FAQ

University travelers must participate in the VAT program by submitting their ORIGINAL receipts so refunds can be pursued. Receipts that are based on O-CONUS per diem are not reviewed for any other purpose. The Value Added Tax Reclamation submission procedure is initiated in SAP Concur by using the VAT Receipt Transmittal form available in the Print menu of the expense report. Many countries currently participate in VAT refunds for USA-based entities and the types of expenses that are eligible.

Value-Added Tax (VAT) is a national sales tax on goods and services, which is levied by many countries around the world. In 1987, the European Union (EU) began offering refunds of VAT to foreign companies that travel to participating EU countries for business purposes. Depending on the country, VAT may be refunded on hotels, restaurants, car rentals, parking, gasoline, diesel fuel, transportation within the country, business entertainment, telecommunications, conferences, trade shows, training courses, and professional fees. Certain VAT is not refundable, such as on alcohol and laundry services.

Many countries participate in the refund of VAT to US entities and the eligible expense categories.

Receipts can be e-mailed to the Available Receipts by the report owner or by a delegate. Receipts in the Available Receipts can be assigned to expenses in a report. The Available Receipts is available to the delegates for assigning receipts to expenses in the report. Each user must turn on the e-mail function for his or herself. E-mail addresses are added and verified in the Profile section. 

Concur Mobile Apps enable users to take a picture of a receipt and automatically upload the image into the Available Receipts. Images of receipts in the Available Receipts can then be attached to expenses in an Expense Report.

Images in the Available Receipts can be rotated for viewing by clicking the rotation button. Images that are JPG or PNG file types can be saved in the new orientation. All other file types can only be rotated for viewing. 

No, receipts for expenses included in an SAP Concur expense report do not need to be signed. Neither PCARD nor cash expense receipts need a signature. The electronic signature placed on the report during the submit process covers all expenses and receipts included in the report.

The e-receipt activation message appears in the Home screen of SAP Concur. If the message is not displaying there, go to Profile menu and click Profile Settings. In the Other Settings section look for E-Receipt Activation.

There are several ways to upload and attach receipt images:

• Receipts may be scanned and the images upload to the report.
• Receipts can be e-mailed to the Receipt Store for attaching to expenses.
• Receipts can be imaged using the Concur Mobile App on a mobile device.

The SAP Concur User Guide available at http://www.sapconcur.psu.edu/documentation.cfm#USR has detailed instructions on all the options for attaching receipts to expense reports. 

Receipts can be deleted from a report that has an approval status of "Not filed" or "Sent Back to Employee." There can be report level and expense level receipts attached to a report. How the delete is done depends on the level.

• Report Level Receipts: On the Receipt menu select Delete Receipts. All attached receipts will be removed.
• Expense Level Receipts which are attached to individual expenses: Hover on the receipt icon in the expense. Click the Detach from Entry button in the lower right corner of the pop-up window.

Faxing receipts is no longer supported.

Once users activate e-receipts they cannot opt themselves out, but they can opt out specific PCARDs. Credit Cards can be added or opted out in the Credit Cards section of Profile.

In Profile / Profile Settings look for Credit Cards section. It will list all saved cards. Click the pencil icon to open and edit a card. Uncheck the "Receives e-receipts for this card." checkbox. Save the change.

Receipts should be kept until the traveler receives his or her reimbursement. 

Faxing receipts is no longer supported.

Yes. Activating e-receipts allows vendors to send a copy of the final receipts directly into SAP Concur attached to the PCARD charge. E-receipts can replace manually attached receipts for those expenses.

E-receipts are a copy of a receipt sent into SAP Concur by a vendor.

• The e-receipt is sent along with a PCARD charge by participating vendors. Not all Visa vendors provide e-receipts.
• Only reservations and charges made on a University PCARD can include e-receipts.
• E-receipts must be activated in SAP Concur by each user.

