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Expense Requests

Expense Requests is Stanford's system for business and travel expense reporting including Travel Card (TCard) charges, submitting petty cash account replenishments, requesting advances and non-PO payment requests.

Effective March 31, 2025, Expense Requests includes a new Stanford Easy Pay payment method that will substantially reduce the time and effort needed to reimburse domestic and foreign visitors for travel expenses and process honoraria payments. For more information, see the news page.

The Expense Requests System is used for:

Prior to using the Expense Requests system, review Topic Overview: Business and Travel Expenses.

Visit the Newsroom for recent announcements and subscribe to receive future Expense Requests system updates and enhancements. 

If you require access to the Expense Requests system, you will need to:

Additional Expense Requests System Authority Privileges

  • Travel Card verifiers and Petty Cash custodians require additional authority privileges which are granted during the application process by Financial Management Services.  

Financial approvers do not need access to the Expense Requests system to review and approve or reject transactions submitted for their approval. Expense Requests system approvals are handled using Oracle Workflow Notifications. Refer to Topic Overview: Financial Transaction Approval and How To: Approve, Request More Info, or Reject an Expense Report, Advance or Non-PO Payment.

Courses for the Expense Requests system are available online, accessible on demand via STARS. If you have previously completed courses including those listed as prerequisites, you do not need to retake them unless specified.

Courses Required for Expense Requests System Access

Expense Requests System (ERS) Learning Supplements provide detailed content for entering beneficiaries and expenses in an expense report, as well as help for setting up Expense Requests system preferences.

Courses Required for New Travel Card (TCard) Verifiers

The course listed below applies to the person listed on the Travel Card application that will be responsible for verifying TCard transactions and originating expense reports.

Expense Reports with Travel Card Transactions Learning Supplements are also available.

Recommended Courses by Subject Area

The Expense Requests system supports a variety of business processes and different types of business and travel-related transactions. The following STARS courses and online learning materials are recommended to users based on specific job roles and responsibilities. 

Courses Required for Approvers of Expense Requests System Transactions

Additional Courses Required for New Petty Cash Custodians

Upon completion of required training, the petty cash custodian will be granted access to the Petty Cash module within the Expense Requests system and the account will be funded. To ensure that custodians are up to date with petty cash requirements, a short annual recertification training is administered by the Office of the Treasurer via STARS to all petty cash custodians.

For training assistance (e.g., course enrollment, completions, training-related questions, or training records), contact the Financial Management Services Training Specialist.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

CategoryHow-to Instructions
Oracle Basics
Expense Requests System Basics
Expense Reports

Note: Understand Guidelines for Use of Categories for SU Payees and Guidelines for Use of Categories for Non-SU Payees (Visitor Reimbursement).

Stanford Easy Pay
Travel Card  (TCard) Charges
Advances

Note: Understand Guidelines for Use of Advance Categories

Non-PO Payments

Note: Understand Guidelines for Use of Non-PO Payment Categories

Human Subject PaymentsFor help determining the correct payment method in the Expense Requests system, refer to Paying Human Subjects - Payment Methods by Incentive and Payee Type.
Petty Cash

For a complete list of how to instructions for administering a petty cash fund (e.g., reconciling, reporting theft, increasing/decreasing a petty cash fund, custodian change, closing a petty cash fund), refer to the Lifecycle of a Petty Cash Fund > Administer the Fund.

There are a number of resources available to help transaction preparers identify correct Expenditure Type codes. For more information, refer to Topic Overview: Find Existing Expenditure Type Codes.

Other helpful resources include:

Last Updated: May 7, 2025

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