Finance Self Service - Reimbursements

One of the easiest ways to access Finance Self Service is via the System quicklinks section on the Staff Services webpage. All individuals with a University ID (UID) will be able to log into Finance Self Service using Single Sign-On.

Otherwise click here to Login to Finance Self Service.

Once in Finance Self Service, the Reimbursement component can be accessed by clicking on the Reimbursement tile. The look and feel is exactly the same as other online Self Service systems such as HORUS and should be familiar to most people.

In situations where you are a visitor to the University and there has been an agreement that your expenses will be reimbursed, you will be able to complete a 'Guest Reimbursement Request Form'. Once completed, this can then be submitted along with your receipts / tax invoices to invoice.workflow@anu.edu.au for processing and payment.

Please note that the Form is for use only by persons who do not have a current employment, student or VaHA relationship with the University.

No. There is no ability to delegate the creation and submission of your reimbursement to another user. 

Supervisor information is populated using data from the HR System. Your Supervisor details should populate automatically if you are reporting to one person.

If you are reporting to multiple Supervisors, you will be able to choose the appropriate delegate to approve your reimbursement from the 'Supervisor' drop down Iist.

If your supervisor has multiple positions, a 'Supervisor Occupation' drop down list will appear and you will be able to select the option that is most applicable.

If you are a non-research student or a VaHA/POI without job data, then you will be able to search for the appropriate Financial Delegate from the search criteria prompt.

How do I search for an Approver or Supervisor by name?

You can use the Search Criteria in the Lookup to search for an Approver or Supervisor based on their Employee ID, Name, Occupation or Department ID Description.

• The easiest and most accurate way of searching for your Supervisor is to enter their Employee ID (Empl ID) without the ‘U’. This will ensure that there is no possibility of mistaking the identity of your Supervisor, particularly if they share the same name with another person or you know them by a name other than their proper name. 
• If you search based on Name Display, please note that the Supervisor’s name may be displayed as Surname,FirstName and / or the proper name of the Supervisor may be displayed, not the name by which you know them. 
• By default the search criteria looks for ‘Begins with’. You can however search for names using the wildcard ‘%’. So if searching for a Supervisor whose surname is Blog, search for %Blog. This will return all people with Blog anywhere in the Name Display.
• Alternatively, if you click on Show Operators to the right of Search Criteria, you will be able to change the search criteria to look for ‘contains’. So if searching for a Supervisor whose surname is Blog, search for contains Blog. This will return all people with Blog anywhere in the Name Display. 
• You can also search on other criteria like Department Description. Eg Searching for Department ID Description contains Chemistry will return all people who are employed in a Department where the name contains the word Chemistry.

If you are still not able to find your supervisor, please reach out to your local HR representative to check that the details recorded in the HR System are accurate and current.

How do I search for an Expense Type?

You can use the Search Criteria in the Lookup to search for an Expense Type based on Description.

• By default the search criteria looks for ‘Begins with’. You can however search using the wildcard ‘%’. For example, if searching for an Expense Type related to ‘freight’, search for a Description of %freight. This will return any Expense Types with the word ‘freight’ anywhere in the description.
• Alternatively, if you click on Show Operators to the right of Search Criteria, you will be able to change the search criteria to look for ‘contains’. So if searching for a Description of ‘freight’, simply search for contains ‘freight’. This will return any Expense Types with the word ‘freight’ anywhere in the description

Please select the closest and most appropriate Expense Type. If you are uncertain of the most appropriate expense type, your local Finance Representative should be able to provide assistance.

If GST is listed on the tax invoice / receipt, please add this to the correct field. Further information regarding GST can be obtained from the Tax Unit.

Start by entering your Fund code in the correct field (e.g. R, S, Q etc.). Click on the lookup for the Department and enter part of the Department number or description in the search criteria. Only Departments that are associated with the Fund you entered will show. 

After selecting the Department, to find the Project (if applicable) click the lookup for the Project. This will only show Projects associated with the Fund and Department you previously entered. 