• Use the highest resolution possible on your printer
  • Good printing resolution is essential for making the barcodes readable by the imaging software. Most printers support and default to at least 300 dots per inch, which is sufficient resolution.
• Print on plain white paper
  • Paper colors other than white can cause some fax machines to "smear" the bar edges, and this can confuse the imaging software. Background patterns, watermarks, logos, and the like can also confuse the imaging software.
• Print using portrait orientation, not landscape
  • The barcodes are formatted only for portrait orientation (long dimension of the page vertical).
• Make sure the print is dark and clear , with no smudges, streaks, or marks
  • If the print is gray or uneven or there are extraneous marks, the imaging software may not be able to read the barcodes.
• Check that there are three barcodes with the words TOP and BOTTOM
  • By checking that the words TOP and BOTTOM are visible above and below the barcodes, you assure that the barcodes are complete. If any barcode is truncated or any part of a barcode is printed on another page, reduce the browser margins (on most browsers, open the File menu and click Page Setup). The barcodes are designed to fit on one page as long as all four margins are 1 inch or less.
• Place the pages so the cover page is faxed first
  • The imaging software expects to find the barcodes on the first page of the fax transmission.
• Place pages facing correctly (face down for most fax machines)
  • If the paper is facing the wrong way in the fax machine, blank pages will be sent. On most fax machines the side to be faxed is placed face down, often indicated by an icon like .
• Feed the pages as straight as possible
  • If the barcodes are slightly skewed, the fax will "smear" the bar edges, and this can confuse the imaging software.
• Set the fax machine to Fine Resolution and turn Polling Off
  • The default or "Normal" resolution on some fax machines can cause distortion in the barcode images, but the next higher setting, usually called "Fine," is reliable. The "Polling" feature found on some fax machines is not used for normal fax transmission and should be turned off.
• Make sure that halftone or photo mode is not on
  • Special settings used for faxing photographs can "smear" the bar edges and this can confuse the imaging software.
• Within 5 to 15 minutes the receipt image(s) should be available for viewing.

• Although PDF is the recommended file type for scanned receipts, the following file types are accepted: PNG, JPG, JPEG, HTML, TIF, and TIFF.
• Each image file must be no larger than 5 MB in size.
• Set scanner resolution at 72 dpi (dots per inch) to keep image size smaller and improve upload time.
• A maximum of 10 image files may be selected per upload session.
• A report can have multiple upload sessions.
• There is no limit to the number of image files that can be uploaded using multiple upload sessions.

Receipt documentation found here

https://sapconcur.psu.edu/receipts

Report Level Receipts:

• Receipts are attached to the report by image upload.
• Receipts are viewable on the Receipt menu in a New Window or in the Current Window.
• Receipts can be deleted on Receipt menu.

Expense Level Receipts:

Expense entry level receipts are displayed in SIMBA when the expense report is posted.

• Individual receipt is attached to specific expense in the Expense List.
• Available Receipts holds uploaded receipts waiting to be assigned to an expense.
• Individual receipts are deleted right from the expense.
• Unassigned receipts in the Available Receipts can be deleted there.
• Expense receipt displays from icon on expense.
• Expense Level receipts also display in the Receipt Menu with the Report Level receipts, but they are not deleted there.

The AccuFax Fax Carrier is available from General Stores through eBuy at http://www.ebuy.psu.edu. The product number is L5099DC.

The SAP Concur system always saves allocation as percents. Allocation done by dollar amount is saved as a percentage. The conversion of dollars to percents sometimes will make the dollar amounts change by a few pennies. To force an allocation to be an exact dollar amount the allocation amounts of one expense entry can be edited to change the amounts to the correct number. The SAP Concur Help Desk can assist you with this process.

SAP Concur will only allow allocation by dollar amount when all the expense entries selected are either all positive numbers or all negative numbers. A mixed selection of positive and negative numbers may only be allocated by percentage. An example of a negative number is a Reimbursement Reduction which is always entered as a negative number (-23.54).

IBIS no longer used 

The Process to defer expenses to the next fiscal year has changed and does not happen in Concur. Please see the Accrual Accounting document for more information.

Itineraries are only used in expense reports if a traveler is requesting reimbursement for meal expenses and/or OCONUS lodging expenses. An itinerary should be utilized to create the appropriate per diem expense entries for each overnight travel location.

Itineraries can be deleted from the Available Itinerary list. An itinerary assigned to a report must be unassigned and then can be deleted.

Itineraries can be removed from an expense report at any point prior to submitting the report. Caution: removing an itinerary or itinerary stop from a report will also remove all related Fixed Meal and/or Fixed Lodging expenses.

In an expense report on the Details menu select Available Itineraries. The Assigned Itineraries section shows any itineraries assigned to the report. An itinerary must be Unassigned before it can be deleted in the Available Itineraries section of the page.

In the Available Itineraries section an itinerary can be selected and the Delete button clicked to delete the itinerary.

Note:

1. An Itinerary with a padlock in the column to the left of the Actions column cannot be deleted. The padlock indicates the itinerary is attached to an expense report that has been submitted.
    
2. Deleting an itinerary that is assigned to an unsubmitted report will remove the itinerary and all applicable Fixed Meals and/or Fixed Lodging entries from the report.

Per diem expenses are added by clicking Details->New Itinerary to create and itinerary which will alllow Concur to calculate and create the daily per diem expense entries.

