Accounts

When will new accounts be available 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 search results, contact your Financial Office for assistance. The FO can work with ERS support to resolve the issue and the Financial Officer will be aware that the expense may need to be distributed to the appropriate cost center once the detail posts.

How do I split charges?

Enter the expense that requires one or more accounts. Select the Itemize link at the bottom of the form. Select the appropriate expense type and enter the amount to be assigned to the original account.

Select Add Another Itemization link at the bottom of the form. Select the appropriate expense type and enter the portion of the amount to be charged to the second account. Click in the account code field that needs to be changed (account, object code, cost center, etc.) and use the Connected List Helper pane on the right to search for and change the selected field. Continue using the Connected List Helper to update all appropriate account code fields to the desired selections.

Repeat itemization steps until the total charge has been fully itemized. When done, select Save & Go to Itemization List .

Approvals

Can I view the approval history of my expense report?

Yes. Each expense report has an audit trail that records everything that is done to the report from the time it is submitted until payment has been processed.

To view the audit trail for a particular report, click on the “View & Edit” link for Expense Reports on the ERS main page (Concur Central) and then click on the name of the report you would like to view. Select the "Audit Trail" link (top of the expense list page, last link on the right).

How can I find out where my expense report is in the approval path?

Once an expense report has been submitted, updates on the status as it moves through the approval path can be found in the My Updates section on the main page (Concur Central) after logging in to ERS.

ERS Email - Autonotifications

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.

Why are my ERS email notices from AutoNotifications@concursolutions.com?

The Employee Reimbursement System is a web-hosted application through an independant vendor called Concur Technologies, Inc. Their email program is non-customizable and all notifications are issued by "AutoNotification@concursolutions.com."

How do I use the link in my email notifications to submit an expense report?

Click on the link in the email notification to go to the ERS home page (www.ers.psu.edu) and select "Log In." At the Concur Central page, in the Expense Reports section, select the "View & Edit" link for the Expense Reports item (3rd in the list).

The next page displayed will be your "Report List" page. Click on the name of the report in the list to review the expenses. If the report is correct, click on the "Submit" link on the right above the report information. The certification paragraph will appear. Select "OK" to certify the accuracy of the expenses and submit the report to the electronic approval path.

Employees

When will a new employee be able to log in to ERS?

New employees will be added to the ERS employee file the next business day after the appointment form is completed and the employee is in the HR system. 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

How do I enter lodging expenses shared with another traveler?

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 receipt indicating how the charges will be applied. The receipt should be faxed with both expense reports.

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 an expense report 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 expense reports you are authorized to access. You will be able to see all expense reports filed or pending for the selected traveler, create a new expense report, view all Purchasing Card charges, select and assign the Purchasing Card charges applicable to an expense report, and view imaged receipts.

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

40

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
• 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
  • 1–10 will be employee last name
  • 12–40 will be the employee’s PSU ID

• Nonemployee
  • 1-10 will be nonemployee last name
  • 12-40 will contain "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 should an expense be itemized?

Itemization is used for three (3) purposes ONLY:

1. to account for nightly lodging expenditures,


2. to separate legitimate University expenses from personal expenses, or


3. for distributing an expense to two or more accounts.

Missing Location

What if a location is not available for an itinerary?

ERS support staff have the ability to add locations for the City search list as needed.

To request the addition of a CONUS location, please submit a request to the ERS Helpdesk. Include 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.

To request the addition of an OCONUS location, please submit a request to the ERS HelpDesk with as much information as possible on the location: the country and provice where applicable, a well-known location nearby, anything that will aid the HelpDesk match the new location to an appropriate per diem rate.

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 or pays the entire cost of their own meal in one of the following scenarios:

EXAMPLE 1:
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.

EXAMPLE 2:
An employee travels to UP for a meeting. After the meeting, traveler and another participant go to lunch to review the topics discussed at the meeting, each paying for their own meal.

When a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal is claimed, the request must include a completed Group Meal Form as back-up for the 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.

Payroll 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.

Fax 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.

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
• Re-dial and send the fax cover page and receipts for Report #2.

If you send a second set of receipts before the fax machine completes transmission of the first set, the fax machine may view them as one transmission and attach both sets of receipts to the first report. A fax machine does not see any distinction between the last page of receipts for the first report and the fax cover page for the second report.

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 fax additional receipts for an expense report?

Use the fax cover page for the report (either print a new one or use the cover page printed for the first transmission of receipts). The imaging software uses the bar code on the fax cover page to identify the appropriate expense report and appends the new receipt transmission as another image. There is no harm in multiple receipt images attaching to 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.

Image Receipts

How do I attach receipts without using a fax machine?

Receipts may be attached to a report by uploading a scanned image:

• Scan receipts and save to a known location.
• At the Expense List page for the report, select the Attach Receipt Images link on the right above the list of expenses.
• On the Upload page:
• Click the Browse... button in Step 1 to locate the scanned image(s)


• Double click a file to select it for upload.


• Continue to select files until all applicable scanned image files are listed in the table in Step 2.


• Click the Attach button to begin the upload.


• When the page indicates the upload is complete, click Done to return to the expense report.


• Within 15 to 30 minutes the receipt image(s) should be available for viewing.


• Verify receipt image(s) are available by selecting Check Receipts (or View Receipts):


• from the Report List page in the Actions column;


• from the Expense List page on the right above the list of expenses.

What are the requirements for uploading scanned receipts to ERS?

• Although PDF is the recommended file type for scanned receipts, JPG or TIFF files are also accepted.



• Each image file must be no larger than 3MB in size.



• Set scanner resolution at 72 dpi (dots per inch) to keep image size smaller and improve upload time.



• A maximum of 10 image files may be selected per upload session.



• A report can have multiple upload sessions.



• There is no limit to the number of image files that can be uploaded using multiple upload sessions.

Receipts

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?

A status of "Paid" 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.

How do I reduce my CASH 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 the CASH reimbursement by a given amount, select the Reimbursement Reduction expense type and enter the amount as a negative.

Using ERS

How do I access the Employee Reimbursement System?

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 Employee Reimbursement System (ERS) 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 are the recommended browser settings?

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.