JHM SAP Training

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/sap

saptraining@jhmi.edu

June 5, 2013

TRAVEL APPROVER USER GUIDE APPROVING EMPLOYEE EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT IN SAP

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Intro Page 2

CONTENTS

Intro ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Viewing and Executing Approvals .................................................................................................................................. 3

Accessing Your SAP Approver Inbox .......................................................................................................................... 3

Inbox Layout .............................................................................................................................................................. 4

Opening and Reviewing Expense from Inbox ............................................................................................................ 5

Open Travel Expense Statement ........................................................................................................................... 5

Navigate to Decision Step in Workflow ................................................................................................................. 5

Open the Employee Trip display ............................................................................................................................ 5

Review Workflow History if Needed ...................................................................................................................... 6

View Uploaded Receipts and Supporting Documents ........................................................................................... 6

Return to the Decision Step in Workflow Screen .................................................................................................. 7

To Enter an Approval Decision .................................................................................................................................. 7

Approve ................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Reject ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7

To Return the Expense Report to your Inbox ............................................................................................................ 7

Cancel and keep work item in inbox ...................................................................................................................... 8

To Replace (Un-Reserve) ....................................................................................................................................... 8

To Forward ............................................................................................................................................................. 8

Expense Report Management ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Re-Use the Same Expense Report / Date Range for All Associated Expenses (Incremental Payments for One

Expense Report) ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

View Trip and Reimbursements History .................................................................................................................. 10

Sign up for Inbox Notifications ................................................................................................................................ 12

Resources..................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Index ............................................................................................................................................................................ 13

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Intro Page 3

INTRO

Reimbursement: SAP Travel is the Hopkins tool for employee reimbursements. Expense Reports are entered into SAP Trip documents. Expense Reports in SAP are referred to as Trips.

Hopkins Local Travel Policy:

All local travel expenses – including local mileage, parking and tolls, must be entered as a Domestic Trip. This does not affect non-travel reimbursements such as wireless phone or membership dues, which can be submitted as Non-Travel.

Approval Flow by Cost Center

Expense Reimbursements workflow to Approvers based on Cost Center/s charged.

VIEWING AND EXECUTING APPROVALS

ACCESSING YOUR SAP APPROVER INBOX

The best way to view your Inbox is through the SAP software (SAP Easy Access Menu accessed via the ECC

tab). If the SAP software is not available, Travel Administrative Approver is the best web-based option. 1

1. Begin by opening the SAP portal screen.2

- Click the SAP icon on your desktop, or enter the web address: http://sap.johnshopkins.edu.

- With Internet Explorer and single sign-on, you will be logged on with your JHED ID.

2. From the portal screen, click the ECC tab to initiate the launch of the SAP software on your computer.

3. Depending on browser (IE or Firefox) version and settings you may need to click to allow the SAP file

download, click the ECC tab again, then the Open button in the dialogue box.3

4. Once the SAP Easy Access Menu loads, you’ll access your Inbox by clicking the

Inbox icon in the upper left of the screen.

5. This will open your SAP Business Workplace.

6. Select Inbox in the top of the left quadrant.

1 (If working from a computer without the SAP GUI installed, the Travel Administrative Approver tab provides some of the same functionality. The web-based ECC Inbox tab minimal. 2 If the tab ECC does not display (or ECC for EPR Users), then the WinGUI launch role must be added to your position. This can be requested by an SAP Security, Roles and Workflow Request (ZSR). Request this of your financial office approver.

3 If your computer does not know what to do with the downloaded tx.sap file, the SAP GUI (graphical user interface) software needs to be installed or re-set. LAN Administrators will find installation information at http://h1support.jhu.edu/ .

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Viewing and Executing Approvals Page 4

7. All current Inbox items will display in the upper

right quadrant.

INBOX LAYOUT

Upper Left

- Inbox for Incoming

- Outbox for Sent or Executed

Upper Right

- Incoming SAP ECC transactions (Travel and Business Expense is an ECC transaction)

- May include transactions intended for other Approvers. ‘Replace’ any double-clicked in error.

