The SAP Concur Travel and Expense Reimbursement system has been live for a year. The Financial Information Systems team would like to share some of the common errors we’ve seen and the questions we’ve been asked.
Documentation is required to support your report or request. If documentation is missing or not legible, approvers will either contact you to discuss or return your report or request. This type of back and forth will add to the time it takes to process your report or request. To help you avoid unnecessary delays, read the following answers to some common document related questions and tips.
What type of documentation do I need to attach?
- You MUST ATTACH a legible, itemized receipt to each expense line in your report.
- TIP: In request, you attach all documentation at the report level instead of the expense line.
- IF you are claiming an expense in a foreign currency WHERE the exchange rate applied by your credit card company is HIGER than what SAP Concur allocated, you can claim the higher exchange rate. You must attach a copy of the related credit card statement as proof. TIP: You should black out sensitive information (e.g. account number, credit limit, address).
- IF you are claiming travel-related expenses, you may be required to attach additional documentation (i.e. in addition to a legible, itemized receipt). For example, a conference registration document that outlines which meals come with the conference. POLICY: You can’t claim a travel allowance for meals that a conference already provides.
- If you are an infrequent traveller, you must attach evidence of pre-approval (i.e. an email from your direct supervisor approving travel).
What counts as a receipt?
For online purchases, companies send MANY emails related to a single purchase. Which to use as ‘the’ receipt may not always be clear. Here are a few tips:
- The receipt will be itemized (i.e. show each item purchased) and show the taxes applied
- Proof of payment is also required. For example, if you purchase lunch from a corner store they might give you an itemized hand-written receipt (e.g. itemized, but no proof of payment) AND a credit card receipt (i.e. shows that you paid, but not itemized). In this example you must provide BOTH receipts.
- It must be legible. TIP: Do not use highlighter if you are scanning receipts.
- TIP: SAP CONCUR will only allow you to attach image files with a max file size of 5 megabytes.
What if I’ve forgotten to attach a document to a report or request that I’ve already submitted?
You can attach documentation to a report or request that you’ve already submitted! Here’s how …
- On the SAP Concur home page, click on ‘Open Reports’ and choose the report from your report library.
- In ‘Manage Receipts’ choose ‘Manage Attachments’ and click ‘Append’ to attach your new file.
After I’ve submitted a report or request, how long do I have to keep the related receipts?
- For reports, hold onto your paper and digital copies of receipts until you have received payment from Carleton.
- For requests, hold onto your paper and digital copies of your receipts until you have returned from your trip, submitted the related report, and received payment from Carleton.
How do I attach 2 documents the same expense line?
You may have to attach multiple documents to an expense line or add extra documents to the report.
There’s a how-to sheet that will walk you through how to do this on https://carleton.ca/facts/travel/ called ‘Adding Multiple Documents to an Expense Report’.
Questions?
- Visit https://carleton.ca/facts/travel/ or contact systems@carleton.ca.
- Point to policies