HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY

Chrome River User Manual

The emailed images will appear in the Receipt Gallery and the Offline section of the eWallet.

Each receipt image will appear as its own item, complete with the corresponding information about the expense.

Upload from a Computer

In some cases, you may have a scanned or digital receipt saved to your computer. You may upload these receipts to your Receipt Gallery or directly to the Expense Form.

To upload to the Receipt Gallery, select the Receipt Gallery and click the Upload button in the top right corner.

Chrome River User Manual

Once you have clicked Upload, you need to navigate to the location of the file on your computer and click Open. The receipt will now appear in your Receipt Gallery.

To upload directly to an Expense Form, scroll to the bottom of the Expense Form to the Attachments section. You can either drag the receipt directly from your desktop to this section or click the Add Attachments button and select Upload Attachments. Navigate to the file on your computer and click Open. The receipt is now attached to the expense line.

Chrome River User Manual

Receipt Gallery

The Receipt Gallery contains all receipt images uploaded directly to Chrome River by email, scan, or the Chrome River SNAP APP or CR APP.

 To add a receipt from the Receipt Gallery to a report, click the checkbox for that item and click Add. Do not click directly on image, as it will not attach unless you click the check box.

 To delete a receipt from the Receipt Gallery, click the checkbox for that item and click Delete

 To upload additional receipts to the Receipt Gallery from your computer, click the Upload button, navigate to the file location where the receipt is stored, select the file, and click Open.

Receipt Capture Tips

For a better experience with submitting receipts, consider the following tips:

 Place receipt on a white background

 When photographing multiple receipts, position them all in the same direction.

 Leave a gap of at least 1.5 inches between receipts.

 Make sure no other objects are visible in the photo.

 Do not use flash.

 If given an option to select the image size, select the size closest to 500 KB.

Chrome River User Manual

Removing a Receipt from an Expense Report

If you have added a receipt to an Expense Report but would like to remove the receipt, select the appropriate receipt from under the Attachments section in either the Expense Report header or individual expense line (Expense Form).

The selected receipt will now be displayed on the left side of the screen.

 Click on the Delete Icon (paperclip with red X symbol) in the top left corner, and the receipt will be removed from your report.

Chrome River User Manual

Special Expense Types

Some expense types have Expense Forms that require additional information or have different functionality, as explained below.

Hotel Expenses

In addition to room charges, hotel bills frequently include charges for items such as parking or meals. You do not need to create an individual expense for each night of hotel stay (i.e., you can create one Hotel –Lodging Expense Form). To make the process of reporting these quick and simple, the Hotel expense tile will require you to itemize the charges on your bill.

Note: Any personal non-reimbursable charges on your hotel invoice should be deducted and excluded from the Spent amount entered on the header. Only business expenses should be included on the Expense Form.

After completing the Hotel expense form tile header, click the Itemize button in the top right corner.

The Hotel Tile will display a mosaic with a variety of hotel expense types for you to itemize the total hotel expenses. The total amount of the bill entered on the header appears in the top right corner under TOTAL AMOUNT. The amount remaining to be itemized appears in red under REMAINING. The reimbursement must be fully itemized to submit.

Chrome River User Manual

If your hotel bill has recurring charges that are the same amount for each night of your stay, you may use the Recurring tile to enter those expenses. This will allow you to enter recurring costs like lodging, taxes, or parking once, then select the total number of nights to have the charges automatically totaled. An added benefit to using the recurring tile is that you can enter the lodging, taxes/fees, parking, etc. all on one screen, rather than entering them on individual expense tiles.

On the Recurring tile, enter the Check-In and Check-Out dates and the daily amounts for Lodging (including lodging taxes and fees), Parking, and/or other fees. Click Save, and the expenses will be added to your report.

If your hotel expenses did not stay the same or you would like to itemize individually, do so by tapping the appropriate expense tile. For example, to add the cost of lodging (including lodging taxes and fees) click the Hotel – Lodging/Taxes tile.

