Expenses
Employees should submit expense reports within five (5) business days after returning from a business trip or after incurring the expense(s). Expense reports submitted more than 30 days late may not be processed and paid without approval from the Finance Team. Outstanding expense reports are justification for CivicActions to withhold travel advances for subsequent trips.
All expense reports must be accurately completed with original receipts that matches each item on the expense report. There is no dollar threshold for required receipts. For those items that do not have a receipt, an explanation must be provided and the employee must attach an approval email (PDF) to indicate that he or she approves the expense to be reimbursed without the receipt. Management reserves the right to disallow reimbursement for expenses without receipts. Expense Reports must be properly approved in order to be processed for reimbursement.
Expense reports must be submitted via from your Unanet Homepage under Expense - Create Expense Report.
Request approval for an expense
Before incurring an expense the cost should be estimated and approved by your manager. The exception to this is prodev expenses of less than $50, which do not require approval.
To request approval in Unanet
- Unanet > Homepage > Scroll down to +Expense Request (be careful not to click +Expense Report)
- Complete info on screen
- Click on Details
- Complete info on screen (Wizard screen will appear when you click on the amount)
- For Wizard screen: You do NOT need to add a receipt for the Request.
- SUBMIT
IMPORTANT NOTE: when your expense Request is approved, Unanet automatically changes it to an expense Report that will be on your Unanet homepage until you submit it. You will not receive a notification that this has occurred, so please check your homepage regularly after you submit a Request so you know when it has been approved.
To request reimbursement in Unanet
- Unanet > Homepage > Scroll down to +Expense Report
- Complete info on screen
- Click on Details
- Complete info on screen (Wizard screen will appear when you click on the amount)
- For Wizard screen: A receipt is required at this time.
- SUBMIT
Receiving reimbursement
- Once all approvals have been granted, the Bookkeeper will extract the report and create a vendor invoice in preparation for reimbursement.
- The funds will be reimbursed via ACH.
Expense guidelines
- Treat company money like you would your own money, use it to work smarter and spend it with wisdom and care.
- Please book as early as possible - for flights and accommodation this can make a big difference!
- Consider AirBnB instead of hotels. If you are unsure of how many people can attend, getting a slightly larger AirBnB ahead of time is normally better than waiting and getting an AirBnB or hotel rooms last minute.
- Your Project Manager and the Finance Team will provide information about what is or isn't reimbursable. For example, if you prefer first class for a flight or want to add a leg for a vacation, then that wouldn't be reimbursable but the amount for an economy class return would.
- Reduce your footprint when possible and use public transit or shared Lyft Lines instead of single occupancy rides.
- If you are purchasing multiple "under $50" items in a short timespan, please consider that a single purchase and request approval first.
Travel expenses
See Travel 101 for more details on travel expenses, whether for billable or non-billable work.