General Tab of Expense Report Form

Use this tab to enter the name for the expense report, set its date, see its status, and specify details about approvals, merchants, credit cards, projects, and currencies.

Contents

Field Description
Report Name Enter a name for the expense report.
Report Date This field displays the current date.

You can change this date if you plan to submit the report at a later time. Enter a date directly in this field, or click and select a new date from the calendar.

Expense Report Status The status of the expense report—In Progress, Submitted, Approved, or Posted—displays to the right of the Report Date field.

Expense Report Grid Toolbar Options

Field Description
Drop-Down

Click the drop-down arrow on a grid header to complete any of the following actions:

  • To print grid data, click Print. On the Print Preview form, click File > Print to send the grid data to your default printer.
  • To export grid data to an Excel spreadsheet, click Export to Excel. When Microsoft Excel opens, use its features to modify, print, or email the grid data, or to save the spreadsheet file locally.
  • To turn on grouping for a grid, click Enable Grouping. When a field displays with the instruction: "Drag a column header here to group by that column," drag and drop column headers into the field, in the sequence that you want them to display.

Not all options are available on all grids.

Insert Click this option to insert a new row on the Expense Report grid. You must insert a new row for each expense item that you want to enter on the expense report.
Copy Click this option to copy the currently selected expense item to a new row on the Expense Report grid. Vision copies all expense information for the selected expense item to the new row, except for the expense amount, tax amount, net amount, expense details, and mileage data.

Alternatively, you can insert a blank row below the expense item that you want to copy, click the blank row, and press CTRL + D on your keyboard.

To copy all data (excluding amounts) from an existing expense report to a new expense report, click Copy on the Expense Report toolbar.

Delete Click this option to delete the currently selected expense item from the Expense Report grid.

To delete an entire expense report, click Delete on the Expense Report Selection form or click Delete Report on the Expense Report toolbar.

Expense Report Grid Fields

You can sort the rows in the Expense Report grid by any column in the grid. Click the appropriate column heading. You can sort information in ascending or descending order. Click a column heading once to establish a sort order. Click the column heading again to reverse the sort order.

Field Description
Approval Indicator This column displays a check mark icon or a stop icon to represent the state of an expense report line item, based on the approvals workflow. Hover the mouse cursor over the icon to display a tooltip containing the last comment that was made for the corresponding expense report line item. Click the icon displayed in the column to open the Expense Report Line Item Approval dialog box, which displays the Progress tab with the progress and history of the record. The information on the Progress tab is not editable.

This is the first column displayed in the Expense Report grid if the approvals workflow is enabled for expense reports. This column does not have a label.

The approvals workflow for expense reports is enabled in Configuration > Time & Expense > Company Expense.

Line This column displays the record number assigned to a record based on the order when the record was created. The record number moves with the record as the grid is sorted or filtered.
Date Enter the date on which you incurred the expense item.

You can enter a date directly in this field or click (which displays when you click in the Date field) and select a date.

If you use the Credit Card feature and import credit card statement charges into Vision: For imported credit card charges that you add to an expense report from the Credit Card pane, the Date field prefills with the date from the imported credit card charge.

Merchant Description This field displays if you use the Credit Card feature and import credit card charges into Vision.

If you add a charge from the Credit Card pane on the Expense Report form to an expense report, a row in the expenses grid prefills with the charge information. The Merchant Description field displays the contents of the MerchantDescription field that was imported into Vision for the credit card charge. This is the merchant or description from the credit card statement that helps employees identify a charge.

To automatically display the Merchant Description in expense reports, set the Map to expense report description option to Merchant Description in Configuration > Accounting > Credit Cards.

Category Use the drop-down list in this field to select an expense category for the expense item. The list displays both a category name and the name of the employee expense group to which the category is assigned.

After you select a category, the appropriate direct, indirect, or reimbursable general ledger account that is associated with the category prefills in the Account field in this grid. The account that prefills is based on the charge type (regular, overhead, or promotional) of the project that you enter in the Project field and the billing status that you enter in the Bill field for the expense item.