Chrome River User Manual

The hotel expense will be added to the report summary on the left side of the screen and the Add Itemization page will again display on the right. The remaining amount to be itemized will be displayed in the upper right corner. If you have additional expenses on the bill beyond lodging, continue itemizing these expenses using the other available expense tiles until the bill has been fully itemized and the remaining amount equals zero.

Once all expenses have been itemized, the Add Itemization window will disappear, and all itemized expenses will now appear on your report.

Chrome River User Manual

Per Diem Expenses

As specified in the University’s Travel Policy, which has been recently updated, all overnight travelers will be reimbursed at the per diem rate for travel meals using established federal guidelines which have been programmed by city. (See the University’s policy for additional details on per diem).

Per diem will be claimed using Chrome River’s Per Diem Wizard. Under the Meals/Entertainment tile of the expense mosaic, select Meals – Per Diem Wizard

Chrome River User Manual

 Enter the Start Date and End Date - the number of Days will be calculated automatically.

 Enter the Business Purpose – a business purpose must document the expense as necessary, reasonable, and an appropriate expense for the University

 Enter the Location of your travel - Begin typing and select the appropriate location of your travel. Click once you have completed entering required information.

Once you complete the Per Diem Wizard Expense Form, you must click button on bottom right of the form, ADD TO PREVIEW

Chrome River User Manual

The following screen appears on the right side.

In accordance with University policy, travelers may claim a per diem meal only for meals not otherwise provided during travel. If a meal is included in a conference, paid for by another colleague, vendor or other third party, or when traveling on a partial day, the full per diem may not be claimed.

To reduce a daily per diem, click on the appropriate entry and click the checkbox to indicate any meals that should not be reimbursed. When meals are marked in the Deductibles section, the system will automatically reduce the per diem to the appropriate amount per the University’s Travel Policy.

Chrome River User Manual

On days of travel, you must select the travel day box and the system will automatically calculate the correct per diem rate.

Chrome River User Manual

When finished entering meal deductions (e.g., conference provided, colleague treated, etc.), click Apply button in the bottom right corner.

Mileage Expenses – Personal Vehicle

Employees requesting reimbursement for business use of their personal vehicle for travel shall use the Mileage expense tile (located under Ground Transportation).

Chrome River User Manual

On the Mileage Expense Form, enter the date of travel (or the first day of travel for multiday trips) in the Transaction Date field, as well as a Business Purpose. Skip the description field at this point, as it will automatically be populated with the travel destinations after entering the Calculate Mileage information.

Next, select the Calculate Mileage link to access the integrated Google Maps functionality.  Calculating mileage is required to receive mileage reimbursement.

Chrome River User Manual

Begin entering a location name or specific address for start and end destinations.

 For trips with multiple stops, click Add Destination to add an additional destination.

Miles will automatically populate once data is entered.

Clicking Return to Start will add the first location as a new destination at the bottom of the list for roundtrip travel.

The distance and map will now reflect your route. This feature uses Google Maps and has similar functionality, including zoom controls and the ability to manually adjust the route to reflect alternate routes. Once satisfied with your route entry, click Save Trip to return to the Mileage entry screen.

Chrome River User Manual

The Spent and Miles fields have now been calculated and populated, and the Description includes the destination addresses entered.

You will have the option to enter deductions for personal mileage (i.e., regular commuting miles, etc.), if applicable. If there is no personal mileage in the miles presented, click None

Chrome River User Manual

Mileage Expenses – Employees with Vehicle Stipend

Employees receiving vehicle stipends will be reimbursed for gas at a rate of $0.15 per business mile. Employees requesting reimbursement for business use of their vehicle for travel shall use the “Mileage - Auto Stipend” expense tile (located under Ground Transportation).

Chrome River User Manual

On the Mileage-Auto Stipend Expense Form, enter the date of travel (or the first day of travel for multiday trips) in the Date field, as well as a Business Purpose. Skip the description field at this point, as it will automatically be populated with the travel destinations after entering the Calculate Mileage information.

Next, select the Calculate Mileage link to access the integrated Google Maps functionality.

