your expense report can be submitted. Notify your Financial Officer of the missing cost center. The FO can work with ERS support to reinstate the cost center for future reports, and the Financial Officer will be aware that the expense will need to be redistributed to the appropriate cost center once the detail posts.

How do I split charges ?

Enter the expense that requires one or more accounts. Select Itemize from the lower part of the screen. Re-select the same expense type and enter the amount to be assigned to a different account. Click on any one of the account fields (fiscal year, account code structure, account, and object code) and the Connected List Helper will come up. In the helper pane, select the part of the account code that is to be changed. Enter all remaining information and select Add Another Itemization . If the amount remaining has the correct account information already, select Save & Go to Itemization List . If not, input the correct information and save.

Approvals

Can I view the approval history of my reimbursement request?

Yes. Each reimbursement request has an audit trail that records everything that is done to the request from the time it is created until payment has been processed. To view the audit trail for a particular request, click on the “Edit and View Expense Reports” link on the ERS main page (Concur Central) and then click on the name of the request you would like to view.

How can I find out where my reimbursement request is in the approval path?

Updates on the status of the reimbursement request as it moves through the approval path can be found on the main page in ERS (Concur Central) when you log in to the system.

If you would like to receive an e-mail from the system each time the status of a request changes, indicate this preference in the “Expense Preferences” section of the site. (To access this section, click on the “My Info” button in the top right corner of your screen and then click on the “Expense Preferences” link.)

ERS Email

ERS Email Notices are not sent to my Inbox

Multiple emails from the same sender to multiple recipients may be identified by mail servers as “spam” and sent to the “Junk Mail” or “Deleted” mail folder of email applications. If you use an email client, you should have the ability to create a rule that can bypass the spam filter for emails from “AutoNotification@concursolutions.com”.

Contact your IT staff for assistance in the review of your email application settings. Most email applications can be adjusted to recognize specific email addresses as legitimate and move any such email to a specified mail folder.

Employees

When will a new employee be able to submit expense reports?

New employees will be added to the ERS employee file the next business day after the appointment form is completed. If a new employee needs to request for a reimbursement before this process is completed, they should contact their Financial Officer.

Entering and Viewing Expenses

I shared a hotel room with another traveler. How should I enter the hotel expense into ERS?

If the charge is on a Purchasing Card, it will be linked to the traveler who is responsible for the Purchasing Card. A comment will need to be added to the expense entry indicating that some of the hotel expenses are for the other employee.

If the charge is not on a Purchasing Card, write a note on the receipts indicating how the charges will be applied. The receipts should be faxed with both reimbursement requests.

Can a travel arranger view all charges for a traveler even if the charges are on the traveler’s Purchasing Card?

Yes. Someone who is authorized to prepare a reimbursement request on behalf of another traveler is designated as a “delegate” in ERS. Click on “Act as a Delegate” after logging in to ERS to view a list of the travelers whose reimbursement requests you are authorized to access. You will be able to see all reimbursement requests filed or pending for each traveler, create a new reimbursement request, view all Purchasing Card charges, select and assign the Purchasing Card charges applicable to a reimbursement request, and fax and/or view receipts.

How many characters and spaces can I enter in the “Report Name” field?

40

Faxing Receipts

How do I fax receipts for multiple reports?

When transmitting receipt information for multiple reports, each set (cover page and expense receipts) must be transmitted separately, allowing the fax machine to disconnect between transmissions.

If you send more than one set of receipts to the same phone number at the same time, the fax machine may group them and send them as one transmission – even though you placed a cover sheet in front of each set of receipts and even though you received separate fax confirmation sheets.

Imaging will interpret the grouped transmission as one set of receipts for the expense report associated with the first fax cover page. The entire set of faxed receipts will be available for viewing for the expense report associated with the cover page that was sent first. Other expense reports will not have receipts attached to them.

Most fax machines group multiple transmissions for the same phone number and send them as one transmission. This is known as the “toll-saver option.” Unless you know that your fax machine does not use the toll-saver option:

• Fax the cover page and receipts for Report #1
• Let the fax machine disconnect; and then
• Re-dial and send the fax cover page and receipts for Report #2.

