How to Create an Expense Report

Before creating an Expense Report:

• Review the Travel Procedure Summary guidelines for travel-related expenses.
• Review the Tax Levy Reimbursement guidelines for non-travel-related expenses.
• Scan all receipts and a completed Brooklyn College State of New York Travel Voucher form, as they will need to be uploaded into CUNYfirst. Sort all receipts first by date, and then (within each date) by Expense Type. Affix receipts to 8½” x 11″ sheets of paper. Write the Expense Type, Date, Amount (in U.S. dollars), Payment, and Billing Type (TCard, Empl Paid, or Non-reimbursable) on each receipt.
• Retain all original paperwork, as it will need to be submitted to the Office of Accounts Payable.
• An employee or their proxy may create an Expense Report directly in CUNYfirst. Both the Expense User and the proxy who entered the Expense Report are notified by e-mail when an Expense Report is sent back by an approver.
• Expense Reports must be approved by the supervisor of the employee.

1. Log in to CUNYfirst.
2. Navigate to Financials Supply Chain > Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expense Center > Expense Report > Create.
3. If submitting an Expense Report as a proxy, select the Employee ID of the faculty or staff member to be reimbursed using the search tool. Otherwise, proceed to Step 4.
4. If the expenses are not travel related (or if a Travel Authorization was not completed in CUNYfirst beforehand), continue to Step 5.
   On the Create Expense Report Entry page, click the Quick Start dropdown. To copy a Travel Authorization into the Expense Report, select “A Travel Authorization” from the dropdown list and click the yellow “GO” button. On the Populate From a Travel Authorization page, click the “Select” button next to the Travel Authorization to be copied.  (IMPORTANT: If the expense report will be in any way different from the travel authorization [with the exception of adjusting prices], please do not link the travel authorization. Instead, please print the travel authorization summary page, cancel the travel authorization, proceed with a blank expense report, and enter all actual expenses.)
5. In the General Information section, values must be entered in the following fields: Description, Comment, Business Purpose, and Default Location. When populating from a Travel Authorization, these fields will be pre-populated with the values entered previously in the Travel Authorization and may be overwritten as needed.
   1. Description: Enter a brief description of no more than 30 characters to identify the trip.
   2. Comment: Enter the purpose of the trip.
   3. Business Purpose: Select the business purpose of the trip from the dropdown list.
   4. Default Location: Enter the destination state and city for the trip. The Default Location begins with a two-digit code for the state.
   5. Expense Location Details: Click the link and fill in all fields, then press “OK”.  For non-travel reimbursements, please use your official station address (2900 Bedford Avenue, 11210) in the start and destination fields.
6. If applicable, select Business Unit: Tax Levy (BKL01), Non-Tax (BKL55), or Early Childhood (BKL04)
7. Click the “Save” button.
8. Click the Accounting Defaults link to view the chartfield string to be applied to each expense line of the expense report. In the Accounting Defaults section, the GL Unit and Department chartfields may be modified as necessary. Separate expense lines are needed when travel expenses are split among departments. Click “OK” to return to the previous screen.
9. On the Expense Report Entry page, for each expense line, complete the Expense Type, Date, Amount, Payment Type, and Billing Type fields. Each meal must be entered on a separate expense line.
   1. Expense Type: Select the expense type from the dropdown list. If the employee is a member of PSC, only PSC Expense Types may be selected.
   2. Date: Enter date the expense is expected to be incurred in mm/dd/yyyy format.
   3. Amount: Enter the total expected expenditure without a dollar sign.
   4. Payment Type and Billing Type: Select the same value for each dropdown list. Select “Empl Paid” when the employee will use his or her own funds for an expense and be reimbursed following travel, or “Non-reimbursable” when the expense is the responsibility of the employee. Never select “TCard,” as Travel Card charges should not be manually entered. Instead, use My Wallet to load Travel Card charges, by using the dropdown menu below the list of expenses, next to the “Add” button. Select ‘Expenses from My Wallet’ then click “Add.” Click here for further instructions.
10. To modify the accounting values for an individual expense line, click the Accounting Details link. In the Accounting Defaults section, the GL Unit and Department chartfields may be modified as necessary. Click “OK” to return to the previous screen. 
11. Click “Add a Row” to enter additional expense lines as necessary. Additionally, expense lines can be created by copying from existing expense lines. Select the checkboxes next to the expense lines to be copied and click the “Copy Selected” button. On the Copy Selected Expenses page, select either “Copy to One Date” or “Copy to a Range of Dates” and enter the date or dates the expenses are expected to be incurred by clicking on the calendar icon. Click “OK” to return to the Expense Report Entry page. Be sure to utilize the “Check for Errors” button before copying expense lines, as expense lines that have errors or have not been checked for errors will trigger a warning message.
12. In this step, all receipts and the completed New York State Travel Voucher form will be attached.
    1. Click the “Attachments” link in the General Information section near the top of the page. Click the “Add Attachment” button, select “Choose File” from the pop-up menu, and then find the files that were scanned and saved earlier. Select the file and then click “Upload.” When the upload is complete click the yellow “OK” button. 
13. To validate the data, click the “Check for Errors” button. If there are errors, the “Missing or Invalid Information” icon will be displayed on each line that contains an error. Click the “Missing or Invalid Information” icon to view the associated expense line. The Expense Detail page will be displayed along with an explanation of the errors for each expense line. Correct each error as indicated. When the “Check for Errors,” “Save for Later,” or “Submit” buttons are clicked, CUNYfirst identifies any missing required fields and checks chartfield strings to ensure that the chartfield combination is valid.
14. This completes the expense report entry process. Click “Submit” to begin the approval process, then click “OK” on the following page. Click “Save for Later” to come back to it at a later time. In either case, all expense lines will be checked for errors. The expense report cannot be saved or submitted until all errors have been corrected. Once the expense report has been saved, the browser window may be closed. Once an expense report is submitted for approval, or after the expense report is approved, employees can verify that the status has been updated to Submitted for Approval as well as whether the expense report has been routed to the Expense User’s supervisor for review and approval.