If you are unable to locate your charge code, your local Finance Representative should be able to provide assistance in identifying the correct charge code to use. 

You will need to create two separate lines for the same expense item being reimbursed. Each of those lines should be for the share of that expense item, against the relevant GLC. The total of the two lines should equal the total of the expense item. You will also need to attach the same receipt to each line.

The line description will appear on finance transactional reports, noting the text is restricted to 30 characters. As such, it is important that the description is clear and concise and will be meaningful to anyone reviewing finance transactions. A useful guide is to follow the 'who, what, why, where and when' approach. 

For example: Chen Data Expo Rego CBA Oct 23

The Ledger Description Guidelines contain additional helpful information. 

Original documentation, preferably a tax invoice, must be submitted as supporting documentation to your claim whenever possible. When you try to submit a claim with no attachments, the system requests you to fill out a Statutory declaration.

When creating a Reimbursement Claim, you have the option to 'Review Bank Account Details' These details are populated from either HORUS (if you are an Employee) or ISIS (if you are a Student). If your details are incorrect or blank, please update them in the following ANU systems:

• Employees – HORUS 
• Students – ISIS
• Other (eg VaHA) – on the Bank Accounts page within Finance Self Service

With the implementation of Finance Self Service Reimbursements, you are required to provide your bank account details through Finance Self Service.

Even if you have previously been paid as a VaHA or you may have been previously employed by the ANU, you are still required to provide your bank account details through Finance Self Service.

We understand that if you were previously an employee and therefore had bank account details recorded in our HR system, then this bank account is shown to you. So from your end, all looks OK. However, as your employment arrangement is no longer active we cannot use the bank account stored in the HR system.

To add or update your bank account details, please:

1. Login in to Finance Self Service as you have previously done, entering your ANU ID and Password.
2. Then click on this link Bank Accounts. This will take you to the Bank Accounts page.
3. Click on the Add a New Account button.
4. Enter your BSB, Account Number and Account Name and then hit save.

Once the claim has been saved as a draft, please navigate to Reimbursement Status/History to find your claim number. When saved as a draft, the status will show as "Not Submitted". You can proceed to complete or Cancel your claim.

All reimbursement claims submitted through Finance Self Service must be submitted in AUD only.

If the expenses have been charged to your Australian bank account, then please:

• claim the converted amount charged to your Australian bank account
• attach as supporting documentation the Invoice you paid (which will be stated in foreign currency) and an extract from your bank account showing the actual converted AUD amount changed to your Australian bank account.

If the expenses were originally incurred in your foreign currency account but you have an Australian bank account to which the reimbursement can be made, then you will need to:

• convert the foreign currency amount to AUD using an appropriate exchange rate sourced from an Australian foreign currency exchange website;
• claim the calculated converted AUD amount; and
• attach as supporting documentation the Invoice you paid (which will be stated in foreign currency) and how you calculated the foreign currency amount to AUD (including the source of the exchange rate you used).

A good foreign currency conversion tool is https://www.oanda.com/currency-converter/ as you can specify the date of the original transaction to convert the foreign amount to AUD amount at the exchange rate of that date. You can also easily print (to pdf) the resulting calculation as supporting documentation.

The preference is for all reimbursement of expenses to be paid into Australian bank accounts.

Reimbursement claims submitted through Finance Self Service can only be paid into Australian bank accounts.

If you do not have an Australian bank account for the reimbursement of expenses, then please contact Financial Shared Services at financial.shared.services@anu.edu.au for further instructions on how to seek reimbursement.

No. Finance Self Service must only be used for seeking a reimbursement of expenses incurred as a result of conducting University business. All Travel Advances should be acquitted following the Advances procedures.

We understand that there may be an issue when using Chrome or Firefox as the browser when creating and submitting a reimbursement claim. These browsers appear to time out reasonably quickly if no keyboard action is detected.

Microsoft Edge is the preferred browser for Finance Self Service.

