FMS is continually improving the financial ecosystem to simplify and streamline processes. With over half a million transactions each year, Purchasing Card (PCard) and expense report/reimbursement process improvements can save thousands of staff time in their day, every day.
Following a set released on April 6, FMS will release additional enhancements on May 18 to bring increased consistency and efficiency to PCard and Expense Request transactions.
Summary of May 18 enhancements
- Increased consistency and efficiency for business purpose
- In ERS: Editable Business Purpose on Review Page: The business purpose will be editable on the last page of ER transactions to allow users to edit the BP before submitting for approval.
- In both ERS and PCard: The Business Purpose section of Expense Requests (ER), Stanford Easy Pay (EZP), Advances (ADV) and PCard transactions will be consistent, with the “Enter by Field (5Ws)” action displayed as a button, similar to what is currently in the Non-PO Payment UI.
- More visibility into the PCard or TCard Credit Card Profile
- If users have authority over the Guarantee PTA in Authority manager and their Approval Limit is greater than the CC monthly limit, they will be able to access the card profile to view/edit all cards for which they have financial authority.
- If users have authority over the Guarantee PTA in Authority manager and their Approval Limit is greater than the CC monthly limit, they will be able to access the card profile to view/edit all cards for which they have financial authority.
- User experience improvements in Expense Request System (ERS)
- Event functionality updated to be more intuitive:
- Add a “Save event” button to the bottom of the event creation screen.
- The “Create New Event” button will no longer disappear after an event is created.
- Lodging Expense Details Update: Conference Hotels/Rates
- An optional field will be available to allow users to indicate “Yes” if the hotel was booked at a conference rate directly through the hotel. Selecting “Yes” informs reviewers and approvers that the booking is within policy, even when the cost may be higher than hotel/lodging maximums.
- An optional field will be available to allow users to indicate “Yes” if the hotel was booked at a conference rate directly through the hotel. Selecting “Yes” informs reviewers and approvers that the booking is within policy, even when the cost may be higher than hotel/lodging maximums.
- Event functionality updated to be more intuitive:
- Updated Stanford Easy Pay transaction entry page
- Enhanced UI making Stanford Easy Pay similar to Non PO payments UI upgrade from April
- Service Location now displays the Request Details page after it has been added. Users no longer need to click on the popup to view the location chosen
- Simplify EZP Honoraria line entry by removing unnecessary currency fields.
Resources to support verifiers and approvers (will be updated May 18)
This new set of enhancements is a follow-up to the initial release, which launched for the PCard module in fall 2025. FMS will release additional enhancements on April 6 focused on expense reports in response to user feedback and workflow analysis. These include a new option for approvers to use a mobile app to make it easier to review and approve expense request transactions.
Improvements when preparing or verifying a transaction
Preparing a transaction in the Expense Request System (ERS)
- Automated currency conversion for all expense entries, reducing manual calculations and improving consistency (does not include petty cash).
- Removal of unnecessary fields (e.g., certain airfare fields such as “Roundtrip”), making pages easier and faster to complete.
- Drag-and-drop attachments will be available (similar to the PCard experience) to speed up receipt and documentation uploads.
- Generate Business Purpose will be improved and aligned with Stanford Easy Pay, creating more options for users, including a guided way to enter business purpose details.
- Event creation will be simplified by reducing the number of required fields.
- Copy line functionality will be enhanced to include additional detail fields, reducing repetitive data entry.
- Excel upload improvements will replace "Copy Excel" to streamline bulk entry by enabling line-level details for airfare and lodging.
Additional enhancements for non-PO payments in ERS
- Fewer clicks: Moving to a single-page experience to greatly streamline the payment entry process.
- Expense line details will display in a pop-up, making them easier to review without navigating away.
For both ERS and PCard module
- Improved “Generate Business Purpose” interface will make it clearer how to use this existing functionality.
Improvements for approvers
Now, ERS and PCard transactions feature the option for the approver to edit parts of the transaction before approving. After edits are made to the transaction, a notification will be sent to previous approver(s) and the preparer or verifier. This editing capability is not currently available in the Mobile Approvals app.
- Expense report transactions: Approvers can add attachments as well as edit expenditure types, the business purpose, and line remarks of ERS Transactions.
- PCard transactions: Approvers can add attachments as well as edit the expenditure type, business purpose, and actual tax paid amount of PCard Transactions.
Improvements to managing the card profile (PCard and TCard)
The Credit Card Profiles Change Request tool is used to manage Purchasing Card (PCard) account profiles.
- Bulk changes: You can now apply a profile change to up to 50 cards at once (for example, updating a verifier).