In an ongoing effort to improve the Expense Requests System (ERS) and its ability to meet the needs of the university, starting July 19 there will be several changes to how expense requests are reported. New information will be required when submitting an expense report more than 60 days after the expense occurred. In addition, new fields will be required for airfare transaction lines, and there will be changes to how fields are displayed when entering airfare details.
Starting July 19, expense reports submitted in ERS 60 days or later after the date the expense occurred now must include a reason for the delay.
On the Review screen, the following message appears: This expense report contains expenses that exceed 60 days potentially becoming tax reportable income to the payee/beneficiary. Please populate the below reason for this late submittal.
On the Review page, a new Delay Reason field appears with a drop-down menu listing nine reasons for the delay, such as Administrative Issues, Technical Problems, or Other. You must select a reason before submitting the expense report. If Other is selected, an explanation is required.
Starting July 19, preparers who submit travel expenses for reimbursement in ERS have two new fields to fill out when submitting details about the traveler’s airfare. This change includes automation that reduces data entry time for travelers booked through Egencia.
When a preparer adds a transaction line using the Airfare expense type and clicks the Details icon, the new fields will be visible at the top of the Additional Information section: Traveler’s Name (required) and Ticket Number (optional):
- Traveler’s Name field: In this required field, preparers can search for and add the traveler’s name associated with the expense report. Preparers must have entered the beneficiary in order for the traveler’s name to appear in the search.
- Ticket Number field: In this optional field, preparers may search for and select ticket numbers booked through Egencia that were issued after June 1, 2021. Once the ticket is selected, the remaining required fields in the Additional Information section will auto-populate.
- Please note that the ticket must be booked for a traveler with a valid SUNet ID in order for the fields to auto-populate.
- If the drop-down option in the Ticket Number field is not activated, then the traveler does not have any uncleared Egencia ticket numbers. The preparer can enter a ticket number for any traveler with an Airfare Expense Type, which will also be available in OBI ad hoc data.
Starting July 19, the fields in the Additional Information section will also appear in a different, more intuitive order. The Travel Booking Method and the Airline fields will appear just after the new Traveler’s Name and Ticket Number fields, instead of at the bottom of the section. This image shows the new order of the fields:
When the Traveler's Name and Ticket Number are added, the Selected Ticket Amount field appears and auto-populates, along with the other required information (if the traveler has a SUNet ID and booked through Egencia):
These changes help the Stanford Travel team collect more thorough data to analyze and improve the travel program.
Because Stanford visitors do not have a SUNet ID, the Additional Information fields will not auto-populate if you enter a visitor’s ticket number. For a more efficient reimbursement method, consider using the new Digital Payments option for visitors who qualify for this type of reimbursement.
To learn more about these ERS changes and view instructions, which will be updated as of July 19, please visit these Fingate pages:
- How to create an expense report for SU payees
- How to create an expense report for non-SU payees (Visitor Reimbursement)
- How to Create Digital Payment Request for Non-SU Payees (Visitors)
For questions about these changes, please submit a Support request to the Financial Services Center.