- Row of management icons (Replace, Forward, Sort, Filter…)

~ Click a column header to sort ascending or descending

~ Use Search (binoculars) to locate by Employee name or Trip number

Lower Right

- Description and Trip link for transaction line highlighted above.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Viewing and Executing Approvals Page 5

OPENING AND REVIEWING EXPENSE FROM INBOX

OPEN TRAVEL EXPENSE STATEMENT

1. In the right quadrant, locate the Expense Report requiring your decision. If you are sharing an Inbox with

other Approvers, you can click the binoculars icon to search by employee name/s. Double-click to open.

2. The Travel Expense Statement screen will

display, listing all elements entered into the

Expense Report.

Scroll through to review date/s, amounts,

totals, cost assignment/s, mileage,

categories, descriptions and comments… –

to confirm that the Expense Report can be

approved.

If you might need to do further research on

this employee’s previous payments, make

note of the Personnel Number (Personnel

Nbr:) in upper left of the report screen.

NAVIGATE TO DECISION STEP IN WORKFLOW

3. Once you have completed your review, click the green dot SAP back button.

4. The Decision Step in Workflow screen will display. From

here, you will continue steps in the review.

OPEN THE EMPLOYEE TRIP DISPLAY

5. Click the EmployeeTrip line in the lower right of the

screen.

6. The Employee Trip Display screen will display. This is just a launch page, with a summary of the same

information you just reviewed in the Travel Expense Statement. However, this is also a screen from which

you can click to specific details, and also view the workflow history of this Expense.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Viewing and Executing Approvals Page 6

REVIEW WORKFLOW HISTORY IF NEEDED

Often, Expense Reports are submitted in incremental submissions. For

example, airfare paid in advance, submitted for reimbursement at the time

of purchase – in an Expense Report dated for the future dated trip. You can

view history here.

7. If you are questioning if this is a new Expense Report to be reimbursed

in total – or one which has been submitted with just additional items

from a previously been paid Expense, click the History button.

8. The Trip Data Display: History screen will display.

9. This is the Workflow History of the Trip, or Expense Report, document.

View here if this Trip was previously submitted, approved (or rejected),

and paid.4 You can view all submissions, decisions, and outcomes.

Because this display is only of the workflow of the Trip, you

can’t view amounts previously paid. To do this, see Viewing

Trip and Reimbursements History further in this document.

10. Click the green dot back button at the top of the screen to

return to the Employee Trip Display.

VIEW UPLOADED RECEIPTS AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

11. The last step from the Employee Trip display is to view receipts and any

additional supporting documents uploaded. Click the Services for Object icon in

the upper left of the screen – the right half of the button with the tiny image of a

list.

12. If receipts or other documents were uploaded, ‘Attachment list’ will be an active

option. Select.

4 Expense Reports in which expenditures are made over a period of time for a particular event (such as airline and hotel deposit), should be entered in one Expense Report, which can then be submitted and paid multiple times. SAP will only pay any total amount above that already paid.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Viewing and Executing Approvals Page 7

13. This will open the initial Document Viewer Attachment list

box. Double-click the Travel Expense document-PDF

format only line, to open the PDF file which had been

saved to this designation. (If more than one is listed, you

will need to select each individually.)

14. There might be a delay for the receipts to display, and you might also need to navigate back and then

forward again for the display to fill…

15. Once the display fills, you will see the receipts as a PDF file –

which will AT FIRST appear to consist of only one page. But,

wait…

16. If a receipt file with more than one page was uploaded, the

Document Viewer navigation buttons (across the top of the document)

will be active: Previous Page, Select Page, and Next Page.

17. Review each receipt to make sure it verifies payment (for example, that it is a receipt rather than an

unpaid bill). Also, if a credit card statement is utilized as a receipt – that there is enough detail to verify

the receipt line item/s it supports.

RETURN TO THE DECISION STEP IN WORKFLOW SCREEN

18. Once you have reviewed the documentation, exit the Document Viewer by clicking the green dot SAP

back button at the top of the screen.

19. Then, close the Document Viewer Attachment list box.

20. This will return you to the Decision Step in Workflow screen.

From this screen, you can enter your Approval decision, or return the Expense Report to your Inbox.

TO ENTER AN APPROVAL DECISION

If you are ready to enter your decision, select:

APPROVE Click Approve to approve.

REJECT Click Reject to reject -- or to require modifications for

resubmission. (the Revise option is not functional here)

If Rejecting, communicate the reason and any measures needed

for resolution in the Create note box that displays.

