Approving Expense Reports

The employee’s immediate supervisor or higher administrative authority must approve the Travel and Business Hosting Expense submission before reimbursement can be issued. If expenses don’t meet approval guidelines, the expense approver may deny the expense. Approval responsibility should be assigned to an individual who can judge whether the expenditure is both appropriate and reasonable for university business.

The approver is the “check” in the expense reporting process to identify potential or actual errors in expense reporting and is equally accountable for all expenditures. By approving travel and/or hosting expenses, the approver is attesting that each transaction (and its supporting documentation) has been reviewed and is an allowable expense. The approver must be sure that: 1) the correct funding sources are charged, 2) the purchase is in keeping with proper fiscal stewardship, and 3) each expense is consistent with departmental budgetary and project/grant guidelines.

Approver Guidelines

  • We recommend that approvers have responsibility for no more than 25 expense reports per month.
  • Approvers should ensure that each PCard holder with un-submitted transactions should submit one, or at most two, reports per month. Approvers should ensure that they are submitted in a timely manner.
  • Approvers should review the third level detail, when provided by the merchant, to help verify PCard transactions.
  • Approvers may assign the reviewer role to another employee. This, however, does not relieve approvers of their authority and responsibility for the expense approval.
  • Since multiple approvers may be required for certain expense reports, units are advised to document the names of their authorized approvers. See Concur Best Practices, Multiple Approver Processes for more details.

Approver Training

Prior to approving expense reports, approvers must complete the online approver training course. In addition, refresher training is required every three years.