Click Next to get to the Assigned Itineraries tab. This is where you can select an Assigned Itinerary to edit it, or to unassign and delete it. If the Assigned Itinerary is correct, click Next to go to the Expenses & Adjustments tab.

Once in the Expenses & Adjustments tab, if any meals were provided during travel by a conference, a business group meal, or another source, select the checkbox corresponding to that Provided Meal to remove that meal allowance from that day's per diem. Meals presumed to be eaten at home or purchased on a PCARD are not considered Provided Meals. In the event all meals for a day are provided, no meal per diem can be claimed for that day. However, the incidental per diem amount ($5 for CONUS travel, variable for OCONUS travel) may still be claimed at the traveler's discretion.

In compliance with the University Travel Policy, for the first and last travel days, Concur will prorate those day's meal per diem to 75% of the overnight location's allowance. Travelers will get this amount regardless of travel time of day or duration of the day's travel.

Select the Expenses & Adjustments link on the Details menu of a report. Meals provided at a conference or group meals must be identified as "provided meals." Select the appropriate checkbox for each provided meal to reduce per diem allowance amounts per the Travel Policy. After all provided meals have been identified, select Create Expenses or Update Expenses to create or adjust per diem expense entries in the expense report.

Every itinerary must consist of two (2) rows minimum. The first row contains the departure from a home/campus location and arrival at a destination; the second row contains the departure from a travel destination and return to the home/campus location.

An itinerary should have as many rows as needed to record arrival at each new overnight stay location.

Adding multiple non employee reports for travel on the same dates directions

The application allows SAP Concur support staff to add locations for the City search list.

To request the addition of a CONUS location, please submit a request to the SAP Concur Helpdesk. Include the name of the City, the State abbreviation, and the ZIP Code. The U.S. ZIP Code Lookup application is an excellent resource for the information required to add a new location for CONUS travel.

To request the addition of an OCONUS location, please submit a request to the SAP Concur Helpdesk with as much information as possible on the location: the country and province where applicable, a well-known location nearby, anything that will assist the HelpDesk match the new location to an appropriate per diem rate.

The Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP) confirmed when the M&IE is reduced to 75% the full cost of a provided meal is deducted and that the meal itself is not reduced at the 75% rate based upon §301-11.18 of the FTR.

For example, the M&IE rate for Chicago is $74.  First day of travel would be $55.50.  If breakfast was provided ($17), the new calculated M&IE for the first day of travel would be $38.50.  The total amount of meal deductions cannot result in a lesser amount than the incidentals authorized for the location, in this example for Chicago that would be $5.

For CONUS (contiguous US) travel, lodging is reimbursed by the actual amount spent. For OCONUS (Outside of contiguous US) travel, lodging is reimbursed by per diem in addition to meals and incidentals.

The Overnight checkboxes are applicable to OCONUS travel only, for use when traveler is not being reimbursed for lodging by per diem. Select the Overnight checkbox to exclude a day's lodging per diem from the reimbursement request.

Individual Purchasing Card transactions can be found under Expense, View Transactions.

This screen is extremely helpful you can display all transactions by year and then sort on those columns by Description, Amount or Date.

Documentation located here: Help I cannot find my Pcard Transactions

Any purchasing card charges that are considered personal expenses, and therefore, not reimbursable by Penn State, will first be offset against any reimbursement due the employee.

If no reimbursement is due to the employee, the non-reimbursable amount resulting from PCARD transactions will be deducted from the employee's pay.

PCARD charges are displayed in the Available Expenses section of Expense. All PCARD charges that have not been assigned to an expense report will be displayed.

To assign a PCARD charge to a report create a new report or open an existing report and use the Import menu to display and then import the PCARD charges into the report.

A historical list of all PCARD charges in SAP Concur for the Cardholder is available. Click on the View Transaction link in the Expense page to open the historical list of all PCARD charges. The Company Card Charges list can be filtered to display all the charges by calendar year or for specific time periods within a year. The list will include the report name for all charges assigned to expense reports.

• If the meal is part of a hotel receipt and the traveler is claiming per diem, the meal needs to be marked non-reimbursed. In the itemization, select the expense type PCARD Meal Expense for the meal(s) and check the Deduct From Reimbursement box.
• There may be times that a Group Meal is the only charge on the lodging receipt (no room charges) if the traveler had a lunch or dinner meeting in a hotel dining facility. In this case the Hotel/Motel (itemization required) expense type should be changed to Group Meals/Mtg (attendees required). Complete all required fields. If the traveler is claiming per diem for the day, the appropriate meal provided box should be checked in per diem allowances in the Expenses and Adjustments screen.

