Concur FAQ

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USF employees may use this tool for purchasing card and out of pocket reimbursement needs.

Student reimbursements and Petty Cash forms may be processed via Concur Invoice. Please contact pcard@usfca.edu for access to the Invoice feature.

If a USF employees incurs out-of-pocket business-related expenses, they may seek access to the Expense tool. To do so, they can watch the online tutorial and e-mail pcard@usfca.edu upon completion. The email must include the required information below to enable their Concur profile.

  • Employees legal name (Listed on their California License or ID)
  • Employees USF e-mail address
  • Employees Campus Wide ID Number (CWID)
  • List of FOAPs to access

Please allow 3-5 business days for account creation and confirmation of access.

There are two methods of accessing Concur:

  • Single Sign On: Through the MyUSF homepage, select the Concur button in the middle of the screen. You will automatically be routed into the site.
  • External link: Type expense.usfca.edu into your web browser (Google Chrome and Firefox are the most supported browsers). Use your MyUSF username and your campus wide ID number for the username and password to log in.

One expense report may be submitted each month. Rather than creating multiple reports each month, combine purchasing card and out-of-pocket expenses into one report.

The last business day of every month is the end of the purchasing card billing cycle. Cardholders must submit expenses on the first business day of every month for the previous month’s transactions. By the third business day of every month, business manager approvers must review and approve all transactions for their department. If this deadline cannot be met, please notify your associated business manager via e-mail.

Once the report is approved by your business manager, the report is then sent to Disbursements Services for review. The expense processor within Disbursements Services then has 5-10 business days or less to process a completed expense report. Provided you have a direct deposit information on file with Disbursements Services, it then can take additional 1-4 business days (depending on your bank) for the funds to post to your bank account. Alternatively, if direct deposit information is not provided, a physical check will be mailed to your home address after at least 10 business days.

Each expense requires a business purpose  included within an expense report along with proper supporting documentation. USF does not require receipts for mileage expenses, nor do we require receipts for expenses of $49.99 or less. However, we encourage you to submit all of your receipts, including those for expenses of $50 or greater.

Business purpose is the explanation that is required for each transaction included within a submitted expense report. Users are responsible for proving that each expense within the report is business related. To do so, users must explain how the expense relates to their business at hand. Vague or general business purposes such as “office supplies” will not be tolerated and will be sent back for additional explanation. Please contact Victoria Lei for additional information regarding business purpose if needed.

FOAP is an acronym for Fund, Organization, Account and Program. Each department has a corresponding set of FOAPs for expense allocation. Your business manager will notify Disbursement Services regarding your default FOAP settings for your expense report processing.

Within your open expense report, you will noticed that your departmental FOAP is defaulted. If your business Manger instructs you to select an alternative FOAP, please click on the drop down menu to select the appropriate numbers. If you do not see the correct Fund, Organization, Account, or Program code you were instructed to select, please notify Victoria Lei for additional instruction.

If you wish to change the default FOAP within your Concur Expense reports, please contact Victoria Lei.

If you need to allocate an expense to another department's FOAP, please seek e-mail approval from the associated department's Business Manager prior to importing the expense into an expense report. Once the expense processor within Disbursement Services is notified by the Business Manager,  your setting will be temporarily altered. You will receive a confirmation e-mail when you are able to create a new expense report. Upon logging and creating an expense report, you will notice your default FOAP has been changed to the approved string of numbers. Once the report is submitted, please respond to the original e-mail requesting for your default FOAP to be restored.

  • Mileage reimbursement: If you plan on using your personal vehicle for business related events, please contact Melissa Diaz in Risk Management prior to traveling. Once approval from Risk Management is obtained and the travel has taken place, you may seek reimbursement for the miles traveled. This calculation is executed through Concur Expense via a mileage calculator tool. This tool utilizes the IRS Mileage rates (updated annually) multiplied by the number of miles traveled. 
  • Fuel Purchase: Only USF owned vehicles and rental car usage may seek reimbursement for fuel related expenses. If personal car is used, please refer back to the Mileage Reimbursement section. 

To be considered as an authorized driver for USF owned vehicles please refer to the Driver Authorization and Automobiles page.

  • Travel Meal: 1 attendee. May utilize up to $75 per day (subject to departmental guidelines). In order to be eligible for travel meal reimbursement, the employee must be traveling 50 miles or greater away from the principle location of work on an infrequent basis.
  • Entertainment Meal: 2-9 attendees. Attendee names and their association with the university is required within Concur. Employees must refrain from holding meals with all USF employees in lieu of on campus meetings.
  • Reception 10 or greater:10+ attendees. You will not need to list every attendee's name but instead provide the approximate number of attendees in tandem with the business purpose.

Please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs for all grant-related advising.

The steps for reconciling expenses that are charged to a grant budget are as follows:

  • Complete training in the Concur Travel & Expense system.
  • Work with USF Grants Accountant in the Office of Sponsored Programs to discuss specific grant requirements.
  • Once Purchasing Card Services receives confirmation from the Grants Accountant, grant-related budget numbers can be added to your Concur account for future expense reports.
  • All grant related expense reports over $5,000 must include the word 'Grant' in the report header, must contain only grant-related expenses, and the box to indicate grant expense must be checked.
  • Please do not create an expense report for a grant charge if you have not completed the steps above and received confirmation that the budget number has been added to Concur.