Calculating mileage is required to receive mileage reimbursement.

Chrome River User Manual

Begin entering a location name or specific address for start and end destinations.

 For trips with multiple stops, click Add Destination to add an additional destination.

Miles will automatically populate once data is entered.

Clicking Return to Start will add the first location as a new destination at the bottom of the list for roundtrip travel.

The distance and map will now reflect your route. This feature uses Google Maps and has similar functionality, including zoom controls and the ability to manually adjust the route to reflect alternate routes. Once satisfied with your route entry, click Save Trip to return to the Mileage entry screen.

Chrome River User Manual

The Spent and Miles fields have now been calculated and populated, and the Description includes the destination addresses entered.

You will have the option to enter deductions for personal mileage (i.e., regular commuting miles, etc.), if applicable. If there is no personal mileage in the miles presented, click None.

Chrome River User Manual

Expenses with Guests

On certain expense tiles, such as Business Meals (found under Meals/ Entertainment mosaic parent tile), Chrome River will require you to provide a list or description of any guests in attendance.

For most meals, you will add the list of guests using the Attendees Widget. The Attendees Widget, located under the Attendee section of the Expense Form, allows you to add both internal guests and external guests.

 To add internal guests, tap inside the Add Attendees field and begin typing a name. A list of possible guests will appear. Click the desired name to add.

This button has two options “Internal” and “External”. Make selection based on the guest data. You will need to enter first and last name, title, and company. If you choose external button, you must then put your cursor in the box to the right and click, this will bring up any names you previously entered or will allow you to Add New External Attendees.

Chrome River User Manual

To add external guests, change the selection box next to the Add Attendees field to External. If the external guest has previously been entered in the system, you can search similar to internal guests and select the name to add it. Otherwise, you will click the + Add New External Attendees link. All attendees’ business affiliation will need to be reported.

You will enter the First Name, Last Name, Title, and Company Name. Once you have entered all available and appropriate information, click Add.

If you are adding a large list of attendees (i.e., team listing), alternatively you can add a general “external attendee” and reference attached list and add complete list as an attachment. See screen prints below.

Note - The system will automatically split the total cost of the bill evenly between the number of guests added. You can leave this as it is, as you are not required to individually itemize by guest.

Chrome River User Manual

Itemizing Receipts (Splitting expenses between multiple accounts)

When a single receipt has expenses that need to be charged to different expense tiles (i.e., budget account codes), the Itemization expense tile should be used.

Enter the expense information with the Transaction Date, Amount Spent, Business Purpose, Description (Optional), and Merchant. The receipt will get attached to the screen where you elect to “Itemize”. See screen print below.

After completing the header and attaching your receipt, click the Itemize The itemize button will bring you to tile selections for the expenses you would like to itemize.

button in the upper right corner of the form. You will not need to add receipts at the specific itemized expense screen.

Chrome River User Manual

The Add Itemization screen will appear. The total amount of the receipt entered on the header appears in the top right corner under Total Amount. The amount remaining to be itemized appears in red under Remaining.

 Select the appropriate expense tile for the first item. The corresponding expense form will open.

 Enter all appropriate fields, confirm the selected receipt is correct.

 When finished, click the Save button located in the upper right corner of the form.

The Add Itemization screen will appear again. The Remaining amount will be updated to account for the first expense added. Select the proper expense tile for the next item, and the corresponding expense form will open. Continue adding expenses until the bill has been fully itemized and the Remaining amount equals zero.

Once all expenses have been itemized, the Add Itemization window will disappear, and the itemized expenses will now appear on your report.

Chrome River User Manual

Compliance Warnings

The Chrome River systems comes with several built-in audit tools to ensure compliance with IRS regulations and University policy. To ensure timely processing of reimbursement requests, it is essential that all compliance warnings be addressed. Should you have any questions in this regard, you may contact the Director of Accounts Payable at extension 36850.

A Compliance Warning indicates additional information is required before an expense can be submitted for approval and processing. Compliance warnings may be encountered when saving an Expense Form or when submitting an entire Expense Report for approval. Any line items in an expense report with a compliance warning will be noted with the yellow circle icon in the report summary to the left.

