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.
About
The Expense Requests System is used for:
- Expense Reports: Submit expense reports to properly record business and travel-related expenses, and to request reimbursement for Stanford affiliates (faculty, staff, students, emeritus on payroll) – including reporting expenses purchased with a Stanford Travel Card (TCards). Refer to Topic Overview: Reimbursements and Expense Reports and Topic Overview: Managing Aging and Outstanding Transactions.
- Visitor Reimbursements: Request Stanford Easy Pay reimbursement for Stanford business and travel expenses incurred by non-Stanford affiliates (individuals, companies or organizations not affiliated with the university, or emeritus no longer on payroll). Refer to Topic Overview: Inviting and Paying Domestic Visitors and Topic Overview: Inviting and Paying Foreign Visitors.
- Advances: Request advances for travel expenses (when payment by Stanford Travel Card is not an option) or to provide funds for distribution to human subjects. Refer to Topic Overview: Advances and Topic Overview: Managing Aging and Outstanding Transactions.
- Non-PO Payments: Request non-purchase order (non-PO) payments to pay for certain types of expenses that do not require a formal purchase order (PO), or for which negotiation by the Procurement Services department adds no value. Stanford Easy Pay streamlines the process for honoraria payments. Refer to Guidelines for Use of Non-PO Payment Categories.
- Petty Cash: Request replenishment for a petty cash fund. Refer to Topic Overview: Life Cycle of a Petty Cash Fund.
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.
Access
If you require access to the Expense Requests system, you will need to:
- Have your school/department grant you "SU Expense Requests" authority privilege using the Authority Manager application. For help determining who can grant authority in your organization, refer to Topic Overview: View Financial Authority Assignments.
- Complete required training including any prerequisite courses not previously taken.
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.
Learning
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.
- Using Stanford Easy Pay (for visitor reimbursements and honoraria payments)
- The following optional STARS courses are temporarily archived for redesign/redevelopment. Links to helpful content on Fingate have been added to the course overview pages below:
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.
How tos
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Step-by-step instructions for transaction approvers are available at:
- Step-by-step instructions for viewing and requesting suppliers are available at:
Resources
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:
Reporting
- Expense Requests system transaction detail reporting can be performed using the Oracle Business Intelligence OBI Expense Requests and SU Card Activity Dashboard. Use the dashboard to report on Expense Requests system transaction details (e.g., expense reports, visitor reimbursements, Stanford Travel Card transactions, advances, non-PO payments and petty cash replenishments), historical iOU transactions and Stanford Purchasing Card transactions recorded in the PCard module of Oracle Financials.
Refer to OBI Financial Reporting system for more information.
- For information about pending transactions, refer to Oracle Financials Inquiry Tools: Pending Transactions.