Expense categories and their associated general ledger accounts are set up in Configuration > Time & Expense > Expense Categories.

You must enter a category for an expense item on an expense report if your system administrator has set up the Expense Report application to require the use of categories on all expense reports. This setting is on the Setup tab in Configuration > Time & Expense > Company Expense.

Description Enter a brief description of the expense item. This description displays on various Vision reports and can be printed on invoices.
Detail Select this option to enter additional information about the expense item.

When you select this option, Vision displays one of four Detail forms:

  • General Detail
  • Business Meals Detail
  • Travel Detail
  • No Detail

Enter details in the fields on the form and click OK. You cannot enter detail information on the No Detail form.

If you are not using expense categories, the General Detail form always displays. If you are using expense categories, your system administrator determines which form displays for each category.

Currency Code This field displays only if you are using the Multicurrency feature. It displays the functional currency code specified for your company on the Currency tab of General Company Settings Configuration. Use the drop-down list in this field to select a different currency for any individual line item on the expense report.

For example, if you submit an expense report following a business trip to multiple countries, you might enter USD, EUR, and CAD as currencies for various line items. This makes it easier for you to match source documents, such as hotel receipts, to the charges on the expense report.

If you use the Credit Card feature and import credit card charges into Vision: When you add an imported credit card charge from the Credit Card pane to an expense report, the Currency Code from the Credit Card pane prefills in Currency Code field. This is the transaction currency code for the credit card charge.

Amount Enter the monetary amount of the expense item.

If you have the Tax Auditing feature enabled, this amount is used for calculating the taxes that prefill in the Total Tax Amount field in this grid.

If you use the Multicurrency feature, enter the amount that corresponds to the currency code that you have specified for the expense item in the Currency Code field.

If you use the Credit Card feature and import credit card charges into Vision: When you add an imported credit card charge from the Credit Card pane to an expense report, the Amount field prefills with the amount in the Remaining Amount field from the Credit Card pane.

Payment Amount If you use the Multicurrency feature, this field displays the amount to be paid in the functional currency, after any exchange overrides have been applied.
  • Vision stores transaction amounts in the functional currency of the company that owns (via organization structure) the project, phase, or task charged for the transaction.
  • If the transaction currency and functional currency differ, Vision uses the daily exchange rates you establish in Configuration to calculate the amount to be paid in the functional currency, unless you specify an override.
  • You can override exchange rates for individual line items or for an entire expense report.

If you use the Credit Card feature and you import credit card charges into Vision: When you add an imported credit card charge from the Credit Card pane to an expense report, the Payment Amount field displays the contents of the Payment Amount field from the Credit Card pane. This is the transaction amount in the credit card currency. For example, if a United States employee took a trip to Japan and used a US credit card, the amount in the Payment Amount field is in the US currency.

Payment Exchange Rate If you use the Multicurrency feature, use this field to specify an exchange override for a single line item on the expense report. Vision uses the override you enter to determine the payment amount.
  • Vision stores transaction amounts in the functional currency of the company that owns (via organization structure) the project, phase, or task charged for the transaction.
  • If the transaction currency and functional currency differ, Vision uses the daily exchange rates you establish in Configuration to calculate the amount to be paid in the functional currency, unless you specify an override.
  • You can use the Currency option on the toolbar to specify an exchange override for the entire expense report.
Project and/or Project Name Depending on the settings chosen by your system administrator, the Expense Report form displays the Project field, the Project Name field, or both fields.

Enter the project for which the expense was incurred.

  • If Project displays, enter the project number.
  • If Project Name displays, enter the project name.
  • If both fields display, enter a project number in the Project field, and the project name displays automatically in the Project Name field.

You can enter a project number or name directly in these fields, use the Quick Find feature, or click in these fields to use the Project lookup.

Phase and/or Phase Name Depending on the settings chosen by your system administrator, the Expense Report form displays the Phase field, the Phase Name field, or both fields.
  • If Phase displays, enter the phase number.
  • If Phase Name displays, enter the phase name.
  • If both fields display, enter a phase number in the Phase field, and the phase name displays automatically in the Phase Name field.