VP and/or Dean approval is required for all international travel expenses. Please discuss your travel plans with your department Business Manager prior to traveling.

Per Diem: Per diem may be utilized for foreign travel if previously agreed upon. Business managers can utilize the Secretary of State Per Diem Guidelines for determining rates of reimbursement. Visit the US Department of State website for the Per Diem Rates by Location.

Yes, you may set reminders you receive by selecting Profile at the top of your My Concur homepage, then Personal Information, and lastly Expense Preferences. When in your expense preferences, under the "Send email when..." header, select when you would like to receive emails by clicking in the boxes on the left of the options. Click save when finished.

Cash Advances must be requested at a minimum of two weeks prior to the date in which the advance is needed. This feature may be used only in the case where a purchasing card is not acceptable means of payment within a location or with a vendor. The cash advance must be reconciled within 30 days of the end date of the travel. Funds that are not reconciled into an expense report within 30 days of issuance or excess funds that are not returned may be added to the recipient’s taxable wages. Upon approval, the cash advance will be direct deposited into the recipients account unless instructed otherwise. Complete a direct deposit form to receive cash advance via your bank account.

Reconciliation

The whole cash advance must be associated within an expense report no later than 30 days of the end date of the trip. Any unused funds of the advance must be returned to USF via check or cash.

To associate the cash advance to an expense report:

  • When in the expense report, click on the details drop down button which is located below the name of your expense report.
  • Under the cash advances heading, click on available. The Cash Advances page appears. Any outstanding approved and issued cash advances appear on this page
  • Click in box on the right hand side of each advance that you would like to associate to your report.
  • Click Assign Cash Advance to Report at the bottom of the cash advance window. The amount of the advance(s) will be deducted from the report.
  • Please note: If your cash advance is greater than the expenses you incurred you will be required to return the remainder to USF and do the following:
  • Click on New Expense on the left hand side of the screen under the expense report name. Choose the expense type cash advance return from the expense-type listing. Enter the unused amount of the advance in the amount box
  • To reimburse the University, you can provide a check and send it to the Business & Finance Office, LMN 3rd Floor
  • Please include the title of the expense report that is associated to the cash advance return in the memo line of the check.

Remember, it is against the Purchasing Card Policy to use the card for personal expenses. After vowing to not expense your personal charges on the card, you may include the personal expense into your next month’s expense report and click the box “personal expense (do not reimburse),” A check can then be delivered to ABS to reimburse the university. The check can be written out to the University of San Francisco and sent to Dennis Miller at LMN 3rd floor with a comment about the personal purchase in the memo line.

In the unlikely event you incur a personal expense, if you submit amounts owed to you in the same expense report with the expense marked as personal, the expense system will subtract out the personal amount from your reimbursement.

You no longer are required to break out all hotel expenses if there is a detailed hotel folio provided along with your business substantiation. Movie purchases and laundry services while staying at hotels will need to be itemized, but meal, parking, and internet expenses do not have to be itemized.

  • After reconciling the expense that needs to be itemized, instead of choosing the save option at the bottom of the screen, click itemize.
  • The new itemization window will open up.
  • The choose an expense type box will appear in the new itemization window. Select the appropriate expense type and enter in the amount of the itemization. Continue this process until the full amount of this expense has been itemized and the balance in the remaining field is $0.00.
  • If you are itemizing a personal expense that should not be reimbursed by USF, select the Personal Expense (do not reimburse) check box when in the actual itemization expense window.
  • Complete the required and optional fields as usual.
  • When done, click Save.
  • In your expense report, select the expenses that you would like to allocate by clicking on the boxes on the left hand side of each expense.
  • A window will appear on the right hand side of the screen. Select option number 2, Allocate.
  • When the allocation window appears, you will have the option to allocate by amount or percentage. The allocate by button will allow you to choose how you would like to allocate your expenses.
  • After keying in the amount of percentage that you would like to allocate your expenses, you can change the fund, organization, and programs codes. By clicking within the fund, organization, and/or program code boxes, a drop down arrow will appear on the right. Use that arrow to find and select the appropriate choice for your allocation.
  • When the expenses have been fully allocated, click save at the bottom of the window. After you click save, you will need to click done at the bottom of the window.
  • After you click on done, you will be taken back to your expense report. You will see a symbol that represents a pie chart next to all expenses that have been allocated.
  • Concur Mobile - When utilizing the Concur Mobile app, all pictures taken with your smart phone will automatically be saved in your receipt store within your Concur profile. To access the receipt store, you can open your associated expense report and click the Receipts button. From there you may select Available Receipts. Once clicked, you will notice all of your images are stored on the right hand side of your screen. From here, you can click on the associated image and drag it on top of the related expense. The image is then attached to the specific line item.
  • Forward to receipts@concur.com - From within your expense report you may select Receipts then Available Receipts to enable a feature that will allow users to forward electronic receipts into the receipt store. Once this feature has been enabled, all electronic receipts may be forward to receipts@concur.com for expense reporting ease. Once the report is ready to be reconciled, users may click on the associated image and drag it on top of the related expense. The image is then attached to the specific line item.
  • Scan and Upload - To attach images to an expense report that have been scanned and saved on the desk top, users can click on the Receipts drop down button then select Attach Receipt Images. From there, they may click Browse and navigate to the image on the desk to, select the file click upload. Repeat steps until all files you intend to upload are attached.