3024.9 Expense Report Review and Approval Procedure (for Driver Worktag Managers)

Procedure #3024.9; Rev.: 1 (Effective July 1, 2025)
Related Policy:  UW-3013 Purchasing Cards Policy, UW-3014 Shared Liability Cards Policy, UW-3024 Expense Reimbursement Policy
Functional Owner: Accounting Services, Business Services
Contact: Expense Reimbursement Program Manager – Allie Watters, expensereimbursement@bussvc.wisc.edu, (608) 263-3525; Purchasing Card Program Administrator – Meghann Grove, meghann.grove@wisc.edu, (608) 262-3300

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Contents

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

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I. Procedure statement

All Purchasing Card, Shared Liability Card, and out-of-pocket transactions must be reconciled by submitting an expense report in Workday Expenses. Expense reports are reviewed by an Expense Partner (policy compliance) and Driver Worktag Manager (budget/funding) prior to payment. Approval routing is based on the Driver Worktag referenced in the funding allocation for each expense line. When an expense report has been approved by an Expense Partner, the report will route to the Driver Worktag Manager(s) assigned to the driver worktag(s) on each expense line. Driver Worktag Managers will receive a Workday Inbox task and bell-icon notification prompting them to take action on expense reports. Driver Worktag managers must review expense reports for sufficient budget and appropriateness of funding.

This document details the required procedures for Driver Worktag Managers to review and approve an expense report in Workday Expenses.

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II. Who is affected by this procedure

Employees who have been assigned the Driver Worktag Manager role in Workday.

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III. Procedure

To get started, log into Workday. If there are expense reports awaiting your approval, a notice will appear in the section Awaiting Your Action. To view expense reports waiting for your approval in My Tasks in your Workday inbox, click the link Go to My Tasks or click the inbox icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

1. Navigate to an individual expense report awaiting Driver Worktag Manager approval
   
   1. In My Tasks, all items awaiting your action will appear. To see only expense reports awaiting your action, type “expense report” into the Search This will narrow your results to only expense reports (pictured below).
   2. Click on an expense report in the search results.
   3. Click on the arrows icon to expand the screen.
2. Review general report information; navigate to the Expense Lines tab for review
   1. On this screen, Driver Worktag Managers should review general report information prior to navigating to expense lines for individual transactions.
   2. View the top section of the expense report for claimant/cardholder name and dollar amount totals for the expense report.
      
      1. Pay to – Name of the claimant/cardholder
      2. Status – Indicates the current workflow step
      3. Personal – The total dollar amount of any expense lines marked personal by the claimant/cardholder. A purchasing cardholder or shared liability cardholder will mark a transaction Personal to identify accidental personal purchases. Purchasing card transactions marked personal create a receivable for the employee for the amount owed back to UW-Madison.
      4. Company Paid – The total dollar amount of all purchasing card and shared liability card transactions included in the report. (not including those marked as Personal).
      5. Prior Balance Applied – A dollar amount will show here if an employee has elected to deduct the amount owed for a purchasing card transaction marked Personal.
      6. Cash Advance Applied – The dollar amount of a Spend Authorization for a Cash Advance that has been attached to the current expense report.
      7. Reimbursement – The dollar amount the claimant will receive for out-of-pocket transactions.
      8. Total – The sum total of the expense report.
   3. Navigate to the tabs section (middle of the page)
      9. Header – Click on header to view header-level details. See Appendix I. below for detailed explanation of header fields.
      10. Attachments – Attachments at the header-level are not required but may be found on this tab. Attachments are required at the line-level.
      11. Business Process – This tab contains information about the business process history of the expense report, including prior approvals and any future-required approvals.
      12. Expense Lines – Click on this tab to view individual expense lines. Funding review will start in this tab. There are two methods for funding review that are discussed in the following section, and Driver Worktag Managers will need to utilize one or both, depending on whether a transaction is Itemized.
3. Review funding on the report
   1. The first way to review funding is by filtering Driver Worktags in the Expense Lines This method is preferred for lines that do not have itemization (e.g. split billing). This section will review how to filter an expense report by Driver Worktag and identify itemization on an Expense Line.
   2. It is recommended to expand the viewing pane as you review the expense report. Click the double arrows to the right of the gear icon.
      
