Expense Report Line Item Approval Overview

The Expense Report Line Item Approval feature enables principals, project managers, and/or supervisors to review, and then approve or reject, individual expense charges for their projects. They only see expenses charged to their projects, not actual employee expense reports.

This feature can help you maintain greater control over your project expenses and ensure that all expenses are posted to the appropriate projects.

Expense Report line item approval only applies to expense entries made using the Vision Time and Expense application.

To use this feature, your system administrator must first:

• Activate the feature in Expense Report Configuration.
• Select which projects require line item approval.
• Determine who can approve line item labor charges.

Approvals Workflow

Approvals workflow for employee expenses must be enabled and configured to display the Expense Report Line Item Approval form. If the approvals workflow is not enabled for expense report line items, then the Expense Report Line Item Approval form does not display. Instead, a system message displays when you click Time & Expense > Expense Line Item.

To enable the approvals workflow for expense reports, go to Configuration > Time & Expense > Company Expense and select the Use Approval Workflow for Employee Expense Report option. From the Approval Workflow drop-down list, select an employee expense approval workflow that enables the Expense Report Line Item Approval form.

To configure an approval workflow for employee expenses that enables the Expense Report Line Item Approval form, go to the Approval Configuration form in Configuration > Workflow > Approval Workflows. Set the Approval Level option to Expense Line or Both Expense Report and Expense Line to enable expense report line item approval. You can set up notifications, approvals steps, and other manage workflow settings on the Approval Configuration form.

Expense Report Line Item Approval vs. Expense Report Approval

Approvals for full expense reports and those for expense report line items are separate approval options that function independently of each other.

• Use Expense Report approval to require a group, company, or system administrator to approve expense reports for each employee at your firm before expense reports can be posted.
• Use Expense Report line item approval to require principals, project managers, or supervisors to approve individual expense report line entries before expense reports can be posted.

Your system administrator can require any one of the following:

• Expense report approval only
• Line item approval only
• Both expense report and line item approval
• No approval

Expense Report Line Item Approval and Supporting Documents

If Vision is configured to allow you to view supporting documents, you can upload and attach documents, such as receipts, to your expense reports in Time & Expense > Expense Report. When using Expense Report Line Item Approvals, you can access the Supporting Documents dialog box to view the documents that are attached to the expense line items. This allows you to track your expense items and keep all associated documents in one place.