Individual meal expenses are reimbursed using Per Diem (Travel Allowances). The following outlines how to account for PCARD meal expenses and out-of-pocket meal expenses as they correspond to Per Diem meal allowances. Each type of meal transaction should be processed as follows:

After creating the Report Header or by clicking Details->New Itinerary, create and itinerary which will alllow Concur to create the daily per diem expense entries:

1. Create itinerary rows in the New Stop section of the Traver Allowences screen.
2. Each itinerary row contains the departure location, date and time and the arrival location, date and time of your destination.
3. Create an itinerary row for each change in overnight stay location.
4. Click Save to save each row when complete.
5. Complete all itinerary rows using the New Stop fields.
6. If an itinerary is for 1-day travel there must still be two itinerary rows:
   • one for departure from home location and arrival at destination;
   • one for the return trip to home location.
7. Click Next when all itinerary rows have been saved;
8. Click Next in the Available Itineraries screen.
9. The Expenses and Adjustments screen will display the per diem amount for each day in the itinerary.
10. For CONUS travel the amount will include meal and incidental reimbursement.
11. For OCONUS travel the amount will include lodging, meal and incidental reimbursement.

In compliance with the University Travel Policy, for the first and last travel days, Concur will prorate those day's meal per diem to 75% of the overnight location's allowance. Travelers will get this amount regardless of travel time of day or duration of the day's travel.

If any meals were provided during travel by a conference, a business group meal, or another source, select the checkbox corresponding to the Provided Meal to remove that meal allowance from the daily per diem. Meals presumed to be eaten at home are not considered Provided Meals. In the event all meals for a day are provided, no meal per diem can be claimed for that day. However, the incidental per diem amount ($5 for CONUS travel, variable for OCONUS travel) may still be claimed at the traveler's discretion.

Individual meals purchased with a PCARD are not provided meals, do not select the meal provided checkbox. Per diem meals corresponding to individual PCARD meals must be included to net against the amount deducted for the PCARD meal.

When all provided meals have been identified, click Create Expenses. Each day of meal per diem expense will be entered in the Expense List as a Fixed Meal. (The OCONUS lodging portion will be entered separately as Fixed Lodging).

Add PCARD Meal Expense transactions:

1. If the Available Expenses screen is not available on the right, click the Import button above the Expense List on the left to open the Available Expenses.
2. Select the applicable PCARD meal expense(s) from the Available Expenses screen by clicking the checkbox to the left of the transaction(s).
3. Click the Import button in the Available Expenses screen to assign the PCARD meal transaction(s) to the report.

The default expense type, PCARD Meal Expense, will be assigned to all meals purchased with a PCARD.

• If a PCARD Meal Expense is a group meal:
  • edit the expense entry;
  • change the expense type to "Group Meals/Mtg (attendees required)"; and
  • complete all required information and save.
• If a PCARD Meal Expense is an individual meal:
  • edit the expense entry;
  • select the Deduct From Reimbursement checkbox located below the Comments box; and
  • save changes.

Repeat the steps for all individual PCARD meals. The amount of each individual PCARD meal will be subtracted from the total CASH reimbursement amount.

A payroll deduction will occur if the total of the PCARD meal expenses plus any non-reimbursable PCARD expenses exceeds the total CASH reimbursement (the amount a traveler is entitled to for per diem allowances plus cash expenses).

Out-of-pocket Meals: do not create any expense entries for individual meals purchased with cash or personal credit cards.

All individual meal expenses are reimbursed based on standard per diem rates assigned to each location. The traveler is eligible for the meal per diem in effect for the location where he or she spends that night. For the final travel day, the per diem in effect will be that of the prior night's stay.

Reimbursement of actuals must be approved PRIOR to travel.

If the actual reimbursement method is approved, ALL expenses for that type of expenditure (lodging, meals or both) for the entire trip must be claimed on an actual basis and supported by receipts. The per diem for lodging and/or meals claimed as actual must be marked as provided in per diem allowances in the Expenses and Adjustments screen.

Lodging: The default expense type will be Hotel/Motel (itemization required):

1. Edit the transaction and change the expense type to OCONUS Actual Lodging.
2. Itemization is still required.
3. Do NOT select the Deduct from Reimbursement box.

Meals:The default expense type will be PCARD Meal Expense.

1. If the expense is an individual meal:< >Edit the transaction and change the expense type to OCONUS Actual Meals.Do NOT select the Deduct from Reimbursement box.If the expense is a group meal:
   • Edit the transaction and change expense type to Group Meal (attendees required).
   • Complete all required fields.

OCONUS lodging expenses are reimbursed using Per Diem (Travel Allowances). OCONUS lodging charged on a PCARD will be marked deduct from reimbursement and will be subtracted from the cash reimbursement which includes the per diem for lodging. If the OCONUS PCARD lodging amount exceeds the cash reimbursement in the report it will result in a deduction from the traveler's paycheck.