   3. From this expanded screen, click the Expense Lines tab.
   4. Click Worktags to filter based on your assigned Driver Worktag.
   5. For Value, select the Driver Worktag(s) for which you are a manager.
   6. Click the Filter button.
   7. The resulting view will show transactions allocated to the Driver Worktag(s) selected.
   8. The primary responsibility of the Driver Worktag Manager is to assess the funding entered on every expense line for appropriateness, allowability and sufficient budget. The expense report will show the details of the first expense line clicked on.
      
      1. Expense Item – A sub-classification of Spend Category, used to categorize and track specific expenses within an expense report.
      2. Charge Description/Memo – For out-of-pocket and Shared Liability Card transactions, this field may contain additional detail about the expenses claimed. For purchasing card transactions, a complete justification with the business purpose and benefit to UW should be enumerated here.
      3. Total Amount – Total dollar amount for the Expense Line (transaction).
      4. Expense Report Line Date – Transaction date
      5. Itemization – Indicates whether a line has been itemized (e.g. split billed, hosted meal, per diems). Note: If “Yes”, there are additional instructions for viewing itemized funding in Section B.
      6. Worktags – The Foundational Data Model (FDM) values are located in the Worktags Review each dimension of the FDM values to ensure that the Program, Grant, Gift, or Project has budget and funds available for the expense listed. Confirm expenses are allocable to and allowable on the listed funding and that other elements of the FDM are accurately presented.
         1. Cost Center – Financial or operational unit.
         2. Function – Identifies the general purpose of a transaction (e.g., instruction, research).
         3. Fund – Identifies the funding source to facilitate financial reporting.
         4. Driver Worktag – Every expense line will require a driver worktag. The cost center, fund, and function will flow from the selection of driver worktag.
         5. Additional Worktags may be present, such as Expenditure Treatment for Grants.
   9. Once review of the first funding line is completed, scroll to the next listed expense line.
   10. The next expense line in this example is ITEMIZED. If a Driver Worktag Manager sees indicators of Itemization on an Expense Line when reviewing, they must go into the detailed view of expense lines to review the funding. Indicators visible on the report include: the column Itemized will say “Yes”; the Worktags will be blank; and the Outline Icon is present. See below for these indicators of an itemized Expense Line.
       
   11. If no itemization is present in the report, proceed to Section E. to Approve, Send Back, or route to an Ad Hoc approver.
4. Review the funding on detailed expense lines (for itemization)
   1. To enter the detailed view of an itemized Expense Line (such as per diem, hosted meals or split-funded expenses), hover over the Expense Line until the cursor changes and click to enter the detailed view of the Expense Line.
   2. Click the View Details button to open a pop-up showing all funding lines.
      
   3. The pop-up screen will contain a series of funding allocations. Each one must be reviewed sequentially for budget and funding by scrolling through the entries.
      
   4. Once all itemized lines are reviewed, click Done to exit itemization.
   5. Click the left-facing arrow in the upper-left corner of the expense report (on the red banner) to return to the main section of the expense report, where you will take action on the report based on your funding review.
5. Driver Worktag Managers have the following options for acting on an expense report:
   1. Approve – If the funding is correct on all expense lines/itemizations, click Approve. The report will advance either to the next stage of approval (if there are Foundation Expense Items) or it will have fully completed the approval process with shared liability card transactions and out-of-pocket transactions approved for payment. Approved expense reports for purchasing card transaction reconciliation will post to the general ledger, as payment of purchasing card balances is handled separately by the institution and is not connected to the final approval of the expense report.
   2. Send back – If the funding on a report or on an expense line is incorrect, the report must be sent back to the initiator or a prior approver. Click on the To field to identify who to send the report back to. Choices will include the initiator (claimant, cardholder, Expense Data Entry Specialist) or a prior approver (Athletics Approver, Expense Partner). The Reason field should provide direction to the claimant, cardholder, Expense Data Entry Specialist, or prior approver selected in the To field that the funding must be changed/updated prior to resubmission/approval. Indicate the new funding string for relevant expenses (if known).
      1. In the example below, the expense report is being sent back to the Expense Partner. The Expense Partner can be identified by the language “Review Expense Report” next to their name. The Reason should identify the expense line (e.g., by Expense Item, dollar amount) that requires a funding change as well as the appropriate Driver Worktag and/or other FDM values that should be updated. Once the recipient (To) and the Reason are filled in, click Submit to execute the send back.
         