What if I need to fax receipts more than once?

If your receipts appear unclear, you can fax the receipts again using the same cover page as before. These receipts will be appended to the earlier transmission.

When a user faxes a cover page that has been faxed previously, the imaging software finds the existing expense report and adds the new receipt images to the existing ones. This allows multiple tries at sending the same receipts; there is no harm in the same receipt image appearing more than once for a given report.

How do I submit more receipts for the same expense report?

You can fax additional receipts using the same cover page as before. These receipts will be appended to the earlier transmission.

When a user faxes a cover page that has been faxed previously, the imaging software finds the existing expense report and adds the new receipt images to the existing ones. This allows adding forgotten receipts to an expense report; there is no harm in multiple receipt images for a given report.

What are the requirements for faxing receipts to ERS?

• Use the highest resolution possible on your printer
  
  • Good printing resolution is essential for making the barcodes readable by the imaging software. Most printers support and default to at least 300 dots per inch, which is sufficient resolution.


• Print on plain white paper
  
  • Paper colors other than white can cause some fax machines to “smear” the bar edges, and this can confuse the imaging software. Background patterns, watermarks, logos, and the like can also confuse the imaging software.


• Print using portrait orientation, not landscape
  • The barcodes are formatted only for portrait orientation (long dimension of the page vertical).


• Make sure the print is dark and clear , with no smudges, streaks, or marks
  • If the print is gray or uneven or there are extraneous marks, the imaging software may not be able to read the barcodes.


• Check that there are three barcodes with the words TOP and BOTTOM
  • By checking that the words TOP and BOTTOM are visible above and below the barcodes, you assure that the barcodes are complete. If any barcode is truncated or any part of a barcode is printed on another page, reduce the browser margins (on most browsers, open the File menu and click Page Setup). The barcodes are designed to fit on one page as long as all four margins are 1 inch or less.


• Place the pages so the cover page is faxed first
  • The imaging software expects to find the barcodes on the first page of the fax transmission.


• Place pages facing correctly (face down for most fax machines)
  • If the paper is facing the wrong way in the fax machine, blank pages will be sent. On most fax machines the side to be faxed is placed face down, often indicated by an icon like .


• Feed the pages as straight as possible
  • If the barcodes are slightly skewed, the fax will “smear” the bar edges, and this can confuse the imaging software.


• Set the fax machine to Fine Resolution and turn Polling Off
  • The default or “Normal” resolution on some fax machines can cause distortion in the barcode images, but the next higher setting, usually called “Fine,” is reliable. The “Polling” feature found on some fax machines is not used for normal fax transmission and should be turned off.


• Make sure that halftone or photo mode is not on
  • Special settings used for faxing photographs can “smear” the bar edges, and this can confuse the imaging software.

IBIS

How will travel charges from ERS be identified in IBIS?

Travel charges from ERS can be identified by the detail type: “ERSM” for meals, “ERSL” for lodging, “ERST” for transportation, “ERSA” for airfare, and “ERSO” for other charges.

What will be in the free space and description on ERS details in IBIS?

The free space will contain the first 15 characters of the report name. The description will contain 40 characters, to be divided as follows:

Employee: characters 1–10 will be the last name, 12–40 will be the employee’s PSU ID

Nonemployee: characters 1–10 will be the last name, 12–40 will be “NON-EMPL”

The free space and characters 12–40 of the description can be changed using UDFS or via ICAG/ISTR using the additional screen on the detail.

Itemizing Expenses

When do I itemize an expense?

• To charge one expense to two or more accounts (splitting between accounts ); OR

• If the charge is a Hotel/Motel expense which requires itemization.

NOTE: A single expense should NOT be itemized except as indicated above.

Missing Location

What if a CONUS location is not available for my itinerary?

The ERS application allows support staff to add locations for the City search list based on the U.S. ZIP Code of the location.

To request the addition of a CONUS location, please complete the ERS Helpdesk web form and provide the name of the City, the State abbreviation, and the ZIP Code. The U.S. ZIP Code Lookup application is an excellent resource for the information required to add a new location for CONUS travel.

Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal

When is a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal used?

This expense type would be used when a meeting includes a meal where each participant pays for a portion of the meal expense. A description of the business purpose for the meal and a list of attendees are required for a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal expense.

EXAMPLE: An employee travels from Harrisburg to UP for a meeting. Meeting participants decide to work through lunch and have food delivered to them. The employee pays $6.00 toward lunch -- the $6.00 would be a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal expense.

1-Day Taxable Meal Amount

When is a 1-day travel meal reimbursement considered taxable?

The 1-Day Taxable Meal Amount field must be completed on a Fixed Meal entry for the 1-day travel when there is no meeting with a client or colleagues and therefore no business purpose for the meal.

EXAMPLE: An employee travels from Philadelphia to UP. During the return trip from UP, the employee stops and eats lunch. If the employee requests reimbursement for the meal, the amount the employee is actually being reimbursed is the 1-Day Taxable Meal Amount and must be entered on the Fixed Meal entry that is created by the itinerary.

Paycheck Deductions

How will a deduction from ERS appear on my paycheck?

The deduction will be labeled “ERS” and will be listed on the pay remittance with your other deductions.

Receipts

How long should I keep my receipts?

Receipts should be kept until the traveler receives his or her reimbursement.

Is the fax number toll-free?

Yes. It is listed at the top of the fax cover sheet printed from ERS: 1-866-600-6065.

Where do I order the Fax Document Carrier to hold my receipts when I fax them?

The AccuFax Fax Carrier is available from General Stores through eBuy. The product number is L5099DC.

Reimbursement

How do I find out the status of my reimbursement?

When an ERS report has a status of "Paid" it is an indicator that the report details have been delivered to the University. All aspects of the actual reimbursement (including email notification) are managed by Accounting Operations. All inquiries regarding the status of a reimbursement should be directed to Accounting Operations at acctop@psu.edu.

How does the process work after a report has the "Paid" status?

The "Paid" status in ERS indicates that the report transactions were included in an extract file prepared for the University and placed in our FTP folder for retrieval.  By noon the following day the details are being processed by the University and posting to IBIS.  Reimbursement amounts due to an employee are delivered to Accounting Operations for processing. When the reimbursement process is completed, an email is sent from Accounting Operations advising that the reimbursement will be placed in your account through direct deposit and available to you within two business days.

Reimbursement Reduction

How do I reduce my reimbursement?

There are several reasons a traveler may wish to reduce the amount of a reimbursement:

• expenses are being charged to a research grant and the traveler may want to spend less on travel in order to have the funds for supplies and equipment;
  


• the traveler has agreed to certain limitations on expenditures for budgetary reasons.

To reduce a reimbursement by a given amount, select either the Non-Reimbursed Other Expense or the Reimbursement Reduction expense type. Enter the amount as a negative and DO NOT check the Do Not Reimburse box.

Using ERS

Authentication through WebAccess requires a valid AccessID and an employee status of “active” in the University’s HR system to be authorized to use the application.

The Employee Reimbursement System is a web-hosted application from Concur Technologies, Inc. and requires that JavaScript be enabled in your web browser.

What browser can I use with ERS?

Browsers certified for use with the Employee Reimbursement System are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.0 (IE7)
• Netscape 8.0.1 (Windows XP Professional (SP2))
• Netscape 7.2 (Windows 2000 Professional (SP4))
• Firefox 1.0.4 (Windows XP Professional (SP2))
• Safari 1.2.3 (MAC 10.3)
• Mozilla 1.7.8 (Red Hat Linux versions supported by Mozilla)

What browser settings are recommended?

Setting	Comments
Check for newer versions of stored pages	For optimal performance, select the Every visit to the page option on the Settings dialog.
Browser Cache Setting	Verify that the box next to the Never Check Server is not checked.
Security Settings	Verify that all security zones are set to the Default Levels.
Disable script debugging	Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to disable script debugging.
Notification of script error	Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to display script error notification.
Enable Cookies	Recommend Medium setting.