Division of Business Services

3024.7 How to Process an Expense Report Not in Compliance with the University’s Accountable Plan Procedure

Procedure #3024.7; Rev.: 1 (Effective July 1, 2025)
Related Policy: UW-3024 Expense Reimbursement Policy
Functional Owner: Accounting Services, Division of Business Services
Contact: Expense Reimbursement Program Manager – Allie Watters, expensereimbursement@bussvc.wisc.edu, (608) 263-3525

Contents

  1. Procedure statement
  2. Who is affected by this procedure
  3. Procedure
  4. Contact roles and responsibilities
  5. Definitions
  6. Related references
  7. Revisions

I. Procedure statement

For reimbursable expenses to be considered non-taxable income, expenses must be submitted within the time frame of 90 days set forth in the University’s Accountable Plan. Expense Operations Leads have the authority to grant exceptions for employees to allow for expense reimbursement when the Accountable Plan requirements are not met by approving a Policy Exception Request Form completed by the expense claimant. The approved Policy Exception Request Form must be uploaded to the expense report. Upon approval for payment, expense reports with Accountable Plan violations are reviewed by Accounting Services and reported as taxable income to the recipient, unless the documented circumstances surrounding the expense report made timely submission impossible.

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II. Who is affected by this procedure

  • Employees who seek reimbursement for out-of-pocket or Shared Liability Card expenses
  • Expense Data Entry Specialists who prepare expense reports in Workday Expense
  • Expense Partners, Driver Worktag Managers
  • Expense Operations Leads and others who have approval authority

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III.   Procedure

  1. Expense report creation, 90-day page alerts, and submitting a Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form for Accountable Plan Non-Compliance
    1. Employees create expense reports for non-compliant transactions in the same way as regular expense reports for compliant transactions. Refer to Procedure 3024.1 Creating and Submitting an Expense Report in Workday for directions on how to create a new expense report.
    2. Expense lines for out-of-pocket or shared liability card transactions that violate the Accountable Plan submission requirements will cause a Page Alert (denoted by a yellow triangle with an exclamation point) to appear in Workday Expenses.
    3. The Page Alert indicates the expense report line is greater than 90 days old and that a spend authorization is required to be approved and attached to the expense report. UW–Madison does not process and approve exceptions via the spend authorization functionality in Workday Expenses.
      Example of an error message in Workday that reads "1. Page Alert - Expense report line i smore than 90 days old"
    4. Upon receiving this 90-day Page Alert during report creation, UW-Madison claimants seeking reimbursement for transactions that do not comply with the Accountable Plan must file for an exception to allow for reimbursement via the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form. The exception request must document the circumstances regarding the delay in submission. Instructions for Claimants/Submitters on how to fill out the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form can be found here.
      1. On the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form question “Which policy was violated? Be sure to select “Accountable Plan (90-Day) Exception.”
        Screenshot of a question in form reading "Which policy was violated?" and arrow points to select "Accountable Plan (90-Day) Exception"
    5. Accountable Plan non-compliance may also be identified after a report has been submitted during the policy compliance review by the Expense Partners. If Accountable Plan non-compliance is identified by an Expense Partner, the Expense Partner will send back the report or expense lines and request that the claimant remove the expenses or attach an approved Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form to allow for reimbursement.
    6. Expense Operations Leads have delegated authority to approve Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Forms to allow for reimbursement of Accountable Plan non-compliant transactions due to extenuating circumstances. Extenuating circumstances for employees may be defined as a serious illness or other unforeseen emergency out of the control of the employee. Employee negligence is not considered an extenuating circumstance. Employees are not entitled to reimbursement after 90 days.  Reimbursement requests should be denied without documented extenuating circumstances.
    7. If the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form is approved, the approval notice PDF must be attached to the expense report. The expense report may then be (re)submitted into workflow.
    8. If the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form is denied, the noncompliant transactions may not be submitted for reimbursement.
  2. Accounting Services Reviews Non-Compliant Transactions
    1. Accounting Services reviews all expense report transactions flagged for Accountable Plan non-compliance once the expense reports are approved for payment.
    2. All Accountable Plan non-compliant transactions are reported as taxable income to the recipient, unless circumstances surrounding the expense report made timely submission impossible.
  3. External Committee Members
    1. External Committee Member (nonemployee guest or student) reimbursement requests in excess of the 90-day requirements cannot be processed in Workday Expenses and must be submitted using a Supplier Invoice Request.  The payment will be taxable to the External Committee Member (claimant).

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IV. Contact roles and responsibilities

  • Employee/claimant: Responsible for submitting expense reports in a timely fashion. Responsible for filling out the Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form when seeking reimbursement of Accountable Plan non-compliant transactions.
  • Expense Partners: Responsible for identifying instances of Accountable Plan non-compliance on expense reports and ensuring an approved Campus Policy Exception Approval Request forms are attached to expense reports.
  • Expense Operations Lead: Responsible for approving or denying Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Forms.

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V. Definitions

  • Claimant: individual claiming reimbursement for expenses.
  • Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form: Electronic form used to request policy exception approval to allow for reimbursement of noncompliant transactions. Once submitted, the form is automatically routed to Expense Operations Leads for approval.
  • Expense report: Electronic submission to request reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses and/or to submit card-product expenses for approval.
  • Workday Expenses: The Workday module used to create, submit, and approve expense reports for out-of-pocket, Shared Liability Card, and Purchasing Card transactions.

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VI. Related references

  • UW-3024 Expense Reimbursement Policy
  • Campus Policy Exception Approval Request Form – Coming soon
  • How to obtain a policy exception for a noncompliant expense report at UW-Madison (Claimant/Submitter) – Coming soon
  • How to review a policy exception request for an expense report at UW-Madison (Divisional Business Office) – Coming soon

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VII.  Revisions

Procedure Number 3024.7
Date Approved May 8, 2017
Revision Dates Jan. 19, 2021 – Updated Procedure Number to 3024.7 from 320.7
June 30, 2025 – Updated to reflect Workday procedures and terminology.

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