 Click the yellow circle icon and respond to the warning by either modifying the data (if there is an error) or replying to explain the warning.

 To reply to the warning, click into the Add response area under the message and enter your reply.

 Tap Post to update and close the compliance warning message.

Failure to address a Warning for an Expense Form will automatically create a violation at the Expense Report level and will prevent processing of the reimbursement request.

Chrome River User Manual

Compliance Violations

A Compliance Violation indicates the expense cannot be submitted for approval and payment. A compliance violation may be encountered when saving a line item or submitting an entire Expense Report for approval.

Expense Forms with compliance violations will have a red triangle icon in the report summary to the left.

Additionally, unresolved Compliance Violations will deactivate (grey out) the Submit button. All violations will need to be resolved before the reimbursement request can be submitted.

Chrome River User Manual

Submitting an Expense Report

Once you have added all your expenses, attached all appropriate receipts, and resolved or responded to any Compliance Warnings or Violations, you are ready to submit your report for review and approval. Click on the green Submit button at the bottom of the report summary.

Submit Confirmation will appear at the top right of the screen. You will be given two choices:

 Click Cancel to return to the report and make any changes before submitting for approval.

 Click Submit to submit the expense report to the approval workflow.

Please note that at this screen, you can also create a PDF of your expense report, including all attachments and receipts. Just click on “PDF” before you click submit.

Chrome River User Manual

After you click on “PDF”, you will have the options listed below. Click on preferred option and the PDF will open will all related data. This can be saved from the screen to your computer and/or printed.

Chrome River User Manual

Create an Expense Report as a Delegate

If you are creating a report for someone other than yourself, you will need to be set up as a delegate by the employee. For more information on setting up a delegate, see Add a Delegate (page 14). When you have been authorized to work as another’s delegate, you will need to switch over to their account to create and edit their receipts and reports.

 Click on the User Icon in the top right corner of the Navigation Bar (with your name) and you will see a list of employees for whom you’re authorized to serve as a delegate. The numbers to the right of their name will show the number of unused expense transactions (including uploaded receipts and cash advances). The employee’s dashboard will appear and show the total number of drafts (unsubmitted) and submitted reports.

 Clicking on their name will take you into their account where you can do the following:

1. Create Expense Report

2. Edit Expense Report

3. Attach receipts / attachments to Expense Reports

4. Add receipts to gallery by sending an email to receipt@ca1.chromeriver.com, see Email to Receipt Gallery (page 23).

Delegates MAY NEVER SUBMIT Expense Reports for another employee. Each Expense Report must be approved and submitted by the employee requesting the reimbursement.

Once you have completed the creation of the Expense Report for another, you can return to your account by taping the User Icon again and selecting your name.

Chrome River User Manual

Report Tracking

Employees can track the status of any previously submitted Expense Reports at any time. From the Dashboard, select the Submitted Report link.

From the list of submitted reports, click on the desired Expense Report to preview it. Then tap Tracking in the preview.

Once you have selected the Expense Report, you will see a list of every item on the report and its status. (For Hotel or Itemized expenses, tap the arrow on the left to view the status of each itemized item.) The following status options will be indicated:

 Pending: Expense has been submitted and is awaiting approval

 Returned: Approver has sent the expense back to the expense owner for adjustment

 Approved: Expense has been approved but has not yet been exported for processing.

 Exported: Approved Expense Report has been exported to Banner and will be processed.

Chrome River User Manual

Tap an expense item to see where it is in the approval process, including the approver to whom it is currently assigned, the date, and the system rule that triggered the assignment. Tapping each circle under Routing Steps will show you complete details for that step.

Recall a Report

All line items must be in Pending approval status to recall an Expense Report. You may recall a report to Draft status if none of the line items have been fully approved.

In the submitted Expense Reports list, tap Recall in the preview.

