In preparation for the upcoming Fiscal Year End transaction dates, the Travel and Expense team has gathered helpful tips to speed up the process and avoid a last-minute rush at the end of the fiscal year. While each campus and department may handle expense reporting differently, the following tips should be beneficial in most cases.
Please remember that all expense reports, including travel and non-travel transactions for both out-of-pocket and bank card payments, must be submitted in Concur by June 20th. Supervisors and budget approvers must approve these reports by Monday, June 23rd. Additionally, be sure to note any campus-specific dates your controllers may have provided.
Below are six tips to help you!
Review Your Concur Expense Reports
It’s crucial to ensure that all expenses incurred in FY2025 have been processed. If any expense reports are pending submission, please process them as soon as possible.
Bank Card vs. Out-of-Pocket Transactions
Did you know that bank card transactions are automatically imported into Concur within five business days? These transactions must be added to an expense report to be allocated, submitted, and approved in accordance with policy. Out-of-pocket purchases that are not made with the UMass US Bank Card must be manually added to your expense report in Concur. Most transactions require receipts as per the UMass Business and Travel Expense policy.
Approval Steps for Expense Reports
Understanding the approval process for expense reports can aid in planning. First, the report must be approved by the submitter’s supervisor. Then, one or more budgetary cost object approvers will need to approve it, depending on the number of allocations (aka speedtypes) entered. Keep in mind that Grants may also require additional approval. All approval steps should be completed by Monday, June 23rd, to allow for a final compliance review by the Travel and Expense team.
Process Expense Reports Regularly
To minimize disruptions for bank card users, we recommend processing expense reports monthly. This helps ensure compliance with the University Procurement Policy and Bank Card Standards. Whenever possible, combine multiple transactions into a single expense report to reduce the number of reports and approvals. While it’s advisable to keep travel expenses separate from non-travel expenses, combining transactions on expense reports can significantly reduce the number of approvals required. Concur even allows you to allocate multiple speedtypes and link multiple requests as needed.
Stay Informed
We understand that email can become overwhelming, especially around Fiscal Year End. Please continue to monitor your Concur notification emails or turn them back on if you manually disabled them. You will receive important notifications if a report has been returned to you by an approver for edits. If you have questions about the necessary edits, please contact the approver directly, as comments entered in Concur do not trigger notifications back to them.
Ask for Help
Don’t hesitate to seek assistance. We know not everyone submits expenses frequently or in the same way, so we hold Concur Office Hours on Mondays and UPST Office Hours every Tuesday to provide direct support. In addition, our resource library on the Travel and Expense Program site contains over 80 job aids and videos displaying various tasks in Concur.
By following these guidelines, we hope you can ensure a smooth expense reporting process for Fiscal Year End and throughout the year.