SECTION OVERVIEW
The purpose of this section is to provide guidance regarding the fields that are mandatory and must be populated on the header level of expense reports in the Statewide Financial System (SFS) Travel and Expense Module. This requirement will help facilitate a more efficient and effective review of travel expenses by supervisors, agency Finance Office staff, and Office of the State Comptroller.
The mandatory fields on the header level are business purpose, report description, official station, employee’s home/residential address, start location and destination location of the travel event, and start and end dates and times of the travel event and/or expense.
Described below are the mandatory fields, how the fields are to be populated in the expense report, and the required format for the fields.
Please note that SFS will not allow an employee to (1) create or edit an expense report if the official station in the employee’s profile page in the SFS is blank or (2) save an expense report if any mandatory field in the header is blank. Additionally, expense reports may be denied payment if the information in any mandatory field is in an incorrect format.
For additional instruction on this topic, visit job aid “JAA-EDA205-002 Performing a Mass Update” published to SFS Coach. SFS Coach is accessible from the SFS home page after logging in with your SFS user ID and password.
Mandatory Fields – Travel-Related Expense Reports
For all travel-related expense reports (i.e., expense reports with a business purpose other than “non-travel expense”), the mandatory fields must be populated as instructed in the following chart:
| Expense Report Field | Guidance for Appropriate Data Entry |
|---|---|
| Business Purpose | Select the business purpose from the drop down menu that best pertains to the travel event. |
| Destination Location | Enter the street address of the destination location for the travel event (up to 55 characters). If the employee’s travel event includes multiple destination locations, enter the street address of the last business-related destination to which the employee traveled. |
| Zip/Postal | Enter the five digit zip code of the destination location for the travel event. If the employee’s travel event includes multiple destination locations, enter the five digit zip code of the last business-related destination to which the employee traveled. |
| Employee Home Address | This field will be automatically populated using the employee’s information from PAYSR. |
| Travel Date To | Enter the last date of the travel event. This date must be greater than or equal to the date in the travel start date field. |
| Travel End Time | Enter the end time on the last day of the travel event. This time must be greater than or equal to the time in the travel start time field. |
| Travel Date From | Enter the first date of the travel event. This date must be less than or equal to the date in the travel end date field. |
| Travel Start Time | Enter the start time on the first day of the travel event. This time must be less than or equal to the time in the travel end time field. |
| Official Station | This field will be automatically populated from the employee’s profile page in the SFS, which is maintained by the agency’s Employee Data Administrator(s) (EDA). Agency EDAs are responsible for ensuring the Agency’s designation of official stations are entered/updated in SFS for all employees who submit for travel or non-travel expense reimbursement. If official station is blank or incorrect, the employee should contact the agency EDA for assistance. The EDA must enter an official station in the format “Street Address/Zip Code.” The only exception to this is for employees whose official station is the same as their residence in PAYSR, in which case the EDA must enter the word “Residence.” This is to prevent an employee’s address from being unintentionally disclosed in reports requested under the Freedom of Information Law. |
| Description | Enter a brief, specific description (up to 30 characters) of the expense report so that it can be identified quickly by the employee and supervisor. As a best practice and to facilitate the search and identification of an expense report, this field should contain the start date of the travel event (e.g., “01/01/2017 Meeting in NYC”). |
| Starting Location | Enter the street address of the start location of the travel event (up to 55 characters). If the start location is the employee’s residential address, enter the word “Residence” in this field. |
| Zip/Postal | Enter the five digit zip code of the start location of the travel event. If the start location is the employee’s residential address, enter “00000” in this field. |
Mandatory Fields – Non-Travel-Related Expense Reports
For all non-travel-related expense reports (i.e., expense reports with the “Non-Travel Expense” business purpose, or expense reports built using the “Non-Travel Expense” template through the expense report builder), the mandatory fields must be populated as instructed in the following chart:
| Expense Report Field | Guidance for Appropriate Data Entry |
|---|---|
| Business Purpose | Select the “Non-Travel Expense” business purpose from the drop down menu or if using the expense report builder select the “Non-Travel Expense.” |
| Employee Home Address | This field will be automatically populated using the employee’s information from PAYSR. |
| Travel Date From | Enter the purchase date of the expense. |
| Travel Date To | Enter the purchase date of the expense. |
| Official Station | This field will be automatically populated for the employee in the employee’s profile page in the SFS, which is maintained by the agency’s Employee Data Administrator(s) (EDA). Agency EDAs are responsible for ensuring the Agency's designation of official stations are entered/updated in SFS for all employees who submit for travel or non-travel expense reimbursement. If official station is blank or incorrect, the employee should contact the agency EDA for assistance.
The EDA must enter an official station in the format “Street Address/Zip Code.” The only exception to this is for employees whose official station is the same as their residence in PAYSR, in which case the EDA must enter the word “Residence.” This is to prevent an employee’s address from being unintentionally disclosed in reports requested under the Freedom of Information Law. |
| Description | Enter a brief, specific description (up to 30 characters) of the expense report so that it can be identified quickly by the employee and supervisor. As a best practice and to facilitate the search and identification of an expense report, this field should contain the purchase date of the expense (e.g., “01/01/2017 Uniform Purchase”). |
Guide to Financial Operations
REV. 12/24/2019