You will be asked to verify that you wish to send the report back to the Draft Expense Reports list. Tap Yes

Following your action to recall the report, the report will appear in your Draft Expense Reports list, pending your updates or changes. When the report is resubmitted, all approvers will need to reapprove the Expense Report.

Chrome River User Manual

Returned Reports

An approver may return one or more line items on an Expense Report to the expense owner during the approval process. The report will appear in the Returned Expense section on your dashboard. You will also receive email notification that an expense item has been returned together with a summary and explanation of any issue.

You may double click the returned report to open it. The returned line item(s) will be highlighted in light yellow. Approver notes that apply to the entire report can be accessed by clicking the Comments link in the header. If the approver left a note on a specific line item, it will be indicated by a blue note icon.

Returned line items can be edited. Click on the returned line item and then tap Edit in the preview. If the approver has asked you to remove an expense, click Delete in the expense item’s preview or inside the line item to remove it.

Chrome River User Manual

You will need to view Comments from the approver and reply or make the necessary changes. You may reply to comments via the box below. Tap Post to add it to the report. Make any necessary changes to the line item and click Save

When all changes have been made, click Submit to resubmit the line item(s) for approval.

Chrome River User Manual

In the Submit Confirmation window, click Submit

Approvals

Chrome River will automatically route reports to the appropriate approvers based on system rules and assignments. Your immediate supervisor and the budget manager for the account charged will be required to approve the reimbursement request. Additional approvals may be required for gifts or grants. Approvers will receive an email notification that there is an expense report in their queue for approval. Approvers have two methods available to approve the report – approval via Email or approval in the Chrome River Application.

Approval via Email

Chrome River will email Expense Reports to the approver. Approvers can approve all expenses for payment or return all expenses to the expense owner with questions or comments from within the email.

 Approving or returning only specific line items within a report requires the approver to log into the Chrome River application, which can be done through the link at the bottom of the email.

Approvers receive an email with details of the report, including the ability to view receipts associated with each expense. At the bottom of the email, approvers can view an expense summary and will also see ACCEPT and RETURN buttons.

Chrome River User Manual

Note: At the bottom of the report, click the VIEW RECEI PTS link to view a PDF of all receipts attached to the report.

Approvers are required to review all supporting documentation to ensure compliance with University policy and will be asked to attest to their review. To view a receipt for a line item, click the View button next to the Receipts line.

Chrome River User Manual

Any automated compliance issue for line items will be noted with a Compliance Warning flag, as well as an explanation of the compliance issue and a response from the expense owner.

To approve a report by email, click the ACCEPT button - a new email window will open.

Below is the Approver’s confirmation:

 If you have any comments you would like to include in the report, type them into the body of the email before sending, and they will be added to the report. (This is optional.)

 Hit send and the system will be notified of your approval and the report will move forward in the approval queue.

Chrome River User Manual

To return the report, click the RETURN button – a new email window will open.

 Enter an explanation for why you are returning the report in the body of the email.

 Hit send and the system will return the report to the submitter for corrections.

If an approver returns a report, the resubmitted report will route back to the same approver but will not require additional approval from previous approvers (if applicable).

While approvers may return a report from the email, they cannot adjust a report from the email. Instead, they must do so from within the Chrome River application, which is accessible from the link at the bottom of the email.

Important Note: If you attempt to approve an expense via email that has already been changed (e.g., the expense owner recalled or resubmitted the report) you will receive an Expense Approval Failure Notification email alerting you to approve via the most recently sent approval email for that report.

Chrome River User Manual

Approval in Chrome River Application

After logging into Chrome River, any approvers with reports pending approval will show up in the yellow box in their Dashboard. The box will display the number of expense reports awaiting approval. Click on Expense Reports to access the respective list of reports.

A new screen will open, and you will see reports awaiting your approval.

Sort option

Search option

 From this screen you can Sort the reports by clicking the menu button in the top right corner of the approval panel.

 If there are several reports awaiting approval, you can Search for a specific one by clicking the magnifying glass icon and searching by Expense Owner or Report ID.

