XIII. Employee Expense Reimbursement

Guide to Financial Operations

XIII.2.C Expense Report Certification

XIII. Employee Expense Reimbursement
Guide to Financial Operations

SECTION OVERVIEW AND POLICIES

Expense reports must be certified by the employee requesting reimbursement, the employee’s supervisor, and by an agency Finance Office employee with the authority to certify that the expense report is just, true and correct and, therefore, appropriate to pay. An employee’s supervisor and the Finance Office employees should not certify an expense report unless it includes sufficient, appropriate evidence to support the expenses claimed.

This section describes the process that must be followed for expense reports that are direct-entered into the Statewide Financial System (SFS) or bulkloaded from an agency’s internal finance/travel system. Employees must follow these processes whether the expense report results in (i) a reimbursement to the employee, (ii) no reimbursement to the employee or the State, or (iii) a reimbursement from employee back to the State.

For information on Finance Office certification requirements see Chapter XII, Section 4.B – Certification of Vouchers of this Guide.

Process and Transaction Preparation:

Employees are required to certify on expense reports that the expenses are just, true and correct and, therefore, appropriate to pay. To meet this requirement, employees may, in either the SFS or an agency’s internal finance/travel system:

  • Directly enter and certify travel expenses on an expense report.
  • Review the information that a proxy has entered in an expense report, adjust expenses as necessary, and then submit the expense report for approval using the employee’s own user ID.
  • Sign the certification on a completed Employee Report of Travel Expenses and Claim for Payment (AC 132-S*). (This document can either be submitted to a proxy for processing, or submitted through the proper supervisory chain to the finance/travel unit following the agency’s internal procedures). If this process is used to record employee’s certification, online agency officials must attach the signed Claim for Payment to the expense report. Bulkload agencies are required to keep these forms in a central location, such as the Finance Office.

A proxy may not submit an employee’s expense report for approval without having received the employee’s certification.

* Agencies may use a form other than the AC 132-S to record and certify employee expenses only when the form has been approved by the OSC. To request approval for an alternate form, please submit the form to [email protected].

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 07/13/2017