TO RETURN THE EXPENSE REPORT TO YOUR INBOX

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Viewing and Executing Approvals Page 8

CANCEL AND KEEP WORK ITEM IN INBOX

1. If you are not ready to make an Approval decision, or if the Expense Report should be returned or

forwarded to a different Approver, select Cancel and keep work item in inbox.

2. You will be returned to your Inbox. The Expense Report will now display as In-Process (partially colored

box under Status column). By having double-clicked this

Trip, you have Reserved it – pulling it from any other

Approvers to whom it may have workflowed.

- You will need to Forward or Replace to make this Expense Report Ready for another Approver.

TO REPLACE (UN-RESERVE)

3. If you are not ready to make an Approval decision, or if the Expense Report should be returned to Ready

for other workflowed Approvers, Replace the Expense Report.

- From the Inbox - with the transaction line still highlighted in

the upper right quadrant, select the Replace icon.

- The Status column will again display this line as Ready.

TO FORWARD

4. If you need to forward the Trip to an Approver to whom it has not naturally routed, select Forward.

- From the Inbox - with the transaction line still highlighted in the

upper right quadrant, select the Forward icon, and then enter

the SAP User ID of the Approver – in the Choose Agent box

which displays.

- This may be the Approver’s JHED ID, or may be their JHED ID prefixed by a

concurrent employee prefix (CE01, CE02…). Search if you are not certain.

- Be sure that you are forwarding to an SAP user who has the Travel Approver

role. Otherwise, that person will receive, but not be able to open or process, the Expense.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Expense Report Management Page 9

EXPENSE REPORT MANAGEMENT

RE-USE THE SAME EXPENSE REPORT / DATE RANGE FOR ALL ASSOCIATED EXPENSES

(INCREMENTAL PAYMENTS FOR ONE EXPENSE REPORT)

For Expense Reports specific to a date range (such as a conference or training travel), employee

reimbursements should be processed through a single Expense Report. The Trip document should be initiated

as of the first employee expenditure (such as prepayment of airfare, conference, or hotel deposit), for the

actual date range of the event/trip, even though initial expenses may be months in advance of the actual date

range. The same Trip can then be re-opened, added-to, and processed and approved again, as incremental

expenses are incurred. SAP is designed to allow such future-dated, re-usable, Expense Report documents. In

this way, all associated expenses for a trip, or date-based project, are captured and managed by the target

date, and employees are appropriately reimbursed as they incur expenses.

SAP tracks previous payments on re-used Trips, and only pays increments above the total previously paid.

Additionally, SAP will not allow a second Expense Report for the employee to include any of the dates already

used. Utilizing SAP’s functionality in this way – and by educating and requiring staff to use the actual date

range – you are making the tracking and management of reimbursements much easier for yourself and your

finance administration.

See the Travel and Business Expense payment history example below – how a single Trip and its date range –

were processed and paid in multiple increments. Each time one of these Trips was resubmitted, the total on

the top line reflected all Trip items cumulatively, but each payment was only for the amount not already paid.

See the next section for how to view historical payments in the SAP Travel transaction.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Expense Report Management Page 10

VIEW TRIP AND REIMBURSEMENTS HISTORY

If you receive an Expense Report for items you believe may have been previously paid, you can check the

workflow History of that Expense Report from Employee Trip display detailed in Review Workflow History. If

this Expense Report has been previously approved and paid, then this workflow is most likely for additional

expenses incurred. To view payment dates and amounts for Open or Paid trips, view from the SAP Travel

Manager function.

1. From the SAP Easy Access Menu, click the arrow to the left of the

Travel & Business Expense Reimbursement Requester or Travel &

Business Expense Request Assistant folder, and then double-click

the Travel Manager transaction.

2. In the Travel Manager, change the Personnel Number from yours

(default), to that of the employee whose history you wish to view.

The Personnel Number can be obtained from the Travel Expense

Statement opened from your Inbox. See Open Travel Expense

Statement above.

3. Click List of All Trips.

4. To be sure to view the full history on this screen, click the settings icon

at the top of the display (select the All Trips button and close).

5. The List of All Trips screen will display with any Open Trips (Expense Reports pending approval/payment)

expanded at the top of the screen. This includes previously paid Expense Reports to which additional

items have been added and resubmitted.

