Expense Alert Removed

Are you an Expense Approver? Be sure that the T&E Card transactions you approve are expensed correctly to avoid reimbursements issued in error.  Accidental reimbursement requests are a common error and are time-consuming to correct, both for the user and the Expense Team.

The Expense Team recently tested an automatic notification in Workday aimed at helping prevent accidental reimbursement requests when users entered Expense Reports. Feedback from our Expense Ambassadors and users in their areas indicated that the alert was more confusing to users rather than helpful, so we have discontinued the alert.

Please be mindful as you prepare your own expense reports or those of others that you don't request reimbursement for transactions associated with T&E Cards.

Passenger Van Policy Update

PRM-14 has been updated to allow an increase in the number of passengers allowed in passenger vans. The allowance has been increased from nine to twelve passengers.

National Hotel Discounts

Sonesta

Discount:

Business Pass discount of 12% will apply to travel at ANY Sonesta location in the U.S. or Canada (available for business or personal travel). The discount is for individual stays (1-9 people), groups (10-20 people), and meeting facilities.

Instructions:

Go to Sonesta.com/locations to look up specific destinations. Business Pass discounts are available at U.S. or Canada hotels only.

On the hotel website, enter the dates of stay. Then under the “Rates” dropdown, select Corporate/Promo and enter the UVA corporate code in this box.

Corporate ID: 2UVAACAD

IHG

Discount:

Can be used for most IHG properties around the world, and most discounts are around 10%. This discount can be used for business or personal travel.

Instructions:

On the hotel website, enter the dates of stay. Then under “Corporate Special Rate”, enter UVA’s Corporate ID.

Corporate ID: 100198343

*University business bookings at locally contracted Sonesta and IHG properties should still be made through TravelUVA or Christopherson Business Travel to obtain the contracted discount.”

Reminder of Restricted Items on T&E Card

The University Travel and Expense Card may NOT be used for:

• Personal Use
• Companion Travel Expenses

Purchases from, or payments to, any of the following:

• Home rental services such as Airbnb, VRBO, or HomeAway
• eBay
• GoFundMe
• Person-to-person payment services such as Venmo and PayPal (PayPal is only allowed as a payment method to registered business accounts, but not to individuals)
• Western Union, MoneyGram, or other money transfer services
• Moving & Relocation Expenses
• Purchases of Capital Equipment (cost of $5,000 or more)
• Purchases that require a Contract. Someone from PSDS must sign all contracts.

For any of the following items:

• ammunition
• boats
• carpet
• firearms
• prescription drugs
• radioactive materials
• renovation/construction services
• security systems
• tent rentals or purchases (non-camping)
• vehicles
• window treatments

For a complete list please review Guidelines for Using a T&E Card and The Goods & Services Guide.

Expense Delegations

Expense approval delegation should NOT be used long-term. When assigning a delegate, make sure that individual is not already listed in an approval role as this can cause Expense Reports to get stuck in the system. Please ensure that the correct people are assigned to each role, so delegation is not required.

Role Assignments

Expense reports are still getting stuck in the system because the same people are assigned to multiple roles. Please ensure that each Cost Center has unique approvers in the following roles:

• Expense Support Specialist (ESS)
• Detail Worktag Approvers which include:
• P2P Approver
• Grant Manager
• Gift Manager
• Project Budget Specialist
• Senior Department Finance Approver (SDFA)

Email askfinance@virginia.edu with any questions.

Workday Expenses Updates

• Please be sure the transaction date matches the date the expense was incurred. This is necessary for accurate reporting and is especially important for expenses entered in a foreign currency to ensure that the exchange rate is accurate.
• Contingent Workers will continue to have access to Workday Expenses for T&E card transactions but will receive an error message if a reimbursement is submitted. For contingent workers and other non-employees, please follow the non-employee reimbursement process.

Offboarding and Expenses

• Business processes stall when Workday roles are empty. Consider adding "backfilling the employee's system roles" as one of your employee offboarding tasks.  
• Please remove and reassign delegations during offboarding.
• Ensure all T&E card transactions have been expensed before offboarding.

Helpful Tips

• Please include detailed descriptions in the memo fields. Enter the names of travelers, the reason for purchase, etc. This will be useful to approvers as well as in the case of an audit.
• Personal transactions are not allowed on a T&E card. Please pay for personal items separately, i.e., at a hotel, pay for room and tax on a T&E card, and incidentals on a personal card. Personal transactions are a violation of the T&E card policy and could result in card suspension or cancelation.

Expense Support Specialist Best Practice



Users with the Expense Support Specialist role can edit expense reports before they approve them. We suggest returning expense reports to the Expense Owner if the dollar amount needs to be edited or another major change needs to be made. This keeps the Expense Owner informed.

The Expense Item Descriptions page on our website is up to date. The date of update is documented on this resource, so you can ensure you are viewing the most recent version.

For questions about Workday Expenses, please contact askfinance@virginia.edu.

Workday Expenses Assistance Available

Workday Expenses Training and Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) are available.

Sign up for 1:1 Help with a Trainer.

Do you know your Ambassador? They are subject matter experts, not only in Workday Expenses but also in policies and procedures specific to your area. They are there to help you with any questions you may have. Ambassadors are your first level of contact and can help you navigate the expensing process quickly. Before contacting askfinance@virginia.edu, we encourage you to contact your Ambassador first (use our Ambassador Search if you need help finding yours). They are ready and able to help solve your problems!

Faculty-Staff and Student University Related Travel to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza is restricted until further notice.

International Travel Registry: Ensure your trip is reimbursed

Faculty and staff are required to register their international UVA business travel through the University's International Travel Registry per the Faculty and Staff International Travel Policy. This registry has been put in place to keep our international travelers safe in case of an emergency and automatically enroll them in the CISI International Health and Emergency Assistance Program. 

CISI Coverage is now only available to those travelers who have registered their travel through the International Travel Registry. The blanket policy that previously covered every international employee traveler automatically is no longer in place.

The University may refuse to fund or reimburse any expenses connected with University-Related International Travel that have not been added to this registry. It is good practice to register travel when reservations are made. This is especially important for airline tickets and other travel arrangements booked using a T&E Card.

Please email Travel@virginia.edu with any questions.