Once your claim is submitted it will enter Accounts Payable workflow will follow a two-step approval process:

• Step 1: Finance Review Step undertaken by Financial Shared Services
• Step 2: Financial Delegate Approval in ES Financials

Once the delegate has approved the transaction, payment will be made to your bank account in the next appropriate payment run.

Please refer to the User Guide on how to Monitor the Progress of a Reimbursement Claim under Reference Documents.

Within Self Service, select Reimbursements > Reimbursement Status/History, where you will see all your saved claims and their different statuses. The reimbursement request will be in one of the following states:

• Not submitted (saved as a draft)
• Pending Review and Approval (with Financial Shared Services)
• Pending Approval (with your Financial Delegate/Supervisor)
• Approved (Financial Delegate/Supervisor has approved the reimbursement to be paid)
• Reimbursement Cancelled (refer to next question)
• Reimbursement Paid

Please refer to the User Guide on how to Cancel a Reimbursement Claim under Reference Documents.

Click into the claim you want to cancel and at the bottom of the page there is a "Cancel Claim" button. You will be asked for confirmation of wanting to cancel. After clicking "Yes" the status of the claim will change to "Reimbursement Cancelled". If the claim is currently in Accounts Payable Workflow pending approval, the claim will be terminated there and no payment made.

No. If the claim has not yet been paid, you can cancel the claim (through Finance Self Service) and resubmit a new one.

Please contact Financial Shared Services via email at financial.shared.services@anu.edu.au, quoting the claim number and providing the FBT or travel form preferably in pdf or jpg format. They will be able to attach the form to the claim.

The aim is to process all reimbursement claims within 7 business days of the request being submitted. There are some factors that can delay this such as the length of time it takes a Financial Delegate to approve the claim. Accounts Payable payments are made on Tuesday and Friday of each week.

The guiding principles for the Implementation of Finance Self Service are: 

• Financial Delegates approving expenditure should exercise this approval within ES Financials so that there is an accurate and transparent record of the approval action taken within the system. 
• Exercising financial delegation requires knowledge of and compliance with relevant financial policies as well as an understanding of accountability of transactions (eg GLCs used). 
• Per the Expenditure Approval Policy, 'Authorised delegates must not approve any expenditure incurred by themselves or for their supervisor or more senior employee and must seek approval for expenditure from their supervisor.' 

Claims will be approved by a Financial Delegate within ES Financials.  The Financial Delegate can only approve the transaction if at the time of Approval they hold a delegation for the total Invoice Amount. This is consistent with standard Invoice Approvals.

Employees, with single active job record:

• Supervisor assigned as the Approver if they hold a Financial Delegation (220). If not, the system will automatically roll up (based on the HR org structure) to the Supervisor’s Supervisor to check for a Financial Delegation and continue rolling up until a Financial Delegate is found (and also that the Financial Delegate has a delegation limit sufficient for the value of the Claim).

Employees, with multiple active job:

• Employee first selects the job for the reimbursement claim and then the above rules apply for Financial Delegate selection.

VaHAs:

• They select an “Approver” from a list of all Financial Delegates across the whole of the ANU. 
• The list is not restricted to only Financial Delegates within the relevant College or business area.

Students:

Research Student with Single Supervisor

• Supervisor ID is identified from Campus Solutions (Student Administration System) and then the above rules for Employees apply for Financial Delegate selection.

Research Student with Multiple Supervisors

• Student selects Supervisor from a list relevant for that Student as per Campus Solutions.

Research Student no Supervisor

• Student selects an Approver from list of Financial Delegates across the whole of the ANU.
• The list is not restricted to only Financial Delegates within the relevant College.

Non Research Student

• Student selects an Approver from list of Financial Delegates across the whole of the ANU.
• The list is not restricted to only Financial Delegates within the relevant College.

No. Claims are routed to the Claimant’s supervisor for approval.

If the Claimant’s supervisor does not have a Financial Delegation, then the Claim will route to the Supervisor’s Supervisor (based on the HR Organisational Structure) until a Supervisor is found that has a Financial Delegation.

