Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Individual Authoriser and Accepter
- Dual Approver
- Mixed Approver
- Expense Claim Sign Off
- Rejecting Expense Claims
Introduction
The EASY System has the facility to enable expense claims to go through two stages of approval. For example, the claims are verified as correct by the line manager (the first approval stage) before being signed off for payment by the budget holder (the second approval stage).
Within the system, the first approval stage is called the Authorisation stage, and the Acceptance stage is the second approval stage.
It may be that some individuals have both the Authorisation and Acceptance approval because they are the line manager as well as the budget holder. Or, they may be the line manager for some staff, and the budget holder for others.
This article works through the different approval stages, and explains the action required in each situation.
Individual Authoriser and Accepter
In this scenario we have a line manager as the Authoriser, first approver, and the budget holder as the Accepter, second approver.
Authoriser
When an employee submits their expense claims for approval, the Authoriser will receive an email to inform them that is the case. To authorise the expense claims you would follow the steps below.
1. Log into EASY
2. Select Expenses Claims within the Management menu
3. Select assignment link of expense claims to be authorised
4. You will see the claims in the Submitted Claims section. Select the claims to be authorised and click on the Authorise button
5. Confirm the authorisation of the claims by completing the declaration and providing the three characters from your security word before clicking on the Authorise button.
6. The claims will then move down to the Authorised Claims section.
An email will now be sent to the Accepter to inform them them that you have authorised the expense claims for that employee.
Accepter
When expense claims have been authorised, the Accepter will receive an email advising them that claims are waiting to be reviewed. To accept the expense claims you would follow the steps below.
1. Log into EASY
2. Select Expenses Claims within the Management menu
3. Select assignment link of expense claims to be accepted
4. You will see the claims in the Authorised Claims section. Select the claims to be accepted and click on the Accept button
5. Confirm the acceptance of the claims by completing the declaration and providing the three characters from your security word before clicking on the Accept button.
6. The claims will now move down to the Accepted Claims section
An email will now be sent to the employee to inform them them that their expense claims have been accepted.
Dual Approver
In this example, the approver has both the Authorisation and Acceptance facilities as they are the line manager as well as the budget holder.
When an employee submits their expense claims an email will be sent to the Authoriser, who is also the Accepter. Follow the steps below to approve the expense claims.
1. Log into EASY
2. Select Expenses Claims within the Management menu
3. Select assignment link of expense claims to be approved
4. To fully approve the expense claims that have been submitted, select the expense claims you want to approve and click on the Accept button. By selecting the Accept button, the system will treat the claims as being authorised at the same time.
5. You will then be asked to confirm the acceptance of the expense claims by completing the declaration and adding the three characters from your security word before you click on the Accept button.
6. The claims will now move down from the Submitted Claims section to the Accepted Claims section.
Please note that should you use the Authorise button when approving the claims, they will move to the Authorised Claims section, and you will need to accept the claims to fully approve them for payment.
An email will be sent to the employee to let them know that you have accepted their expense claims.
Mixed Approver
This is where you may be the line manager for certain staff, and the budget holder for other staff. In this situation you may receive an email advising you that an employee has submitted expense claims for you to authorise, or you may get an email informing you that claims have been authorised that require you to go through the acceptance process.
The following shows how to distinguish between the two scenarios.
1. Log into EASY
2. Select Expenses Claims within the Management menu
3. When you open the Team sections, this will give an overview of whether the claims have been submitted or authorised.
4. By selecting the assignment link, the claims will either appear in the Submitted Claims section or the Authorised Claims section. The button that appears in the section heading will depend on whether you are dealing with submitted or authorised claims.
5. On selecting the Authorise or Accept button, the declaration window will indicate if you are authorising or accepting the expense claims, and the button at the bottom will mirror the action being performed.
6. After authorising or accepting the claims, they will move into the respective section. In this case, the Accepted Claims section.
The email sent by the system will either be to the accepter or employee.
Expense Claim Sign Off
For expense claims to be fully signed off for payment, they must have a status of Accepted. Until expense claims have been accepted, they will not be included in the expense claims transaction file transferred to ESR.
Rejecting Expense Claims
Whether you are an Authoriser or an Accepter, you will have the ability to reject expense claims should they be incorrect.
When viewing an employee's expense claims, you will notice that there is a Reject button in the header of the Submitted Claims or Authorised Claims sections. The following explains how to reject expense claims. Although the example is for rejecting an authorised claim, it is the same process when rejecting submitted claims.
1. After selecting the assignment link, you will see the Submitted or Authorised Claims section
2. Select the claim, or claims, that you dispute by putting a tick in the box at the start of the row
3. On select the Reject button a window appears for you to explain why you are rejecting the expense claim.
4. Click on the Reject button to confirm the rejection of the expense claims selected. At this stage an email will be sent to the employee.