You can enter a phase number or name directly in these fields, use the Quick Find feature, or click in the fields to use the Phase/Task lookup.

Task and/or Task Name Depending on the settings chosen by your system administrator, the Expense Report form displays the Task field, the Task Name field, or both fields.
  • If Task displays, enter the task number.
  • If Task Name displays, enter the task name.
  • If both Task and Task Name display, enter a task number in the Task field and the task name displays automatically in the Task Name field.

You can enter a task number or description directly in these fields, use the Quick Find feature, or click in the fields to use the Phase/Task lookup.

Bill Select this check box to bill the client for the expense item.
Company Paid Select this check box if an expense is company paid. Company-paid expenses are paid to a vendor, not reimbursed to an employee.

A common example is when you purchase an airline ticket for business travel, and the airline charges your company instead of you (the employee) for the expense. Your company pays the airline for the ticket, but you add the expense to your expense report to create an audit trail.

  • If you select the Company Paid check box, Vision credits the project, phase, and task account that is specified on either the Setup tab of Company Expense Report Configuration or the Expense Categories dialog box.
  • If you do not select the Company Paid check box, Vision credits the project, phase, task and account specified on the Posting tab of Accounting Company Settings Configuration.

If you use the Credit Card feature and import credit card charges from your company-paid credit card company into Vision: When employees add a credit card charge from the Credit Card pane to an expense report, the Company Paid check box is selected automatically. This option remains cleared if the expense is associated with an employee paid credit card and therefore being paid by the employee.

Credit Card This field displays if you use the Credit Card feature in Vision.

When you use the Credit Card feature, you can manually enter credit card charges in the expenses grid on the Expense Report form, or you can select a charge that was imported into Vision from the credit card statement.

When You Manually Enter a Credit Card Charge to a Row in the Expenses Grid

When you select the Company Paid check box for an expense that you add to the grid, the Credit Card field is enabled. From the drop-down list in this field, select the credit card that was used to pay for the expense item. The list includes only the secondary credit cards that are assigned to you (the employee).

When You Add a Charge from the Credit Card Pane to the Expenses Grid

When you add a charge from the Credit Card pane on the Expense Report form to the expense report, a row in the expenses grid prefills with the charge information. The Credit Card field displays the code of the secondary credit card that is assigned to the employee for the charge.

Originating Vendor This field displays only if you selected the Enable Originating Vendor for Employee Expenses and AP Vouchers check box on the Tax Auditing tab in Configuration > Accounting > Company Settings.

Click in this field to display and click this icon to open the Vendor lookup. Select the vendor from whom the expense item was originally purchased. For example, an employee may have paid for a hotel room and a plane ticket. You can associate the expense items with the specific hotel and airlines vendors.

You can select active or inactive vendors, but not dormant vendors.

If you use the Multicompany feature, you can select only vendors that are approved for use for processing for the active company. (The Approved for use in processing company xx setting is on the Accounting tab in the Vendor Info Center.)

Total Tax Amount This field displays only if the Enable Tax Auditing Feature check box is selected on the Tax Auditing tab in Configuration > Accounting > Company Settings.
If you require users to enter categories on expense reports (a check box for this setting is in Company Expense Configuration on the Setup tab in Configuration > Time & Expense > Company Expense), then the Total Tax Amount field prefills with the calculated tax amount for an expense report item after you enter an amount in the Amount field in this grid. The calculation occurs as follows:
  • If the category that is entered in the Category field in this grid has default tax codes entered for it in Expense Categories Configuration (on the Expense Categories dialog box displayed from the Expense Categories form in Configuration > Time & Expense > Expense Categories), then the tax rates that are entered for the default tax codes for the expense category are applied to the amount in the Amount field to calculate the total tax amount.
  • If a category that is entered in the Category field in this grid has no default tax codes entered for it in Expense Categories Configuration (on the Expense Categories dialog box displayed from the Expense Categories form in Configuration > Time & Expense > Expense Categories), then the tax rates that are entered for the default tax codes on the Tax Auditing tab in Configuration > Accounting > Company Settings that have an active status and the Employee Expenses check box selected in the Inputs section in Taxes Configuration are applied to the amount in the Amount field to calculate the total tax amount.

