Admin Setup - Expense Types

When creating an Expense Report, each detailed item must belong to a predefined Expense Type.  Unanet comes with two System Defined expense types (Advance and Cash-Return).   The Administrator will use this screen to create additional expense types to meet the needs of your organization.   When creating expense types, you can associate them with one of the several built-in expense wizards.  When entering expenses against an expense type that is associated with a built-in wizard, an additional popup screen will display to capture additional details specific to that type of expense.  

Note that while the Expense Type field is the key value, the Expense Type Name is what appears in the various drop down selection boxes and is included in report output.  Both values must be unique across all entries and the Expense Type remains the key value used when importing expense data.

This screen is available with the Project Expense, Project Tracking and Project Portfolio Unanet licenses.

Topics covered on this help page include:

 

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Example Expense Types List screen:

The list screen will display the complete list of all active and inactive expense types defined in your system.

 

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

 

 

You cannot delete an expense type if it has been used on any expense report or mapped to a Cost Structure ODC.

The Expense Type entity has 10 user defined fields that can be activated if additional fields are required.  When enabled, they will appear in an additional "Information" column on the far right of this expense type listing.

 


Add and Edit Expense Types

To add a new expense type, you will need to supply at a minimum the Expense Type Name and Expense Type (code) on the Summary tab.  The remainder of the fields on the summary tab and the remaining tabs are all optional.   

 

Summary tab

The expense type name is the name that will appear in all of the drop downs throughout the product.   The expense type value (which could be considered an expense type code) is the value that is intended to be used when importing and exporting data to and from Unanet.  This field exists for backwards compatibility.  Both fields must be unique across the system.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

 

 


Vendor tab

 

When defining an expense type, you can pre-define the list of vendors that are to be associated with that expense type.  When a user is entering his/her expenses, the user will see the associated vendors in the drop down list on the expense wizard. 

All available vendors created in your system will appear in the window on the left and the vendors you have associated to a particular expense type will appear in the window to the right.  Use the blue left and right arrows to assign vendors to or unassign vendors from an expense type.

Before you can associate a Vendor with an expense type, you must first create them via the Admin >> Setup >> Vendors screen.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

 

 


Wizard tab

 

When defining expense types, you have the option of associating an expense type with one of the built-in wizards.  

A wizard is a popup screen that will appear when a user is entering an expense report line item and they click on the amount field.  Rather than entering an amount directly on the expense report detail screen, the user will capture a number of additional details regarding the expense and the amount will be calculated in the wizard and transferred onto the original line item after clicking Save on the wizard screen.  The user can also popup a wizard when on the expense report detail screen by clicking the wizard icon.  The additional details captured on the wizard will appear in the preview version of the expense report in the Comment section.

Note: The unasense.wizard.message property can be used to display a standard message on the top of all wizard popup screens.

 

To associate an expense type with a particular wizard, select the wizard type on this tab and hit save.

 

Wizard Examples

For an example of each wizard or further description of the fields on each wizard, expand the sections below.

Air  

Cell Phone

Company Car

Employee Business Meeting

Entertainment

Lodging

Lodging Allowable

Lodging Per Diem

MIE Allowable

MIE Per Diem

Mileage

 

There is also a generic wizard, which can be used on any expense type that is not explicitly associated with any other wizard.  This may be useful if you need to record an expense using a currency other than that of the system's base currency.  For those expense types that are not associated with a built-in wizard, the user would need to click on the wizard icon on the expense report line item to launch the generic wizard.

generic wizard

 

 

 

You can update an expense type changing the associated Wizard type so long as no expense actuals have been charged to that expense type.   
That is, once actuals have been charged against that expense type, you can no longer change the wizard type association.  

 

Wizard Details

For certain wizards the lower portion of this screen may change, displaying additional configuration options that you will need to define.

 

Mileage & Company Car Wizards - Additional Wizard Details

When configuring an expense type that will be associated with the mileage wizard, the lower portion of the Wizard tab will display an additional section.  In this section, you will need to indicate which mileage rate set this expense type will be associated with.  Mileage rate sets are defined via the Admin >> Setup >> Mileage Rate Set screen.  

The mileage rate set associated with an expense type using a mileage wizard can be changed even after expense actuals have been charged to this expense type.  This relationship is used at a point in time to provide a rate which is then stamped with the expense actuals, thus allowing for this type of change.

Expense Types associated with Mileage and Company Car wizard will display the name of the Mileage Rate Set associated with that expense type under the Expense Type Name, in the expense type list.

