Carnegie Mellon University

Non-Employee Expense Report Preparer/Approver FAQs

In the far right corner of the payee section, select the button “Click Here to Attach/View Receipts” to view the attached receipts. If the receipts were emailed or mailed to the preparer, click on the same button and attach the receipts on behalf of the payee.

Yes, as long as the approver has not already approved the expense report. Once the expense report has been approved, you will need to contact Accounts Payable to make corrections. If the expense report has not been entered into Oracle, the Accounts Payable staff will be able to address your requested change. If it has been entered into Oracle, you will need to complete an Accounts Payable Redistribution Form [.pdf]

Yes, the preparer or approver can cancel an expense report prior to the expense report approval by clicking the cancel button on the form. Once the expense report is approved, Accounts Payable can delete the expense report as long as the expense report has not been paid.

No, a computer must be used to complete the form at this time.
Yes, the form will time out after 20 minutes of inactivity and any progress will be lost.
Yes, the preparer can save the form when entering expense details by clicking ‘Save and Complete Later’ button and then closing the form. The preparer will receive an “Action Required” email showing progress and providing a new URL to continue with the form completion.

Yes, three pages are provided for expense lines.

The preparer should contact the payee to confirm the ‘Action Required' email has been received. The preparer will receive an email notification after every seven days of inactivity on an outstanding report reminding them to contact the payee for action. 

You can reference the emails you have received throughout the submission process. If you are still unsure, contact the Business Systems Help Desk at er-help@andrew.cmu.edu.

Contact the Business Systems Help Desk at er-help@andrew.cmu.edu.

The preparer receives an ‘Action Required’ email.

The Preparer will receive an ‘FYI’ email.

Taxation or Accounts Payable will contact the preparer in order to be provided with the necessary documentation and information ultimately delaying the reimbursement process.

Contact Accounts Payable at ap-help@andrew.cmu.edu

Your Administrative Leadership Group (ALG) member should email er-help@andrew.cmu.edu  and request that you be added as an authorized preparer for the non-employee expense report form. The ALG member listing is available at www.cmu.edu/alg/members.
No, the information that is entered by the preparer is extracted from the NEER and exported to Oracle to create and pay the NEER with minimal manual intervention from Accounts Payable.
No, two separate NEERs must be completed: one NEER for the GM portion and one NEER for the GL portion of the expenses.  The same receipts and supporting documentation can be attached to both NEERs.
Yes, in order to expedite processing for the NEER, the correct Oracle account strings must be entered on the NEER exactly as they appear in Oracle for validation purposes. If the account string validation fails, the NEER will not be processed until AP is able to obtain a correct Oracle string from the submitter.