Travel Expense Reports Web Training Guide

Module 8 - Designing the Department's Workflow

Module Objectives

At the completion of this module, you should:

• Understand the definition of workflow.
• Know the workflow requirements of EXPRESS.
• Be able to diagram the EXPRESS workflow for your unit.

What is Workflow?

The glossary defines workflow as the flow your Expense Report will proceed through after you submit your expense report or the approval route that a University document takes within an organization. Typical workflow for a travel expense report will move from creator to approving Final Reviewer to travel/accounting/finance to payment or reimbursement.

Each Organization on campus may have its own workflow in EXPRESS and within each organization, many divisions, sub-divisions, or departments will require specific workflow designs.  It may be helpful for each unit to take a look at the current route of a travel voucher within the unit.

How are travel vouchers processed currently?

Each organizational unit on campus may process travel vouchers differently.  It may be helpful to review the current procedure for processing travel vouchers and see if it can be improved or adapted for EXPRESS implementation.

• Does the unit have one central person that prepares all travel vouchers for the unit?
• Do all the travelers in the unit have a corporate credit card?
• Who currently authorizes travel vouchers for the unit?
• Is the travel voucher approved by another office before it goes to the UCLA Travel office?
• Who approves non-UCLA travel reimbursements for the unit?

UCLA EXPRESS Requirements

• Each organizational unit must have two reviewers per department code.
• The final reviewer for each department must be the traveler's department head or another person in the department designated in writing by the department head.
• All UCLA travelers must log into EXPRESS to submit his/her own travel expense report.  By logging into EXPRESS, the traveler is certifying that the travel expenses submitted on the expense report are a "true statement of travel expenses incurred by me on official University business on the dates shown".  Note:  Expense reports for non-UCLA employees may be submitted by a proxy.
• Departments may establish central proxies to create expense reports for travelers in the department.
• Travelers and proxies must know the correct final reviewers for their department code.
• All travelers, reviewers, and proxies must be set up as EXPRESS users in order to create, submit or review expense reports
• The organizational unit must detail internal review procedures related to funding.

Designing the Department's Workflow

Now that you have thought about the current process for processing travel vouchers in your unit and know about the requirements of EXPRESS, you are ready to design your department's workflow.  In the overview, the following diagram was used to display the general workflow for an EXPRESS document:

For your own department or unit, how would you complete the boxes for creating expense reports, departmental review, and Final review?  It may be helpful to answer the following questions:

1. Who is going to create expense reports?  
   1. Established central proxies for the unit
   2. Individual travelers
   3. Proxies designated by individual travelers
   4. All of the above
   5. Other:  
      
2. Who is the first reviewer?
   1. Immediate supervisor
   2. Department head's assistant
   3. Principal investigator (PI)
   4. Other:
      
3. Who is the final reviewer? 
   1. Department Head
   2. Other:

Now that you have the answers to the questions, here are some other things to think about:

1. If you have elected to use central proxies, the individual traveler could still log in and establish his/her own proxy.  Is that OK or is it something that you would like to discourage as a department?  For example, you have assigned the central proxy role to the Department head's administrative assistant and Professor Jones really feels strongly that he would like his own administrative assistant to act as his proxy when he is traveling. 
2. Can you detail your internal review procedures related to funding?

Now that you have answered the questions above, you should be able to complete a workflow diagram for your unit.

UCLA Workflow

The following diagram details the path an Expense report takes in the University once it leaves your department or organizational unit.

Ian - I was not sure what else to say about this diagram.  Also, I cannot read it very well and I cannot edit it because I don't have the program you used to create it.  Can you make it bigger and more legible or maybe make it two different diagrams?  Thanks!

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