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Review & Approval Process

You can view all reimbursement/expense claim applications submitted by your members, or members of Activities/ Student Groups via the ‘Expenses’ section of the ‘Finance’ module.

When you enter the ‘Expenses’ section, you will see information on the right hand side of the page showing the number of:

  1. ‘Pending’ applications – submitted applications that are awaiting bank details to be completed
  2. ‘New’ applications – applications ready for review by Activities/Student Group staff
  3. ‘Activity Approved Applications’ – applications that have been reviewed and approved by Activities/Student Group staff, ready for review by the Finance team review
  4. ‘Finance Processing Requests’ – Applications reviewed by finance, awaiting processing
  5. ‘Finance Completed Applications’ – Applications processed by activities
  6. ‘Rejected Applications’ – Declined Applications

On the left, you will be able to select and view applications sat within the three main approval stages:

  1. New
  2. Reviewed
  3. Processing Requests

As well as:

  1. Completed Expense Claims
  2. Pending
  3. Declined

How do I review a new Expense Claim request?

  1. Click ‘New’ to view the list of new applications that require review;
  2. Each entry will list the:
    1. Type of application (either ‘Reimbursement’ or ‘Purchase Request’ (where the submitter has entered the payment details of the recipient))
    2. Product Type
    3. Date Submitted
    4. Submitter Name
    5. Committee Reviewed (if applicable)
    6. Awaiting Resubmission (if applicable)
  3. Select the green ‘View’ button to review all of the information provided on the request, including the items, coding and any attachments that have been provided
  4. Under ‘Items’ you will be able to add/adjust the nominal and department codes for each entry (if the request is for an Activity/Student group, these will have already been completed by a relevant committee member, but can still be adjusted on this page if required)
  5. If the request is for a mileage reimbursement, you will also be able to adjust the requested amount if required, such as if the rate for mileage reimbursements has changed after the application was submitted (you will need to provide a reason as to why the total value has been changed
  6. You can then ‘Approve’ or ‘Decline’ a request using the relevant buttons at the bottom of the page

What if I require some further information to approve the request, but do not want to decline it?

At the bottom of the application page, there is a yellow ‘Feedback’ button. Select this and enter the relevant information you require and click ‘Submit’.

The relevant member will then be able to view the feedback you have submitted via their Student Dashboard, and their application will reopen for them to adjust accordingly.

If, after reopening an application, a member does not re-submit within the time period given for a reimbursement to be requested after the purchase date, they will still be able to modify and submit the updated application. However, please note that, for security reasons, bank details are only retained on the system for 45 days. If a reopened application has not been re-submitted within this time, the bank details will need to be requested again (see below under What if bank details bounce back for a completed application?).

Note: If an application is reopened, the member will not be able to adjust the total amount, the date of the expense or be able to add/remove any items. If this is required, you will need to decline the application for them to submit a new one.

Any reopened applications that initially require Committee Member approval will require this approval again for resubmission.

How can Finance review Activity staff-approved applications?

  1. All Activity staff approved applications can be found within the ‘Reviewed’ area, where Finance can then review and approve the application
  2. The total VAT and financial coding can be updated here as well if required by Finance before final approval (the total value will update automatically if the VAT is adjusted)
  3. Finance can then ‘Approve’ or ‘Decline’ the application on their end

At the bottom of the application page, there is a yellow ‘Feedback’ button. Select this and enter the relevant information you require and click ‘Submit’.

Can I revert the Finance approval of a claim if I need to?

If a claim has been approved at the finance stage, this level of approval can be reverted if you ever need.

The option to revert the finance approval of an expense claim will appear for any user that has the [Finance] Expenses - Finance permission, and will appear:

Alongside an expense claim within the 'Processing Requests' section:

Within an expense claim when you view a claim that is held in the 'Processing Requests' section:

How do I obtain the bank details to reimburse approved applications?

  1. All fully approved applications can be found within the ‘Processing Requests’ area
  2. Here you will see a list of all requests ready for processing (you can view the details of the application again if needed before processing by clicking the green ‘View’ button)
  3. Tick the requests you would like to process, and you have the following options:
    1. Mark as complete (all completed requests can be found within the ‘Completed Expense Claims’ area on the main page
    2. Download CSV (without bank details)
    3. Download CSV (with bank details)

Please note: Once you have exported the bank details of an expense claim, the bank details will be redacted after 7 days. This overrides the standard 45 day period that bank details are held for before a claim is approved and exported.

Do members receive an email if the status of their application changes?

Emails will be sent at various stages of the review and approval process to update members on the status of their application. Members will receive an email notifying them if: 1. Their application has been declined by a member of staff 2. Their application has been reopened by a member of staff requesting further information 3. Their application has been marked as completed by Finance – the email will also confirm within how many days’ funds should appear in their account (this timescale can be confirmed within ‘System Configuration (see below)) 4. Their bank details if they need to reconfirm their bank details for reimbursement 5. Where an Activity/Student Group application has been submitted, an email will be sent to the relevant Group’s email address confirming that there is an application that requires Committee Member approval (if you have selected Committee Member approval to be a part of the process) 1. A reminder email will also be sent 5 days later if the application is yet to be approved.

What if bank details bounce back for a completed application?

If a reimbursement bounces back and you require the relevant member to reconfirm their bank details, you can:

  1. Find the relevant request within the ‘Completed Expense Claims’ folder
  2. Click the ‘View’ button
  3. Click the ‘Re-request bank details.’ button to send them a link to re-enter their bank details
  4. The request will automatically return to the ‘Processing Request’ folder if this option is selected, and the student will get an email telling them to go to the student dashboard to resubmit
  5. Once the student has reconfirmed their details, you will be able to process the application again for reimbursement

Updated on 2nd September 2024