​Introduction

Your agency may have more than one approval level. Approval levels are organized in a hierarchy, so that a request must be approved by at the first level before it can be approved at the second level. An Approver can return a request to the user/traveler for more information or to a Fiscal Coder to correct fiscal coding.

Unlike vouchers, request approvers are not assigned specific PCAs or Indexes to approve. Also, approval is not restricted by the Group (if used). However, However, an approver cannot approve their own request.

After a request is approved, a voucher can be created from it. Once a request is approved and the status is Awaiting Voucher Creation, the request cannot be changed. However, since a request is only an estimate of expenses, any changes to per diem or other expenses should be made on the voucher.

After the voucher is completed, you would route it to a fiscal coder who then routes it to an approver. After the voucher is approved at the final level, it is automatically scheduled to be uploaded to STARS at the end of the business day (approximately 6:30 PM MST).

Approve a Request

1. From the Travel Express menu, click Approver Menu, and then click Approve/Disapprove a Request.

Figure 1 - Travel Express menu​

2. If needed, you can search for requests by the traveler's name (click Browse next to Traveler), or by Destination, Group, Status, or departure dates. Select or enter any of these criteria and click Find. Click Reset to reset the view to all users available.

Figure 2 - Request Approver Queue

3. If there are any attachments or notes for a request, icons will be displayed next to the requester's name. Click the icons to view the attachment or the note.

4. From the Request Approver Queue, click Select next to the appropriate request to view the expense details.

5. A summary of the expenses and the destination of travel will be displayed at the top of the screen. A list of line item expenses will be also displayed. If there are more than 15 line items, a link to additional pages of expense details will be displayed at the bottom of the list.

6. When reviewing expenses, note that any expenses paid with a P-Card should be entered, but P-Card transactions still need to be verified and approved in the P-Card application. Expenses that are part of the official travel, but not paid by the traveler should be entered. If all expenses entered are not paid by the traveler, the voucher created from request the will have a zero amount balance.

7. Click the Attachment tab to view any attached documents (receipts, invoices, etc.).

Figure 3 - View Details

8. If you are not a final approver and need to route the voucher to the next level of approver, select Route to approver from the Choose One drop down menu.

9. Click the Select Approver drop down menu, and then click the name of the approver. Enter any comments if needed, and then click Submit. If the administrator has enabled e-mail notification, an e-mail will be sent to the next approver.

Figure 4 - Route to approver

10. If you are the final approver, click the Choose One drop down, and then click Approve. Enter comments if needed, and then click Submit. If the administrator has enabled e-mail notification, an e-mail will be sent to the creator of the document (actual traveler or proxy) when a request is approved, disapproved, or routed to back for further action.

Figure 5 - Final approval

11. Click Return to Menu to return to the main menu of Travel Express.

Disapprove or Return a Request

1. Click Select next to a request.

2. Click the Choose One drop down menu and select an action:

• Select Return for more info if you want the traveler to add or update the request. (After a request is approved and the status is Awaiting Voucher Creation, the request cannot be changed. However, since a request is only an estimate of expenses, the traveler/user should make any changes to per diem or other expenses on the voucher.)
• Select Disapprove, enter a comment for the reason, and the request will be moved to the Processed Documents Menu.  There it can be viewed, but cannot be routed any further.

3. Enter comments in the Comments field to explain the reason for the action.

4. Click Submit. If the administrator has enabled e-mail notification, automatic e-mails will be sent to the creator of the document (actual traveler or proxy) when a request is approved, disapproved, or routed to back for further action.

Check the Approval Audit Trail

To see when a request was approved and by whom, click the Report tab. At the bottom of the report is the Audit Trail section.

Figure 6 - Report tab​

Figure 7 - Audit Trail

Unauthorized to Approve a Request

If the message, “You are not authorized to access this item” is displayed when an approver selects a request, it could be:

• The request requires a higher level of approval than what is assigned to the approver.
• The request has already been approved at the highest level.
• The request was created by the approver. An approver cannot approve their own request.

You should contact another approver who is authorized to approve the request. You could use the Reports menu to view details about the request.