Attention ePR preparers:

In response to an internal audit, and in strict adherence to Rule 3-010A, we have implemented system changes to enforce Director or Chair approval for all Employee Reimbursements that exceed $1,000.

The intent of the Rule is to provide incentive to departments to use recommended procurement methods based upon the Buying and Payment Guide. Prior to the internal audit, Travel & Reimbursement Services would scrutinize the content of the reimbursement to determine if preferred procurement methods were violated, and would re-route the reimbursement request back to the department to add Director/Chair to the workflow, if necessary.  The system will now enforce a requirement of Director/Chair when the request exceeds $1,000, regardless of the content of the payment.

We encourage Departments to use the most efficient and cost-effective procurement methods as outlined in the Buying and Payment Guide, especially to avoid unnecessary payment of sales tax.

Travel & Reimbursement Services is seeing many reimbursements violating policy.  Please review the policy below to make sure you are complying in order to avoid delaying the reimbursement.

Policy Rule 3-010A.

One common violation is a missing approval from the Director or Department Chair on reimbursements over $1,000. We are fixing ePR so it will automatically add this approval step which simply requires the Director or Department Chair’s name or UNID to be put in.

Policy R3-010A, III.C.4

Reimbursements in excess of the established maximum, currently $1,000, require two approvals – the person’s supervisor and the director or department chair, along with an explanation of why preferred procurement methods were not used.

Another violation is sales tax reimbursement for non-business meals.  We are not able to reimburse sales tax without a Dean or VP approval. 

Other common missing items:

• Missing proof of payment receipts
  • Has to show payee is out of pocket
  • Final transaction receipts from online orders – shipping details required for Amazon orders
• New Membership requires VP, Dean, or Director approval

We’ve added the uNID as a searchable field in both the Voucher and Vendor web apps. This means you’re now able to locate employee or student vendors using their U ID#.

Voucher & Payment Search:

Enter a uNID in the box labeled “Individual”

Vendor Search:

Enter a uNID in the box labeled “Individual.”

You may also use a partial uNID and the system will return potential vendor matches. (This only works from Vendor Search and not in Voucher & Payment Search.)

We are pleased to announce the following enhancements to ePR:

• Approval notification emails are now labeled with “ACTION REQUIRED.”
• Ended Projects – Preparers are now able to submit ePR requests during the time period past the end date and prior to the closed date.
• NUDGE and EMAIL SUMMARY are now functions available to those with Viewer role. Viewers are typically those that have Web Management Report Access.
• We have made it more clear what request type abbreviations mean. (NR means Non-Employee Reimbursement, for example).
• We have made minor adjustments to the EMAIL SUMMARY report to clarify “New Supplier” requests.
• We have made changes to address some of the browser issues with “My Request” and “All Request” lists.
• ORG and $amount of request are now available in “Find Request” lists.

Coming soon:

We will be taking “ACTION REQUIRED” off the notification to preparers sent when all workflow is complete – we recognize that this is causing some confusion.

If you have any questions, concerns or ideas for improvements, please let us know.