If expense categories are not required and no category is entered in the Category field in this grid, then the total tax amount is 0.

The tax amount that is automatically calculated, or the 0.00 that displays in this field if no tax is calculated, is a blue, underlined amount. Click the blue hyperlink to open the Tax Codes dialog box, where you can view, add, or remove tax codes to recalculate the tax amount, or you can directly change the tax amounts. Whether or not you can change the tax codes or tax amount on the Tax Codes dialog box is controlled by the Allow staff users to change tax codes and Allow staff users to change tax amounts check boxes in Expense Categories Configuration (on the Expense Categories dialog box from the Expense Categories form in Configuration > Time & Expense > Expense Categories).

When you change the amount in the Total Tax Amount field by using the Tax Codes dialog box, the amount in the Net Amount field in the Expense Report grid is updated automatically.

Net Amount This field is available only if you selected Enable Tax Auditing Feature on the Tax Auditing tab of Configuration > Accounting > Company Settings.

This field displays the net expense amount, which is the expense amount in the Amount field minus the tax amount in the Total Tax Amount field.

If you change the amount in this field, the amounts in the Amount and Total Tax Amount fields are updated automatically.

Account and/or Account Name Depending on the settings chosen by your system administrator, the Expense Report form displays the Account field, the Account Name field, or both fields. Enter the general ledger account to be debited for the expense item. You can enter an account directly in this field, use the Quick Find feature, or click in the Account field to use the Account lookup.

A direct, indirect, or reimbursable account may prefill in this field based on the expense category, the charge type of the project, and the billing option that you enter for the expense item in this grid. The accounts that prefill are set up for expense categories in Configuration > Time & Expense > Expense Categories.

When you enter an expense category for an expense item in the Category field in the grid, the Account field prefills with one of the following accounts that is set up for an expense category in Expense Report Configuration:
  • The direct account if the expense item is charged to a regular project and it is non-billable (the Bill check box is not selected in this grid).
  • The indirect account if the expense item is charged to an overhead or promotional project. The indirect account also prefills if you do not use organizations or you do not have separate balance sheets in Vision, and you enter an expense item without a project.
  • The reimbursable account if the expense item is charged to a regular project and it is billable (the Bill check box is selected in this grid)

If you use the Multicurrency feature and a currency has been specified for this account on the General tab of the Accounts Info Center, then the account is a foreign denominated account. All transactions affecting a foreign denominated account must be in the same currency.

Document Use this field to associate one or more documents with the expense report. A Document Uploaded icon displays to indicate that a document is uploaded and associated.

Credit Card Pane Fields

Field Description
Credit Card If you have only one company-issued secondary credit card assigned to you, it displays in this field.

If you have more than one company-issued secondary credit card assigned to you, click the down-arrow in this field, and select the secondary credit card whose charges you want to display in the Credit Card pane.

Credit Card Grid Toolbar

Field Description
Credit Card Drop-Down

Click the drop-down arrow on a grid header to complete any of the following actions:

  • To print grid data, click Print. On the Print Preview form, click File > Print to send the grid data to your default printer.
  • To export grid data to an Excel spreadsheet, click Export to Excel. When Microsoft Excel opens, use its features to modify, print, or email the grid data, or to save the spreadsheet file locally.
  • To turn on grouping for a grid, click Enable Grouping. When a field displays with the instruction: "Drag a column header here to group by that column," drag and drop column headers into the field, in the sequence that you want them to display.

Not all options are available on all grids.