   3. More Actions Menu (approving and adding an ad hoc approver) – The Driver Worktag Manager may approve the expense report and manually route it to a Cost Center Manager or Expense Operations Lead for further review by clicking the “…” icon next to Send Back.
      
      1. This launches the Add Approver pop-up. Note: This should only be done if all expenses are on the correct funding and sufficient budget is available to cover the costs, as ad-hoc-routing to a Cost Center Manager (CCM) or Expense Operations Lead (EOL) will record a full approval of the report for the Driver Worktag Manager first. Identify the Additional Approver by clicking the icon of three bulleted bars (see below). This will open a menu to select the assigned CCM or EOL. Add a Comment to indicate why the report is being sent to an additional approver. Click Approve and Send to Approvers. The approval step is complete, and the report will route to the selected CCM or EOL.
         
   4. After clicking Approve, Send Back, or completing the More Actions approval and ad hoc routing, the Driver Worktag Manager’s task is complete.

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IV. Contact roles and responsibilities

• Cost Center Manager: May be responsible for ad-hoc approval of an expense report.
• Driver Worktag Manager: Divisional/Departmental staff responsible for reviewing Workday Expenses transactions for budget and funding. Driver Worktag Managers may send an expense report back to the Expense Partner or expense report initiator to update the funding on an expense report.
• Expense Operations Lead: May be responsible for ad-hoc approval of an expense report.
• Expense Partner: A member of the central audit team in the Division of Business Services responsible for reviewing expense reports for policy compliance.
• Expense Report Initiator: Person who creates an expense report. The initiator may be an employee claimant, employee cardholder, or Expense Data Entry Specialist. The initiator is responsible for entering the appropriate funding on an expense report and may be responsible for updating the funding on an expense report if it is sent back by the Driver Worktag Manager.

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V. Definitions

• Expense Item: A sub-classification of Spend Category, used to categorize and track specific expenses within an expense report.
• Foundation Expense Item: Used to identify expenses to be charged to a University of Wisconsin Foundation (UWF) account.

• Expense report: Electronic submission to request reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses and/or to submit card-product expenses for approval.

• Workday: The cloud-based software used by the Universities of Wisconsin to manage finance and human resources.

• 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. Appendix

The Header tab of an expense report contains the following informational data fields:

• Expense Report Number – System-assigned numerical identifier for the expense report.
• Memo – May be used for the title of the expense report. May be used for a general justification for related out-of-pocket or Shared Liability Card expenses. This field should not be used to enter justifications for Purchasing Card transactions. Purchasing Card transactions MUST utilize the Expense Line-level Memo field for justifications. Field is not required at the header level.
• Company – Identifies the business unit as University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Expense Report Date – Claimant/cardholder entered date.
• Business Purpose – Claimant/cardholder selection that identifies the general category and purpose of the expense report.
• Reimbursement Payment Type – Identifies the payment method for the expense report, if applicable (e.g., Direct Deposit).

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VII. References

• UW-3013 Purchasing Cards Policy
• UW-3014 Shared Liability Cards Policy
• UW-3015 University Travel Policy

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VIII. Revisions

Procedure Number	3024.9
Date Approved	Nov. 16, 2023
Revision Dates	July 1, 2025 – Updated to reflect Workday procedures and terminology.

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