Note: Any reports submitted with Compliance Warnings will be noted with a red triangle symbol on the line of the report

Chrome River User Manual

Below is the Approver’s confirmation:

Click on any report in the approval list, and the expense report header will display in the window on the right side of the screen. This will include a summary of the expenses, funding sources, and all receipts attached to the report.

From the report preview window, you can perform the following functions:

 Open – This will open the full report.

 PDF – This will provide several options for printing the report to PDF.

 Tracking – This provides a summary of the tracking of expenses in the report. Based on the index charged, each line on a report can potentially route differently. Click on each expense line to view the tracking information for that item.

Chrome River User Manual

 Return – Return the report to the submitter. The approver will be asked for an explanation and all lines of the report will be rejected. The entire report will be returned to the submitter. If you would like to reject individual line items, you can do so in the full report.

 Approve – This will approve the full report. It is recommended that approvers review the detailed report before approving.

Additionally, you may add comments to the report by entering them in the Comments section of the report summary.

For approvers to properly review an expense report, open the full report by clicking the OPEN button at the top of the report summary. All submitted expenses will now be listed on the left side of the screen.

Chrome River User Manual

To view details of an expense, click on that expense and the details will display on the right side of the screen, including any receipts.

Any expenses submitted with a Compliance Warning will be noted with a red triangle symbol on the line item. If you click on these line items, a warning box will display at the top of the expense summary detailing the compliance violation along with an explanation from the report owner.

As with the Expense Report header, you may also add comments to individual Expense Forms by entering them under the Comments section.

Within an individual Expense Form, approvers have the option to

 Reassign the item to another approver

 Adjust the item

 Return the item to the expense submitter

Chrome River User Manual

Adjust an Expense

The approver has the option to adjust several fields in an expense if changes or updates are required. Click on the Adjust button in the top right corner of the selected expense. Below are items that can be adjusted.

The approver can adjust the following items on an expense:

 Approved amount – approvers can only reduce the amount

 Business purpose

 Allocation

 Comments – approvers can add an additional comment, but they cannot remove comments.

 Attachments – approvers can add additional attachments.

Chrome River User Manual

After making an adjustment, an adjustment note is required by the approver. The approver can also notify the expense owner of the adjustment.

 If you would like to notify expense owner detailing the adjustment, select the Notify Expense Owner box. If you do not want to notify the expense owner, make sure this box is unchecked.

 Click Save to finalize the adjustment. Add

Chrome River User Manual

Return an Expense

Individual expenses can also be returned to the expense owner. Click Return on the selected expense and the following screen will appear.

On the next screen the approver is required to enter an explanation of why the expense is being returned. After doing so, click Save. Add

Chrome River User Manual

After indicating the expense or expenses you would like to return, those items selected will be noted with a red return arrow. The expenses that are approved will be noted with the green checkmark.

 Select the Submit button at the bottom of the expense line list to return the expenses noted with the red arrow.

 Select the Return button to return all expense lines in the report to the expense owner.

Click Submit and this line item (and all with green checkmarks) will move forward in approval queue.

Click Submit and this line will be returned to the expense owner.

Important Note: o Instead, in such circumstances you may prefer to contact the expense owner and ask them to Recall the report. This provides the expense owner with more flexibility for editing the report.

 If you return a report, there are limited changes the expense owner can make, and they will be unable to add any new expenses to the report.

Reconcile

Chrome River User Manual

Each individual expense also has a Reconcile button.

 If you are auditing a report with multiple expense lines, you can click this button to mark lines you have already reviewed.

o The line will now appear with a green circled checkmark next to it on the report summary, but this will have no impact on the processing of the expense.

 To remove this icon, click the Unreconcile button.

Approve a Report

After you have reviewed the report and are ready to approve, click the Submit button at the bottom of the expense report summary.

Note: The approval function within a report is indicated using the Submit button (as opposed to Approved) due to the system needing to recalculate the report in the event there were adjustments made by the approver.

Once the Submit button has been clicked, the submit confirmation screen will appear. Again, click Submit.

After clicking submit, a submit confirmation will be displayed.