Approval of expense reimbursement claims by Financial Delegates will require access to ES Financials.  To obtain ES Financials access, please refer here for details regarding the process.

While the appropriateness of Financial Delegation or access to ES Financials is being considered for a Supervisor, an interim framework is being applied to manually re-route claims to an alternate Financial Delegate for approval. This is an interim arrangement only in the short term while a review of Financial Delegates and ES Financials access is being conducted.

When a Claim is submitted to you for approval, you will receive an email notification with the subject of ‘Scanned Invoice# Sxxxxxxx requires completion/approval’. The email will contain a direct link to the Claim within ES Financials. 

If you are unable to locate this email, please follow the steps below to access claims pending your approval.

1. Login to ES Financials (ES Financials - Staff Services - ANU). Please note you will need to be connected to the Global Connect VPN if you are working remotely.
2. Then proceed to Scan Pending Approvals (anu.edu.au)
3. You will then be presented with a list of any items pending your approval.
4. Click on the Scan ID of the Claim you are approving to see the Claim details and attachments.

For further guidance on approving Claims, please refer to the User Guide “Accounts Payable Workflow Step 3 Financial Delegate”.

No. You will need to notify the Claimant directly.

In the approval screen, click on Attachments. Then click on Add Attachment and select the attachment from your device.

Should the Financial Delegate not be the appropriate person to Approve the Claim they are able to ‘Pushback’ the claim to Financial Shared Services or select another appropriate Workflow Action consistent with Invoice approvals within Accounts Payable Workflow. If you know who the Claim should be reassigned to, please add a comment before pushing back the Claim. Financial Shared Services will then liaise with the local area to identify the correct person to redirect the Claim for Approval.

When working remotely you will need to use Global Protect.

If you can log into Global Protect, there shouldn’t be any issue getting to the ES Financials log on page.

Note, Global Protect should be installed on most ANU devices, if you are using your own personal device, you might need to contact ITS to get it installed for you.

The ES Financials System allows a staff member to assign an Alternate User while on leave or travelling for work and unable to access corporate systems. The staff member selects an alternate Financial Delegate and the time period to which this applies. ES Financials uses this information to reassign any items requiring approval in ES Financials including Reimbursement Claims. 

This is separate to the Approval Proxy in HR/HORUS which staff can also assign for any absences.

In ES Financials, go to the compass icon in the top right corner. Then select Menu > My System Profile. In the Alternate User ID, search for the alternate Financial Delegate you wish to approve any claims in your absence. Select the From Date and To Date and hit save. You can do this anytime in advance of your leave or absence.

No, there is no such report available. However please note that the Approvers will have received reminders alerting them that a claim is pending approval.

In the meantime, a spreadsheet is being provided weekly to each College General Managers of claims still pending approval. 

The best option is to run a Voucher Download. The selection criteria includes Department, Fund and Project codes (allowing multiple) as well as Posted Date. If you don't select a Business Unit, it will give you a list of all Vouchers against your GLCs. You can also restrict it to just FAS Business Unit to see all the SSR claims since October 2023. There are also plenty of options for download fields available for you, including Supplier ID and Name, Scan Id etc. The menu path is Menu > Accounts Payable > Reports > Voucher Download.

The second option is to run a Ledger Transaction Download for your GLCs, but you won't be able to restrict to only Reimbursement Claims. From the download, the Reimbursement Claims will be obvious as the 'Invoice Number' starts with 'REIMB'. If you include Supplier ID and Name as fields available in your download, you will be able to spot the names of the Claimants easily (but only for actuals (cash) transactions). The menu path is Menu > General Ledger > Reports > Ledger Transaction Download.

For questions related to access or use of Finance Self Service or ES Financials please contact:
Financial Systems
+61 2 6125 4321 option 3, option 2
fbs-bso@anu.edu.au

For questions related to the processing or payment of your Claim please contact:
Financial Shared Services
+61 2 6125 4777
financial.shared.services@anu.edu.au