 

 

 

Lodging Per Diem and M&IE Allowable Wizards - Handling Overage Amounts

When configuring an expense type that will be associated with a Lodging Per Diem or M&IE Allowable wizard, the lower portion of the Wizard tab will display an additional section.  In this section, you can optionally configure the system to record any expense overages (as calculated by the Lodging Per Diem or M&IE Allowable detail wizards) in a separate expense report line item (having a different expense type).    You would use this lower section of the screen to indicate which expense type should be used to record the overage against.

Note that:

 

 

Overage Expense Type

When you have enabled the feature to capture an overage amount in a separate but related line item, whenever a user creates an expense line item having the Lodging_Per_Diem or MIE Allowable wizard, a related child record having the designated overage expense type will be created, reflecting the overage amount (as calculated by the Lodging Per Diem wizard).

The overage record will not be created for those projects that have project level expense types defined which exclude the overage expense type.

Note that on the overage child record, only the "Charge To Project" and "Project Type" fields are editable.  

Removing the child record related from any related expense line item is allowed, however, each time the expense type having the Lodging Per Diem of MIE Unallowable wizard is re-saved the child record will be re-created.

When viewing preview versions of these expense reports, these expense type line items will be paired.

Note that you cannot manually create expense line item to those expense type designated to capture overage amounts, they are only generated by the system in concert with the Lodging_Per_Diem and/or MIE Unallowable wizard functionality.

 


Advance & Cash-Return

The system comes with two pre-defined expense types, Advance and Cash-Return (these are indicated by System Defined in the Wizard column on the expense type list).  You cannot delete either of these expense types, however, you can disable them if you do not want them available in your system.

 

Not Available throughout product

 

These expense types are different than other expenses in that they represent an exchange of monies between the expense user and the company as opposed to an actual expense incurred by the company.  As such, these expense type entries will not appear throughout the product along with other expenses.  

They will appear and be available for expense users to make entries when entering an expense report.   They are also available when exporting expense related data as well as when configuring the Admin >> Setup >> Employee Type >> Expenses.  They will not appear nor be available when entering expense plans and budgets, nor are they available when viewing expense related reports.

 

Advance

The purpose of the Advance expense type is to allow users to record monies that were provided to them prior to incurring an expense or taking a trip.  The amounts entered against the Advance expense types will be deducted from the total Reimbursement amount of the Expense Report.  Note that the amount will be displayed in (red) and in parentheses, for example, if you record an Advance of $100.00, the detail line on the Expense Report preview page will look like this:  ($100.00).

Note that when using an advance expense type line item, the Payment Method field is ignored (and always treated as Company Paid).

Note that unlike other expense types, you cannot modify the provided expense type value (it will always be referred to as ADVANCE).  Further, when editing this expense type, you will notice that you cannot define an associated Wizard (the Wizard tab is hidden).

 

When entering an advance expense line item, you can directly enter the advance amount, however, if you do click on the wizard icon, the advance wizard will look as follows:

advance wizard

 

 

Cash Return

The purpose of the cash-return expense type is to provide the user with the ability to record any leftover amount they may have received as an advance but did not spend.  This amount is being returned and thus is used to reduce the effect of an advance amount (that is, the reimbursement total would reflect the original reimbursement amount minus the advance plus the cash-return).

You can only use a cash-return expense line item on the same expense report where an advance has been recorded.

Note that when using a cash-return expense type line item, the Payment Method field is ignored (and always treated as Employee Paid).

 

Note that unlike other expense types, you cannot modify the provided expense type code value (it will always be referred to as CASH-RETURN).  Further, when editing this expense type, you will notice that you cannot define an associated Wizard (the Wizard tab is hidden).

 

When entering a cash-return expense line item, the wizard will look as follows:

cash-return wizard

 


Other tab

The Expense Type entity has 10 optional user defined fields that can be activated if additional fields are required.  When enabled, they will appear in an additional tab (Other).  If none have been activated, then this tab will not appear.


Daily Meals Cap

The meal cap feature allows you to specify a threshold amount that spans several expense types.   For example, you could set up three customer expense types called Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and via the meal cap feature, you could set up a daily amount threshold that would be flagged if the amount was exceeded (for expenses charged to all three of these expense types).  

This feature simply enables the display of a red flag and does not prevent the save or submittal of an expense report.  The red flag will appear for the end user on the editable expense report as well as the preview version for users and approvers.

See unasense.meal.cap and unasense.meal.expense_types for additional information.

 

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