Select All Click this option if you want all the credit card charges that are displayed in the Credit Card pane to be selected, so that you can add all of them to the expense report. The check box in the Select column in the grid is selected for all the charges in the grid.
Deselect All Click this option if you do not want all the credit card charges that are selected in the grid to be selected for the expense report. The check box in the Select column in the grid is cleared for all the charges.

Credit Card Grid Fields

Other than the Select check box, the fields that are included in this grid are based on the fields that you selected on the Import tab in Configuration > Accounting > Credit Cards. These are the fields that are imported into Vision from your credit card statement that identify a charge. Listed below are all the possible fields that you may see in the Credit Card grid.

Field Description
Select Select this check box if you want to add the credit card charge to the expense report.
Date This field displays the date on which the credit card charge transaction occurred. This is the date that is defined during the credit card charges import.
Merchant Description This field displays the merchant or description for a credit card charge, which is imported into Vision from your credit card company. The merchant description helps employees identify a charge that they made.
Currency If you use multiple currencies in Vision, this field displays the transaction currency code for the credit card charge. The currency was defined when the charges were imported.
Remaining Amount This field displays the remaining amount of an imported charge that has not yet been added to an expense report. The remaining amount is the same as the original amount unless you split an imported charge among multiple projects, categories, or general ledger accounts, and you have added some, but not all, of the imported charge amount to an expense report.

If you have multiple currencies in Vision, the remaining amount is in the transaction currency.

Original Amount This field displays the original amount of an imported charge.

If you use multiple currencies in Vision, this amount is in the currency of the transaction. For example, if a United States employee took a trip to Japan and used a US credit card, the amount in the Original Amount field is in the Japanese currency.

Payment Amount This field applies if you use multiple currencies in Vision.

This field displays the transaction amount in the credit card currency. For example, if a United States employee took a trip to Japan and used a US credit card, the amount in the Payment Amount field is in the US currency.

User-Defined Fields Any user-defined field that you include in the import file for a charge displays in the grid.
Add to Expense Report Button Click this button to add the rows that you selected in the Credit Card pane (with a check mark in the Select field) into the expenses grid on the Expense Report form.
Mark Personal Button This button is only visible when the credit card is employee paid. Click this button to remove the selected rows from the Credit Card pane. The charge will not display in Credit Card Reconciliation or Credit Card Review.

Fields Below the Expense Report Grid

The fields below the Expense Report grid display expense information for the row that you currently have selected in the Expense Report grid. This information changes as you move from row to row.

The following information displays:

  • Project — Project name
  • Phase — Phase name
  • Task — Task name
  • Account — Account name
  • DetailYes, if detail has been entered. No, if detail has not been entered.
  • Originating Vendor — This is the originating vendor entered in the expense report grid.
  • Currency — The entry from the grid displays if you use the Multicurrency feature.
  • Exchange Override — This displays if you use the Multicurrency feature.
Field Description
Total Expenses This field displays the total monetary amount of all the expense items on the expense report, including any company paid items.

If you use the Multicurrency feature, this field displays the total expense amount in the functional currency of the company that owns (via organization structure) the project, phase, or task charged for the transaction.

Company Paid Items This field displays the total amount of company paid expense items entered on the expense report.

Company paid expenses are paid directly to a vendor and are not reimbursed to employees.

Company Paid Items display on the Expense Report form only if your system administrator has selected Allow entry of company paid items on the Setup Tab of Company Expense Report Configuration.

Amount Advanced Enter the total monetary amount of any advances you have received that should be applied to the expense report.

Advances represent cash provided to you by your firm to cover expected expenses. An advance reduces the amount owed to you.

The Amount Advanced field displays on the Expense Report form only if your Expense Report administrator selects Allow users to specify applied advance amounts on the Setup Tab of Company Expense Report Configuration.

If you use the Multicurrency feature, the amount in this field should be entered using the functional currency of the company that owns (via organization structure) the project, phase, or task charged for the transaction.

Total Due This field displays the total amount that your firm owes to you for the expenses included on the expense report. This amount is calculated by adding all the expense items on the expense report and then subtracting the amount of any advances and/or company paid items.