Change Routing Rules for Expense Reports

On May 22, an adjustment was made to the approval routing in Workday Expenses to include alternate approvers.  This change means that Workday Expense now has the same sort of internal controls we had in Chrome River, which required two unique approvers for each expense report.  

Now, cost centers with the same person in multiple roles may have more expense reports that route to an alternate approver.  If an approver is the initiator of the expense report, the expense owner, or has previously approved the expense report, then the report will route to the alternate.  This change will affect about 20% of expense reports.

Example 1: John submits an expense report, and Sarah approves as the Expense Support Specialist for that Cost Center. If Sarah is also the P2P approver and there is no secondary approver in this role, then the expense report will route to the Senior Department Finance Approver for the second approval.

Example 2: Rachel submits an expense report with a grant worktag. If Rachel is also the Expense Support Specialist for the Cost Center, then the expense report will route to Carlos, who is the Cost Center Manager, for the first approval. For the second approval, the report will route to the Grant Manager as usual.

Example 3: William submits an expense report for a first-class airline ticket, which requires additional approval. Kelly approves as the Expense Support Specialist, and Alicia approves as the P2P approver. If Alicia is also the Senior Department Finance Approver and there is no other approver in this role, then the expense report will route to Alicia’s manager for the supplemental approval.

How you can prepare for this change:

• Review approvers in your area to ensure that each role is occupied by a unique individual.
• For example, the Expense Support Specialist should not also be the P2P Approver.
• Roles can be viewed in Workday by running report “View Assignable Roles” or in UBI.
• Roles can also be viewed by searching for your Cost Center and reviewing the Roles tab
• If roles need to be changed, please submit a System Access Request in Workday under the Menu.