ePR: Employee Reimbursement Approvals >$1,000

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.

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Comments Off on ePR: Employee Reimbursement Approvals >$1,000

ePayment Request Reimbursements

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
Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Comments Off on ePayment Request Reimbursements

New functionality in Voucher and Vendor web apps!

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.)

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Comments Off on New functionality in Voucher and Vendor web apps!

New in ePR – August 2018

We are pleased to announce the following enhancements to ePR:

  • Ability to future date the Invoice Date field. This is especially useful for Scholar/Fellow/Traineeships that need to be submitted prior to their start date and encumbered in a subsequent accounting month.
  • An update to the non-resident alien verbiage so users can easily understand when to answer yes/no.

  • Coming Soon! Users will be asked to answer either yes or no for non-resident alien on the following ePR request types—a response will be required.

(*Note: all other request types will default to no, but can be changed, if needed.)

  • Misc.
  • Scholar/Fellow/Traineeship
  • Athletic Scholarship
  • Student & Educational Payments
Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

New in ePR… February 2018

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. 

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

New Request Type Available: Petty Cash

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Petty Cash request type in ePR!

This will allow established petty cash custodians to submit petty cash reimbursement requests. See the Petty Cash Fund Procedures and policy 3-011: Petty Cash Funds.

The Petty Cash request type is currently live so it will be the exclusive method for submitting a petty cash reimbursement as of January 1. Receipts submitted through ePR should be retained and filed by the requesting department for three fiscal years.

There are a few special requirements for submitting a Petty Cash request in ePR, which can be found in the How-to Guide here.

This payment type will only be available to petty cash custodians.

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

ePR Changes Effective December 1, 2017

Most Paper Payment Requests have been eliminated:

Effective December 1, 2017, Accounts Payable will no longer accept paper Payment Requests unless the request is for Petty Cash, Wire Transfers or Traineeships.

Development of these request types are currently underway, and they will be available in the coming months.

Expedited ePR Requests:

Also available December 1: Ability to expedite ePR requests.  If your department has the need to rush a request, the option will be active. Users can select either Same Day ($24 fee) or Next Day ($12 fee) service for expedited requests.

Expedited requests must be pending a central approval by 12pm each business day in order to be guaranteed for the expedited time frames. Preparers will need to work with all departmental approvers to rush the request through their approvals.  Once an expedited request is in our central queue, we will do what is necessary to complete the request within the required time frame.

Expedited requests will continue to be unavailable for Employee or Non-Employee Reimbursements.

ePR Training:

We appreciate all those who have participated in ePR during the pilot and implementation phases.  We have been distributing reference materials and assigning access to the system upon request during these phases.  Beginning December 1, we will be returning to a more traditional training strategy.  We ask that those needing access to ePR first review training materials and then submit a form requesting access.

If you do not have access to ePR, complete the training and form here.

Questions? Use our ASK US form.

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

Additional Request Types Available to all ePR Users

The ePR Pilot Phase is officially over!  Everyone who has access to Employee and Non-Employee Reimbursements now has access to TEN other request types.

Our efforts to expand ePR is part of our overall objective to eliminate paper Payment Requests.

NOTE: The paper PR form will be eliminated by December 1, 2017.

The only transactions that cannot be completed using ePR at this time are Wire Transfers and Petty Cash requests, and we are currently developing these solutions.

What do you need to do?

Please use ePR to submit ALL other PR requests.  We are looking forward to your feedback as you use ePR!

ePR Resources:

  1. Since there are several ePR request types, USE THIS GUIDE to decide which type you will use: http://fbs.admin.utah.edu/download/ePR/epr-roadmap.pdf
  2. Within the ePR application, the “tips” link will provide other training materials, guides, etc.
  3. Quick Start Preparer Guide (Most AP Request Types):  http://fbs.admin.utah.edu/download/ePR/epr-general-payment-request.pdf
  4. Quick Start Preparer Guide (Employee Reimbursement):  http://fbs.admin.utah.edu/download/ePR/epr-howto-preparer.pdf

How do you find and use ePR?

ePR is found in CIS – there is a tile with an ePR icon on the Financial and Business Services page.

Who do I contact with questions and feedback?

Please use our ePR Question/Feedback form , or­ you may also use our ASK US form with any processing questions.

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

Thank You for your Suggestions! New ePR Version

We appreciate the feedback that we have received from our ePR users, and have incorporated the following enhancements to the ePR system:

  • Approvers can now see and review secure attachments.
  • Request Type and Sub-Types (Purposes) are now listed in alphabetic order for user convenience.
  • More user suggestions will be part of future releases.

We are now in the implementation stage of the 12 Request Types in ePR, refer to the full list below.  If you are ready to use ePR for all these payment types, submit the “Give me more ePR Access” form.

Keep providing your ePR feedback!

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Leave a comment

New ePR Guides: Find a Vendor & Format Invoice Numbers

We have heard from many of our ePR users, and we love and appreciate the feedback!

Use ePR for all your Payment Requests!

Do you have all 12 Payment Types in your access? If not, submit the Give Me More Access to ePR form and ditch the paper PRs!

2 New ePR Guides:

We hope these two new guides will help ePR users save time and submit accurate ePR requests:

Don’t forget that other helpful tips are found from within the application using the TIPS link.

Please refer to the following page for other guides and information:

ePR Training

Continue to Share Your ePR feedback!

Subscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail ListSubscribe to the Controller's Corner E-mail List
Comments Off on New ePR Guides: Find a Vendor & Format Invoice Numbers