Expense Reports

This guide will outline the steps required to create expense reports. Workday expense reports are available to employees of the Research Foundation. Students (who aren't employed by the Research Foundation) and non-employees will request expense reimbursement using forms found on the Research Foundation intranet site. Use the menu on the left of this document to jump to the section needed. You will not need all of the steps to create your document.

Loralee Quintero
58 steps
7 minutes

Workday

Creating an Expense Report for Travel (Steps 1-26)

Tip! Before your first expense report: Review the instructions for selecting your payment elections in the "Tour the Expenses Hub" section. The payment election must be set up before you submit your first report, or it will produce a check without an address. Workday uses business process workflows to route expense reports for approval based on the accounts entered. If reporting multiple grant accounts, be sure that they all have the same OSP Analyst. The same for program accounts. Workday can only route to one grant approver and one program approver per report. If your grants have two different PIs or analysts, split them into two reports. Workday uses expense types rather than object codes to identify expense types. The descriptions are generally the same as for the object codes in our previous software. You will always search for the description rather than using a number. If you have used a manual travel approval form, please attach it to the expense report if not previously attached to a spend authorization in Workday.

Navigate to the Workday location provided by IT.

Click "MENU"

Scroll down to the "Personal" section and select Expenses Hub.

From the overview page, click "Create Expense Report"

Alert! Many pages will have instructions specific to the expense type you are reporting. Be sure to review the instructions! Fields with a red asterisk are required fields.

The first page has some general instructions and links to assist you. If you have a spend authorization, you link it by clicking on the "Create New Expense Report from Spend Authorization" field. Be sure to use this to ensure that the spend authorization is closed. If there is no spend authorization, use Create New Expense Report (example: blanket travel). If you have a manual approval form (Request Authorization for Travel), please attach it to your report if it has not already been attached to a Workday spend authorization.

Select the spend authorization to link to your expense report.

If this is the final expense report related to this spend authorization, click the check box to indicate this. If you are submitting a partial report for the trip, leave the box unchecked and you will be able to link additional reports to the authorization.

Enter either your grant or program number in the appropriate field. Grants begin with GR followed by the number, programs begin with PR followed by the number. The Additional Worktags will default based on the grant or program.

Click "OK"

To attach a manual travel approval, click on the attachments tab.

Click "Edit"

Click "Select files" to find your approval and attach it.

Once you've done this, click on the "Expense Lines" tab to begin adding your expenses.

To add your first expense type, click the Add button.

Click "New Expense"

Tip! Adding your expense lines is very similar to what you did when creating a spend authorization.

Click "Select files" to attach your receipts.

Click the Expense date field to use add the date.

Click the "Expense Item" field and use the menu or type the expense type into the field. Click enter.

Click this radio button.

Click the "Total Amount" field and add the amount.

Use the calendar buttons to enter your departure and arrival dates.

Click the "Travel Region" field if required by the expense type. You may use the menu to select a country and a region. You may also type the state directly into the field. For the U.S., the travel region is the state. Workday uses full names, not state abbreviations.

Click the state name. Then type the city into the City field.

Click here to indicate that the receipt has been included. Receipts are mandatory.

Click "Add" to add your next expense type.

Click "New Expense" and then follow the steps to add the receipts and information for each of your expense types.

Per Diem (Steps 27-30)

After adding the expense type for Per Diem, click the "Quantity" field and enter the number of days you are claiming per diem.

Click the "Per Unit Amount" field and enter the daily rate for the per diem in the city you are visiting. The software will calculate the total per diem due.

Alert! For partial days, like first/last days, enter a separate line and use the alternate rate for the first and last days.

Click the "City" field and enter the city name.

Once you've entered all of your receipts, click on the submit button.

Non-Travel Expenses (Steps 31-35)

Expense reports for non-travel expenses are created the same way you would create one for travel. There are only a couple of differences which you can see in the steps below.

Add a description to the Memo field

Click on the Business Purpose field and select "Non-Travel Reimbursement" from the drop-down list. The remaining steps are the same as a travel reimbursement request.

Click "By Expense Item Group"

Click "Other Expenses"

Adding Receipts captured with the Workday App (Steps 36-41)

Tip! Workday has an app that you can download from the app store for your device. You can scan your receipts and even create expense reports from your phone. The following will show you how to add a scanned receipt to your expense report.

Start an expense report, as instructed in the steps above. On the first page, enter your memo, select the business purpose and add your grant or program account. Then, scroll toward the bottom of the page to see "Quick Expenses"

Click the check box to include the receipt in your report. If you have multiple, you can "Select All".

Click "OK" and the receipt(s) will be imported to your report. Add the expense type, amount, etc. to complete the entry for each of the receipts you have entered. Proceed with your report as described previously.

You can also see your scanned receipts by selecting Expense Transactions from the Expenses Hub menu.

Click here to go to Expense Transactions.

You can see the scanned receipts below. You may start your expense report from this screen by clicking on the Create Expense Report button, then adding the receipts as described above.

Approving an Expense Report (Steps 42-46)

Click on the Task Box at the top right of the Workday home page.

Locate the expense report and click on the arrows to enlarge the viewing pane.

Click on the icon to toggle to the detail view (non-blue icon)

Review the expense lines. If there is more than one line, you will need to click on each line to review it. You may open the receipts by clicking on the hyperlink. Review the grant and program number and expense type to ensure they are correct. If there are any issues, you can return the report to the creator by clicking the Send Back button. You will be required to add a comment.

If everything is correct, click on the Approve button and the report will be routed to the next approver.

Tour the Expenses Hub (Steps 47-58)

From the Expense Hub Overview page, you will see a snapshot of any advances, pending expense reports, and transactions to expense. The hyperlinks will take you directly to the pages for those items. You can also go to the menu at the left to navigate to different sections of the hub.

In the overview page, click on the menu item "Expense Reports".

You will see a list of all expense reports you have created. You can see the approval status and whether you have been paid. If there is an Actions button, you can change or cancel a submitted report (as long as it is unpaid). Changes will cause your report to go back through the approval workflow.

Click on Expense Transactions in the menu to view your scanned receipts.

View your receipts and start or edit expense reports from this page.

To view your Spend Authorizations, use the menu at the left and click on Spend Authorizations.

You can see all of your Spend Authorizations and their status here. If there is an Action button, you will be able to change or cancel a spend authorization.

To view your Cash Advances, click on the menu selection at the left.

You can view the approval and payment status for your advances. You will see which ones are still outstanding, pending expense reports and which ones have been cleared.

You can set up your payment information from the Expenses Hub. Navigate to Payment Elections in the menu.

In the top section, you will see available bank accounts. If you have direct deposit, you this will be populated from payroll. You can add additional bank accounts here by using the add button.

In the section at the bottom of the page, you will see your payment elections. The payroll election will default from payroll (but can be changed here). Before you create your first expense report, you will need to elect a payment type for your expense reports. You can click on the edit button to change your election between check and electronic payment.

Expense Reports

Loralee Quintero
58 steps
7 minutes