AGM Expense Tool
Purpose: The AGM Expense Tool allows an organization to associate expenses to a timeslip and have those expenses confirmed, verified, and allocated to the grants in the advanced grants management system.
Cost: This tool is included in the cost of the AGM module, but must be enabled by LegalServer.
Lookups: User Expense Type; Expense Report Payment Status; Per Diem Rates; Expense Mileage Reimbursement Rate; Standard Mileage; Expense Report Payment Status; and Payment Method.
Block: User Expense, which is added to a timeslip.
List Views: Expense Reports and User Expenses.
Sections in this article:
Entering an Expense
Users can enter an expense once the expense block is added to a timeslip.
Documentation pertaining to the expense claim can be uploaded at the same time the expense claim is created, or while editing the expense claim.
Expense Built-in Categories
There are 3 categories of expense claims: “Pre-paidâ€; “Reimbursableâ€; and “DA (Disbursement Authorization) Requestâ€. Only 1 of the 3 choices can be "yes", with the others being "no".
Expense Types
Site administrators control the expense types through the User Expense Type lookup. However, there is some additional functionality related to "Per Diem" and "Mileage" expense types.
Per Diem Rates
Per Diem Rates can be set for a time period. The Per Diem rates Log will keep track of the changes that occur in Per Diem rates and assign the rate based upon the date of the expense. In addition, the tool allows Per Diem to be different in state versus out of state.
Mileage Rates
Mileage Rates can be set for a time period. The Expense Mileage Reimbursement Rate Log will keep track of the changes and assign the rate based upon the date of the expense. Note: The mileage rate can be three (3) decimals (0.675). However, "All Money Fields Round to Two Decimal Points" on the Admin > Site Settings page must be set to "No".
Standard Mileage Chart
Site administrators can also set up a standard mileage chart which allows a user to pick a starting city and a destination city and have the distance automatically entered and mileage reimbursement automatically generated based upon the mileage rate.
Explanation of Stages
Affirmation
User enters an expense. Not a sworn statement.
Confirmation
User finalizes/confirms expenses entered for pay period = “confirmation†- user can no longer edit or enter expenses for a confirmed period
Verification
A supervisor verifies the user's expenses. The supervisor may unconfirm an expense if there is a problem for the user to edit.
Finalization
Where the labor distribution gets applied. An expense can not be unverified or unconfirmed after finalization.
Expense Reports
All claims for a user submitted within the pay period will appear on one Expense Report. The expense report contains a summary by date, expense type, and expense category for the report. It also contains a Disposition Log of when each of the above stages was completed. A sample report looks like this:
Edit
As long as the report has not yet been confirmed, you can edit an expense claim by clicking on the "Edit expense" link under "Action" on the report. Most fields are editable, but not all. For instance, you can not change the User, the expense type, or the per diem designation once the expense is created.
Confirm
To confirm an expense report, the user clicks on the "Not confirmed" link:
They are allowed to review the report and edit if necessary. Once reviewed, they can click the box to confirm the expense report:
Unconfirm
The expense report will then show as confirmed. A link appears to unconfirm the report and to verify the report. If a supervisor finds an error, the expense report can be unconfirmed so it can be edited.
Verify
When clicking the link to verify, you are taken to the verification screen:
A supervisor can also click on the expense report to review it. To verify, the supervisor clicks the button in front of the report that is being verified (you can click more than one) and then clicks the Verify button. The expense report will then show as verified on the Expenses list view.
Payment Information
Once the expense report is verified, there is also an ability to track payment information as well as a log. You control what appears in the Expense Report Payment status and Payment method lookups.
Expenses are then finalized, distributed and posted as part of the timekeeping process. Once posted, you can view expenses for each contract term in your AGM system.