6. Paid Trips will initially display collapsed, and can be opened by selecting, and right-clicking to then select

Expand Trips.

7. Each Expense Report will now display a header line (Trip line), and below that, its Expense Report line.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Expense Report Management Page 11

8. In Paid Trips, you will see a ‘Paid on’ date, and

single Amount paid.

Paid on is the last date of payment for this

Expense Report, even if it was processed in

smaller, incremental, payments.

9. In Open Trips above, you will only see the Total amount of an Expense

Report. If previous payments were made (if the Expense Report was

submitted and paid in increments), you will not see evidence of

previous payments in this display. It will appear, instead, that the entire amount of the Expense Report is

to be paid. You will need to utilize the Display Payment History Function to know if only a partial

payment will be processed with your Approval.

10. To view previous and multiple payments on an Expense Report, click the Display

Payment History button at the top of the screen.

Each individual Expense Report payment and date will display.

For example, in the image below, an Open Trip for a total of $1,307.75, shows that two previous

payments of $179 were made. Subtract the previous payments from the total amount to know the

amount which will be paid once the Open Expense Report has been approved and processed.

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Expense Report Management Page 12

SIGN UP FOR INBOX NOTIFICATIONS

If you aren’t in your SAP Inbox frequently, sign up for emailed

notifications. In SAP, type the code, ZWORKFLOW_EMAIL, into the

transaction code box in the upper left of the SAP Easy Access Menu. Click

the Enter key.

Click the Subscribe button…

For more information, go to the SAP@Hopkins blog page, and enter the search term ‘workflow Approvers

email,’ or click the below link if you are viewing this document electronically:

http://www.sapathopkins.org/2011/11/attention-travel-workflow-Approvers-would-you-like-to-get-an-email-

everytime-a-request-comes-into-your-sap-inbox/

If you are sharing workflow settings with other Approvers, also put a rule in Outlook to filter out all of the

notifications which are not intended for you. Again, visit the SAP@Hopkins blog page, and search for

‘workflow email filter outlook,’ or click the following link: http://www.sapathopkins.org/2011/11/workflow-

email-filter-for-outlook-2010/ .

Student Reference

Travel Approver

Resources Page 13

RESOURCES

1. SAP@Hopkins blog: www.sapathopkins.org

- Enter search terms, including “Travel,” “Expense Reimbursements,” “ZSR,” “Workflow” - Search through Archives, including March 2009 issue. - For assigning substitutes for times you may unexpectedly be away from SAP (passive substitute), or in

advance of planned time away (active substitute), view: http://www.sapathopkins.org/2010/08/workflow-substitutes-qa/ .

2. Shared Services: http://ssc.jhmi.edu

- Accounts Payable, Forms, Staff Contacts

INDEX

Display Payment History

in the Travel Manager, button on the top row which will display all previous incremental payments and dates for each Trip. Will display for an 'Open,' unpaid Trip if it is for additional expenses in the same Trip or date range., 9

Domestic Trip An Expense Report entered in SAP with any travel

reimbursements - including local mileage, parking, tolls. Must be entered for specific date range of actual event - so may be initiated as future date Trip, processed, paid, re-opened, as incremental expenses are incurred., 1

ECC tab Tab in the SAP Portal screen to launch the SAP

software -- SAP Easy Access Menu., 2 Employee Trip display

Initial database display of Trip (Expense Report) settings, mileage, individual receipt lines. From this screen, can drill to settings and cost assignments on individual receipt lines, and view "History" of any previous submissions, approvals, and payment dates., 3

Expense Reports

Employee Reimbursements are entered as Expense Reports in the SAP Travel Manager, and the SAP documents are termed 'Trips.', 1

Non-Travel Business Expense Any employee reimbursable expense that has no

travel expenses involved, such as ISP and wireless., 1

SAP Business Workplace Location of SAP Inbox. Can be accessed from the

SAP Easy Access Menu Inbox icon in upper right., 2

SAP Easy Access Menu SAP software opened by clicking the ECC tab on

the SAP Portal page. Requires WinGUI role for functionality, and SAP GUI software loaded on computer., 1

Trips SAP Reimbursement Documents used for

employee Expense Report processing and payment. Is also the transaction code used to initiate the SAP document., 1