Chrome River

U-M uses the Chrome River Expense Tool, (accessible through Wolverine Access), for employee business expense reconciliation of PCard, Travel Card, CTA, and out-of-pocket expenses. Chrome River replaced the former expense reporting system Concur on 8/1/24. Learn recommended best practices and helpful hints to improve your Chrome River experience when building expense reports. 

Tip: For easy access to Chrome River, favorite the “Expense Reporting: Chrome River” tile in Wolverine Access.

Best Practices

Submitting Reports

Business expenses, including both PCard and out-of-pocket transactions (cash or personal credit/debit card), should be submitted on an expense report for approval within 45 days of the transaction date. For travel expenses, an expense report should be submitted for approval within 45 days following the last day of the trip. Late out-of-pocket expenses will be reviewed by the Tax Department and may be subject to taxation.

The best practice is to submit expenses that are related to the same business purpose, event, or trip in the same report. There is no monthly limit to the number of reports submitted in Chrome River.

Managing Receipts

The Chrome River receipt gallery is located in the eWallet which is accessible on the Chrome River homepage. You can add receipts to the receipt gallery at any time by using any of these options:

1) Upload to Chrome River

• Receipts can be uploaded to Chrome River from your computer or mobile phone. The system accepts PDF, JPG, JPEG, TIF, TIFF, and PNG files. 

2) Email your Receipts

• Email your receipts directly to your Chrome River receipt gallery by forwarding the receipt to the email address [email protected]. To email receipts to the profile of a user that you are a delegate for, enter their email address in the subject line.

3) Capture Receipts With Mobile 

• Take photos of your receipts with the Chrome River app on your mobile device, which will automatically be uploaded to your Receipt Gallery for assignment to expense reports.

Receipts for out-of-pocket expenses will appear in the eWallet as an item that can be added to your report to create an out-of-pocket entry for reimbursement.

Chrome River’s sophisticated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, will merge receipts with matching PCard, Travel Card and CTA transactions when the date, amount, and vendor information match. The OCR technology will attempt to read all receipts. If the system cannot merge the receipt with the credit card transaction, you can do so manually in your eWallet. You will start by clicking “All” under the eWallet section, click the checkbox for the receipt and the associated credit card item, and then click the blue Merge button. This will merge the receipt item and the card item.

Important! Do not add the Receipt item to the expense report if it was paid on the PCard unless it is merged with the U-M Card transaction. If you need to add a receipt to the report for documentation purposes only, add the receipt to the header of the report by following these steps: 

1. Click on the title of the Chrome River report (just below the blue banner)
2. Scroll down on the right side of the screen
3. Select Add Attachments. 

This will ensure the receipt that is for documentation only is not added as a line item for reimbursement. 

System Flags

There are two types of flags in Chrome River. Red flags require action before the report can be submitted. Yellow flags are alerts and should be addressed with a comment. 

If you receive a duplicate flag, Chrome River has detected that the expense may have been submitted in the past. Review your past submissions and confirm that the expense is not a duplicate. Make a detailed comment to address the flag or delete the expense entry if it is confirmed to be a duplicate.

Out-of-Pocket Expenses

It is highly recommended and encouraged that all U-M employees who make purchases on behalf of the university or travel on U-M business apply for a PCard or Travel Card. Using a PCard for U-M business expenses not only expedites your expense report creation process but also reduces risk to the university by eliminating the requirement for out-of-pocket reimbursements and the potential for taxation of late out-of-pocket reimbursement submissions. 

For those who do not have a U-M PCard/Travel card and need to be reimbursed for an expense paid with cash or on a personal card, there are two methods for adding an out-of-pocket expense to the Chrome River report. 

• Upload the receipt in advance, which will create a line item in the eWallet. Click on “All” in the eWallet, locate the receipt for the out-of-pocket expense, and select the Add to Report button.

Or

• Click Create New, select the expense type, complete the required fields, and add the receipt directly to the line item.

Itemization

Hotel

At the click of the Itemization button within the Hotel expense type, Chrome River’s sophisticated OCR technology will scan lodging receipts and complete the hotel itemization automatically when possible. If the OCR technology does not complete the itemization automatically, select the appropriate expense types for the nightly charges to enter the line item charges for your hotel stay. Make sure to select the personal expense type for non-business line items (e.g. room service, movie rentals, mini bar, etc.). If daily rates do not vary, you can select the Recurring option to itemize.

When itemizing hotel expenses, enter the arrival and departure dates, enter a room rate, room tax, and any other daily additional charges (e.g., parking, internet). Make sure to mark any non-business expenses as personal (e.g. room service, movie rentals, mini bar, etc.). If daily rates vary, you can update or delete the corresponding expense line. 

Non-Hotel

To itemize non-hotel expenses in Chrome River, select the expense type Itemization, then select the Itemize button on the upper right.

Per Diem

If you are claiming per diem in a report, be sure the “Travel” or “Both Travel and Non-Travel” report type is selected. Select the option to claim per diem in the “Does this trip include meal per diem?” field. Complete the Per Diem Wizard on the next screen. Enter the Start and End Dates for the full range of travel, then enter the primary location of the business trip. Click the Add to Preview button to preview your per diem and select the checkbox for any meal that was provided by the host or conference. If you traveled to any other location for the majority of the day, select the Edit pencil icon to change the location. If changing the location of the first or last day of travel, be sure to select the Travel Day check box and then the Save button. You cannot claim per diem reimbursement for more than one location on the same day.

You can add per diem to an existing Travel report by clicking Create New, then selecting the Per Diem Wizard expense tile.

For more information on per diem, visit the Per Diem Knowledge Base Article FAQ webpage.

Expense Report Approval Options

• One approver per report – this would be the base case scenario.
  • The expense report will automatically route to the Expense Owner’s Default Approver.
  • The Default Approver can be changed on the report header by using the “Default Approver Override” box if the report needs to be routed to someone other than the Default Approver.  If this box is checked, the Default Approver will receive a notification the report is going to another approver.
• If different approvers are needed for separate shortcode allocations:
  • The “Default Approver Override” box should be checked and you will be prompted on report submission to add approvers for specific shortcodes.
  • When this option is used, the Default Approver will receive a notification the report is going to another approver.
• If multiple approvers are needed:
  • An approver can add another approver after they have completed their review by selecting the “Add Approver” option.  There is no limit to the number of approvers that can be added in sequence using this method, however, only one Approver may be added at a time.
  • A Delegate can create the expense report, the Expense Owner can use the “Add Approver” option to add an approver. The report will be routed to the added approver before routing to the default approver. There is no limit to the number of approvers that can be added in sequence using this method, however, only one Approver may be added at a time.

Chrome River Mobile App

There are two Chrome River mobile apps, Chrome River and Emburse CR. 

The Chrome River app is similar to the desktop version of Chrome River and will allow you to create expense reports from your mobile device. Emburse CR is used to capture receipts and upload them to the receipt gallery in your eWallet. 

If you are utilizing the SSC, the Emburse Chrome River app is the app you would use to capture the receipt images and upload them to your Chrome River eWallet.

Learn more about the Chrome River App:

IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chrome-river/id1454876055

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chromeriver.crnative

Learn more about the Emburse CR App:

IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emburse-chrome-river/id6443392352

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emburse.mobile