To assign a PCARD lodging transaction to the expense report:

1. Click the Import button in the Expense list of the report.
2. The Available Expenses list will open on the right side of the screen.
3. Select the checkbox to the left of the appropriate transaction(s) and click Import which will move the selected transaction(s) to the Expense list.
4. Transaction will import with the Expense Type of Hotel/Motel (Itemization required).
5. Click on the Expense to open it for editing on the right side of the screen.
6. Change expense type to Hotel/Motel (no itemization) and check the checkbox for Deduct from Reimbursement.
7. Click Save.

Calculate Actual Expenses

1. Per Diem Allowance: total all Fixed Meal entries for all days of travel in the Expense List.
2. Actual Expense: total all individual PCARD Meal Expense entries and add any out-of-pocket meal expenses for all days of travel .
3. Amount of Reduction: subtract the Actual Expense amount from the Per Diem Allowance amount.

Add Reimbursement Reduction Entry

1. Click New Expense in the Expense List;
2. On right side of screen select Reimbursement Reduction expense type located in the "Other" category in the Expense Type field.
3. Enter the Amount of Reduction (from the above calculation) as a negative number and enter a comment explaining the reason for the reduction. Reductions should not be done day-by-day.
4. Type the reason for the reduction into the comments field of the Reimbursement Reduction.
5. Click Save.

The amount will show up as a negative and a review of Report Totals page will indicate the total reimbursement due to the traveler has been reduced by the Reimbursement Reduction entry.

Any unassigned charges which have not been substantiated after an appropriate period of time (greater than 60 days after the trip has occurred) will be considered non-reimbursable transactions.
The Financial Officer will have the authority to submit an expense report on behalf of the Cardholder to settle these non-reimbursable transactions, which would result in a deduction from the Cardholder's paycheck for the amount of the transaction. The Financial Officer may also proceed to take action based on misuse of the purchasing card. (Reference: PC2009, Page 9)

If a receipt is lost or, for some reason, you do not receive a receipt or invoice, you should contact the vendor to get a duplicate.

In the rare situation where the vendor will not provide a duplicate receipt, you should complete a Substantiation Form for Lost or Unobtainable Receipts, This form does require approval by the budget administrator or budget executive and the Financial Officer before the transaction can be settled in SAP Concur.

Lost receipt form

Receipts are required for all transactions charged to the purchasing card, with the exception of individual meals.

Group Meals/Meetings must be supported by itemized receipts.

Receipts will be attached to the expense report.

Both of these expense types are used to remove expenses from a reimbursement:

• If the transaction is on a purchasing card, the Non-Reimbursed PCARD Expense expense type should be used for any non-business expense that may be included on the receipt.
• If the expenses were paid by cash or personal credit card and personal expenses are listed on a receipt that also includes business transactions and the traveler is including those personal transactions in the report use Non-Reimbursed Other Expense for the personal amount only. The personal expenses do not have to be included.

The Cardholder must settle all travel expenditures (including those on the purchasing card) in SAP Concur no later than 60 days after the end of the trip (30 days if the travel is charged to a restricted fund and is completed in the last month of the sponsored agreement).

PCARD charges which have not been settled after an appropriate period of time (greater than 60 days after the trip has occurred) will be considered non-reimbursable transactions.

The Financial Officer will have the authority to submit an expense report on behalf of the Cardholder to settle these non-reimbursable transactions which would result in a deduction from the Cardholder's paycheck for the amount of the transactions. The Financial Officer may also proceed to take action based on misuse of the purchasing card.

GURU's link to the PSU Purchasing Card provides a reference list of relevant links and information available to cardholders and Financial Officers.

There are three scenarios in which the Deduct from Reimbursement check box should be selected:

1. The expense is a personal, non-business expense, and should not be paid by the University;
2. Any non-group CONUS meal -- by policy CONUS meals are reimbursed using per diem;
3. Any OCONUS non-group meal or OCONUS lodging expense that is not being claimed as an actual.

When a traveler uses a PCARD for an expense that is reimbursed as per diem, the Deduct from Reimbursement box MUST be checked so the University is not paying for the same expense twice.

NOTE: When the Deduct from Reimbursement box is checked on a PCARD transaction, the amount will be offset against any reimbursement due to the traveler. If no reimbursement is due to the employee, the non-reimbursable amount will be deducted from the employee's pay.

