Expense April 2015 Release Notes

The following enhancements are included in the following release (version 8.0):

Splitting Cost Allocation for a Line Item

Purpose: Enable dividing the amount for a line item in an expense report by different cost allocation segments.

Benefit: Submitters can quickly produce a more accurate expense report by splitting the cost allocation for a line item while allocating costs to all other line items automatically.

Overview

With cost allocation, organizations can attribute specific line items in expense reports to particular cost segments for accounting. With this enhancement, users can now split the allocation for a line item by the amount (in currency) or by percent to more than one cost segment. For example, if you hosted a company meal for multiple departments, you can split the cost of that meal to allocate costs to each department. If you visited multiple customers to support multiple projects, you can split the trip amount to allocate costs for each customer and project.

Changes to the User Experience

Submitters can still create an expense report and allocate the entire report to a single cost segment in the report header. With this enhancement, users can not only users change the allocation for individual line items in the report after allocating the entire report, but also split the allocation for any line item while leaving the other line items alone. 

For example, the submitter can follow these steps to split the allocation of one line item while leaving other line items allocated:

  1. Create an expense report. While not required, you can enter allocations at the report level for all line items created in the report. You will be able to change individual line items as needed. Once a report is created, the report header allocation can't be changed, but individual line items can be changed.

    Note: This is a change in the user experience. Previously, an allocation appeared either at report creation or line item creation. With this enhancement, cost allocation segments can now be used at either the report header level or line item level, and all segments appear at both levels. The Details tab of the expense report, accessible by all users, no longer includes the cost allocation dropdown menu to make changes at the report header level. 
     
  2. Create a line item in the expense report either manually or by dragging a transaction from the Digital Wallet. The line item cost allocation is already set to the report header allocation (if the report header allocation was set). 
     
  3. Click the Allocate button (between the Itemize and Save buttons) to change the cost allocation for the line item:



    The Allocate Cost dialog appears:

     
     
  4. Change the allocations as needed. Note the following:

    • You can split a cost allocation by editing the percentage or amount fields. As you edit one field, the other is calculated for you.
    • To add another cost segment, click the "Copy this allocation" icon shown above. Another cost allocation row appears as shown below, and you can then edit the second allocation row. You can also click the "Remove this allocation" icon to remove a row:



    • Unallocated or over-allocated amounts are calculated automatically and appear in red.
    • The Save button is always enabled so that you can save your split allocations in progress.
    • If the line item amount changes and you've entered percentages for your splits, the allocations are updated to reflect the new amount based on the percentages.
       
  5. Click Save to save your changes.

As a result of this enhancement, the cost allocation fields no longer appear on the Create Transaction page or in the Transaction drawer. Submitters click the Allocate button (between Itemize and Save) to open the Cost Allocation dialog.

Tip: Users can also select one or more line items at once in the Transaction drawer, and click Allocate Cost in the More Actions dropdown menu to allocate costs at once for all selected line items. 

Changes for the Expense Administrator

Expense administrators no longer have to decide whether a cost allocation segment appears at the report header level or the line item level when setting up cost allocation (see "Setting Up Cost Allocation" in the user help for details). Cost allocation segments can now be used at either the report header level or line item level, and all segments appear at both levels. As a result, the Segment Display options subsection of the Cost Allocation section on the Services | Expense page has been removed.

Delegating Approval

Purpose: Enable approvers to delegate their approver rights to coworkers when they are unavailable.

Benefit: Approval workflows can continue without interruption.

Overview

A delegate approver is someone who can approve expense reports for you, the approver. For example, if you are a manager about to go on vacation, you could assign an administrative assistant as an delegate approver to approve reports until you get back.

An approver can set up one or more delegates who can approve expense reports on the approver's behalf. The approver can continue to receive email notifications for submitted expense reports in order to track approval and approve the report if necessary.

A delegate approver can view the expense reports to approve under the Staff Reports tab.

A payer can view the history of an expense report and see that a delegate approver approved on behalf of the regular approver. The payer can follow up with the appropriate person, if necessary.

For submitters, the approval process is the same even if a delegate approver approves at some point in the process. All other approvers in the process are able to view and approve the report.

Changes to the User Experience

To assign a delegate, the approver can follow these steps:

  1. Open the Profile page: Click your name at the top of the screen, and choose Profile from the dropdown menu.
  2. Click the Add button next to "Delegates" in the top part of the Profile page that shows your personal and business information. The Delegate Access page appears with sections for delegates for booking and submitting, and delegates for approval:

     
     
  3. Click Add a delegate in the People Who Can Approve For Me section. The Add a Delegate Approver page appears.
  4. Enter the name or email address of the user you want to be the delegate, and click Search. A list of users appears under Search Results:

     
     
  5. Click the radio button for a user, and click the checkbox in the Expense column for that user (as shown above). You can select only one user at a time to add as a delegate.
  6. Click the Select button to save your delegate selection.

To remove a delegate from your profile, click the Edit button next to "Delegates" in the top part of the Profile page that shows your personal and business information. You can then click Delete to remove the delegate from your account.

Viewing International Currency Amounts for Corporate Card Transactions

The international currency amount now appears in the "Foreign Amount" column next to the default currency "Amount" column for corporate card transactions in the Digital Wallet, as shown below:

The international currency amount also appears in the transaction list in an expense report in the "Foreign Amount" column, and in parenthesis next to the default currency amount in the transaction header. This enhancement applies only to corporate cards.

Disabling Daily Payer Notification Emails

As a site administrator you can enable or disable Expense payer notifications, which are emailed daily to Expense payers on the site notifying them of expense reports that are ready to pay. Payer notifications are enabled by default. For instructions, see General Settings.

Note: Not available for self-service sites.

Selecting Personal Expense Types

When manually creating or editing an expense report transaction, the Type dropdown menu for the expense type no longer filters out personal expense types. For all transactions (created manually or dragged from the Digital Wallet), the expense types in the Type dropdown menu are no longer grouped into business and personal expenses — all expense types are listed in alphabetical order.

Printing an Expense Report Including All Receipts

Submitters, approvers, and payers can now print a PDF of an expense report that includes all receipts for the report. To print a PDF of the expense report, click the printer icon at the top of the expense report on the right side.