When an employee travels, individual meal expenses will be reimbursed via the meal and incidentals per diem. Per diem applies to 1-day and multi-day travel. In an expense report an itinerary is created in Travel Allowances. The itinerary is used to automatically calculate the maximum allowable amount of per diem for the day. A Fixed Meal expense entry is created in the Expense List for the per diem amount. The per diem amount reimbursed to the employee is taxable income. As with any reimbursement request, a lesser amount may be claimed at the traveler's request. Meal receipts are not required to support the claim for full- or partial-day per diem.

Reimbursement for meal and incidental expenses when no overnight travel is involved requires that the reimbursement amount be reported as part of the employee's taxable income unless it is a valid Group Meal with a clear business purpose and a list of attendees is supplied.

EXAMPLE:  An employee travels from Philadelphia to UP. During the return trip from UP, the employee stops and eats lunch. If the employee requests reimbursement for the meal, the total benefit that an employee will receive (total per diem, out of pocket meal reimbursement, or PCARD Meal expense) is the 1-Day Taxable Meal Amount and must be entered on the Fixed Meal entry that is created by the itinerary.  

How to handle taxable meals for 1-day travel in an SAP Concur report:

1. In Report Header select the checkbox for "Does this report include 1-Day Meal Reimbursement". This turns on the reminder for the taxable amount field on the Fixed Meal expense.
2. Create the itinerary and the Fixed Meal expense for the per diem.
3. In the Expense List, click on the Fixed Meal expense to open it.
4. Enter the total amount of the meal expense benefit that the traveler is claiming in the 1-Day Taxable Meal Amount field.  The amount entered may be any of the following but must not exceed the original amount of the Fixed Meal expense entry:

• total allowable per diem, or
• actual out of pocket meal expense, or
• actual PCARD Meal expense, or
• actual out of pocket meal expense plus actual PCARD Meal expense

NOTE: If per diem is reduced to actual spent the taxable amount is the actual spent amount (out of pocket plus PCARD Meals). It will be less than the original amount of the Fixed Meal entry.

IRS Taxable Per Diem Policy

This expense type would be used when a meeting includes a meal where each participant pays for a portion of the meal expense or pays the entire cost of their own meal in one of the following scenarios:

EXAMPLE 1: An employee travels from Harrisburg to UP for a meeting. Meeting participants decide to work through lunch and have food delivered to them. The employee pays $6.00 toward lunch -- the $6.00 would be a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal expense. EXAMPLE 2: An employee travels to UP for a meeting. After the meeting, traveler and another participant go to lunch to review the topics discussed at the meeting, each paying for their own meal.

When a Non-Taxable 1-Day Meal is claimed, the request must follow the same rules as a Group Meal (attendees required) expense.

Users log into SAP Concur on the SAP Concur home page (www.sapconcur.psu.edu). SAP Concur is protected by authentication through WebAccess which requires a valid AccessID and an employee status of 'active' in the University's HR system. The SAP Concur is a web-hosted application from Concur Technologies, Inc. and requires that JavaScript be enabled in your web browser.

Check for newer versions of stored pages

• For optimal performance, select the Automatically option on the Settings dialog.

Browser Cache Setting

• Verify that the box next to the Never Check Server is not checked.

Security Settings

• Verify that all security zones are set to the Default Levels.

Disable script debugging

• Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to disable script debugging.

Notification of script error

• Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to display script error notification.

Enable Cookies

• Recommend Medium setting.

Browsers certified for use with the Employee Reimbursement System are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 11
• Microsoft Edge
• Firefox versions 53, 54, & 55
• Safari versions 5.1, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, & 10.0
• Google Chrome versions 59, 60, & 61

Attendee groups can be used to quickly add a group of attendees that regularly hold group meals together. 

• Add all of the attendees individually to a group meal using the Advanced Search.
• Select all of the attendees in the group by clicking the boxes to the left of the Attendees’ names, or the Select All check box.
• Click the Modify button, then Create Group.
• Give the group a name and click Save.
• Use this group in future reports by clicking Favorites, then switching the tab to Attendee Groups.
• An attendee group will only be available in the profile of the employee the group was originally created under.

If the attendee group exceeds 12 people, a Group of 12 or More can be used instead as preferred. See FAQ for rules and process for using a Group of 12 or More

When there are twelve or more attendees in a Group Meal, one attendee entry can be created for the attendees using the "Group of 12 or MORE" attendee type.

• Click the New Attendee button, or Add > New Attendee, depending on how it displays on your screen.
• Select the Attendee Type of "Group of 12 or MORE".
• Enter a name for the group and add the group to the expense.
• Edit the Attendee Count field within the Attendee List to reflect the correct number of attendees,
• Create a PDF of the list of attendees, or sign in sheet, and attach with the receipts.

Tips on Group Meals are to be reasonable which Penn State generally considers to be 20% or less. However, tips that are $1.00 or less over 20% are acceptable and should not be deducted.  

If there is a tip overage greater than $1.00 on a group meal, the amount of the overage should be itemized out of the Group Meal PCARD expense and marked “Deduct from Reimbursement.” Do not use a "Reimbursement Reduction" to reduce a PCARD transaction.

This is no longer required.

If the charge is on a Purchasing Card, it will be linked to the traveler who is responsible for the Purchasing Card. A comment will need to be added to the expense entry indicating that some of the hotel expenses are for the other employee. If the charge is not on a Purchasing Card, write a note on the receipt indicating how the charges will be applied. The receipt should be faxed with both expense reports.

What is the difference between an estimate for travel with a cash advance request and an estimate for travel without a cash advance request? 

Please note that the process for entering a cash advance has changed with the new user interface.  

 If you need help entering a cash advance, please give the helpdesk a call 814-863-9713

Documentation located here: Difference Between Cash Advance and Estimate for Travel

The completed estimate for travel with a cash advance will have the CASH ADVANCES: tile at the top of the Request, if the tile is not there the Request does not include a cash advance.  

when a cash advance is submitted, it will go to the Budget Admin and the Financial Officer for approval, after it’s fully approved and issued, it will next get posted to SIMBA and then it’s an overnight processing to the bank. Depending on the bank it may take them 2 to 3 days to process. I would recommend that Cash Advances are entered at least one week in advance of travel if possible 2 weeks would be better.   

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• CONUS travel is travel within the 48 contiguous states. ​

• OCONUS Travel-Domestic, This is Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and the U.S. Territories.​

• OCONUS Travel Foreign, This is Overseas, Any country or place beyond CONUS, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and the U.S. Territories. ​

When an SAP Concur report has a status of "Paid" it is an indicator that the report details have been delivered to the University. All aspects of the actual reimbursement (including email notification) are managed by Accounting Operations. All inquiries regarding the status of a reimbursement should be directed to Accounting Operations at [email protected].

There are several reasons a traveler may wish to reduce the amount of a reimbursement:  

• expenses are being charged to a research grant and the traveler may want to spend less on travel in order to have the funds for supplies and equipment; or
• the traveler has agreed to certain limitations on expenditures for budgetary reasons.

To reduce the CASH reimbursement by a given amount, select the Reimbursement Reduction expense type, enter the amount as a negative, and type the reason for the reduction in the expense Comments field.

A status of "Paid" in SAP Concur. The financial job runs in SIMBA daily and reports from concur post to SIMBA. 

When Reimbursement amounts are due to an employee they are delivered to Accounting Operations for processing. When the reimbursement process is completed, an email is sent from Accounting Operations advising that the reimbursement will be placed in your account through direct deposit and available to you within two business days.

Submitted reports that are in the approval flow will display on the Expense page with a status of Submitted. The Approval Flow of the report will show the progress of the report through the approval process.

• On Expense page open the Expense Report by clicking on its name.
• In the Expense List on the Details menu select Approval Flow. The Approval Flow pop-up window will display the account numbers. Click on the account number to expand the workflow and display all approvers and the approval dates.
• When a report has received its final approval it can be viewed in the Report Library. All reports can be viewed by clicking the Report Library and filtering for "All Reports".Use the View menu to select "All Reports" to display a complete report list that will include the current status of the report.

Each expense report has an audit trail that records everything that is done to the report from the time it is submitted until payment has been processed. To view the audit trail for a particular report, open the report by clicking on the Report Name. In the Expense List page, click on the Details menu and select Audit Trail.

To distribute expenses in a report to more than one account combination, use allocation. The best practice is to add all expenses to a report and then allocate the report total to the desired account combinations

• On the Details menu in the Expense list of a report, select Allocation.
• Select all expenses and click Allocate Selected Expenses.
• On the right side of the screen, add an allocation row for each account combination to be charged.
• Allocation can be done by percentage or by dollar amounts using the "Allocate By" menu to select either Percentage or Amount.

For more details on this process, review the Allocate Expenses documentation available from the Allocation and X-coding section of the Documentation page.

New cost centers follow the same time frame as new accounts. It will take 2 business days for the new cost center to be available for use in SAP Concur.

If a cost center is not newly created and is not available in the search results, contact your Financial Office for assistance. The FO can work with SAP Concur support to resolve the issue and the Financial Officer will be aware that the expense may need to be distributed to the appropriate cost center once the detail posts.

New accounts will be available in SAP Concur two business days after the AURA form is processed.

Click on the link in the email notification to go to the SAP Concur home page (www.sapconcur.psu.edu) and select "Log In." Click on the Expense menu. Open the report by clicking on its name. In the Expense List page click the Submit Report button in the upper right corner of the screen. The electronic signature window will open. Click Accept and Submit to continue submitting. The Report Status window will open displaying the report total amounts. Click Close to complete the submit process.

Multiple emails from the same sender to multiple recipients may be identified by mail servers as "spam" and sent to the "Junk Mail" or "Deleted" mail folder of email applications. If you use an email client, you should have the ability to create a rule that can bypass the spam filter for emails from "[email protected]". Contact your IT staff for assistance in the review of your email application settings. Most email applications can be adjusted to recognize specific email addresses as legitimate and move any such email to a specified mail folder.

The SAP Concur is a web-hosted application through an independent vendor called Concur Technologies, Inc. Their email program is non-customizable and all notifications are issued by "[email protected]."

When you have  a temporary employee that needs access to SAP Concur please fill out the SIMBA Non-employee access request form located here:

https://pennstate.service-now.com/sp?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=cd6f8c851bf4145081b654e56e4bcb6b

Please note that once approved the update will take overnight to update SAP Concur.

New employees will be added to the SAP Concur employee once they are active in  workday, Workday will update the SIMBA master data and then SIMBA master data updates SAP Concur. Once an employee is active in workday it may take a day or two to be updated in SAP Concur. If a new employee needs to request a reimbursement before this process is completed, a non employee report can be created.

The deduction will be labeled "SAP Concur" and will be listed on the pay remittance with your other deductions.

NO LONGER USED

The free space will contain the first 15 characters of the report name. The description will contain 40 characters, to be divided as follows:

• Employee
  • 1-10 will be employee last name
  • 12-40 will be the employee's PSU ID
• Nonemployee
  • 1-10 will be nonemployee last name
  • 12-40 will contain "NON-EMPL"

The Free Space and characters 12-40 of the description can be changed using UDFS or via ICAG/ISTR using the additional screen on the detail.

Incidentals are included in the meal per diem allowance. The General Services Administration of the federal government defines incidentals as fees and tips given to porters, baggage handlers, bellhops, hotel maids, stewards or stewardess or other personnel on ships.

Tips on Group Meals are to be reasonable which Penn State generally considers to be 20% or less. However, tips that are $1.00 or less over 20% are acceptable and should not be deducted.  

If there is a tip overage greater than $1.00 on a group meal, the amount of the overage should be itemized out of the Group Meal PCARD expense and marked “Deduct from Reimbursement.” Do not use a "Reimbursement Reduction" to reduce a PCARD transaction.

The University considers a tip of 20% or less to be reasonable.  The 20% is not a hard and fast rule but if the tip is around 20% or so it would be fine.  There is no longer a specific reference, but it falls under our general policy of an expense being reasonable.

The Misc (max $5.00 per day) expense type is used for expenses where receipts are not possible. Examples: When receipts are not provided for taxi or shuttle services, when no receipt is given for parking fees or a parking meter is used. Local transportation, such as subways, metros and buses where use of electronic cards, tokens or debits cards are used, are to be entered as the appropriate expense type. No receipt is required. These are not to be entered using the Miscellaneous expense type.

Meal expenses and any tips related to meals and tips given to service personnel such as porters, baggage handlers, bellhops, hotel maids, stewards or stewardess will be reimbursed via the meal and incidentals per diem. The meal and incidentals per diem is established by the General Services Administration of the federal government, and differentiates allowances by geographic location.

Check for newer versions of stored pages

• For optimal performance, select the Automatically option on the Settings dialog.

Browser Cache Setting

• Verify that the box next to the Never Check Server is not checked.

Security Settings

• Verify that all security zones are set to the Default Levels.

Disable script debugging

• Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to disable script debugging.

Notification of script error

• Recommend selecting the box next to this setting to display script error notification.

Enable Cookies

• Recommend Medium setting.

Browsers certified for use with SAP Concur are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 10 and 11
• Firefox versions 35, 36, and 37
• Safari versions 5.1, 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0
• Google Chrome versions 40.0, 41.0 and 42.0

SAP Concur support staff have the ability to add locations for the City search list as needed. To request the addition of a CONUS location, please submit a request to the SAP Concur Help Desk. Include the name of the City, the State abbreviation, and the ZIP Code. The U.S. ZIP Code Lookup application is an excellent resource for the information required to add a new location for CONUS travel. To request the addition of an OCONUS location, please submit a request to the SAP Concur Help Desk with as much information as possible on the location: the country and province where applicable, a well-known location nearby, anything that will aid the Help Desk match the new location to an appropriate per diem rate.

Itemization is used for two (2) purposes ONLY:

1. to separate room rate and taxes in Hotel/Motel expense type if required by department; and
2. to separate legitimate University expenses from personal expenses.