WBS Policy
Through its WBS policy rules function, DATABASICS Expense is able to associate expenses with WBS activities. Limits can be placed on the amounts of expenses that can be charged to a particular WBS or WBS Group. In setting limits to expenses that can be charged to a WBS, the maximum amount can be a fixed figure, or it can be a value held in the per diem rate tables. Rules can be written that charge any overage to an indirect expense code, while charging the limit to a WBS. This functionality allows companies to separate billable charges from non-billable charges, assigning the billable portion to a WBS activity. This permits reimbursing employees for actual expenses while tracking a lesser amount (generally based on the published U.S. Government per diem rates) for client billing.
To open the WBS Policy Wizard:
- Click WBS Policy under Policy Setup in the Expense menu.
- Click on the Add button.
Step 1: WBS Policy Set up
Field | Description |
---|---|
Name | Enter a name for the expense policy |
User Message | Enter a message to be displayed to the user if they violate the policy. To hide the references to the dollar amount and only display the written user message, include '$$$' at the beginning of the user message (without quotation marks). |
Rule Apply On | Select how the amounts will be totaled:
|
Override Expense Code | In case any amount in excess of the limit set by this policy needs to be allocated to a separate expense code, select that expense code value from the drop down list of options. For instance any amount exceeding a standard per diem rate must go to an unallowable expense code. |
Flag Lines |
|
Approval Option | Select if this policy will trigger any type of approval:
|
Replace Current Approval Flow |
|
Allow Override By Routing |
|
Allow Release | Indicate whether you want this Expense Report to be released if it violates the policy.
|
Condition | |
Amount Type | Enter an Amount Type for the policy:
|
Currency | Select a currency for the policy to be applied in. This is only required for Amount Type: Absolute Amount for a specific Currency |
Operator | Use the operator to select what is allowed under this policy:
|
Amount/Percent | Enter the allowed amount/percentage required by this policy. This amount applies to the report owner only. |
Amount/Percent (For Attendees Only) | Enter the allowed amount/percent that applies to any attendees added to this expense type (This is only used for polices that are enforced By Line). |
Business Amount Included | Indicate whether the policy limit applies to/includes the business amount of an expense line item |
Tip Included | Indicate whether the policy limit applies to/includes the tip amount of an expense line item |
Alcohol Included | Indicate whether the policy limit applies to/includes the alcohol amount of an expense line item |
Tax Included | Indicate whether the policy limit applies to/includes the tax amount of an expense line item |
Click Next when finished.
Step 2: WBS Policy Query
The second step is to set up the queries to determine what attributes of an expense report will trigger the policy. In a WBS Policy, you can query against what the user has charged against (WBS or OBS structure) as well as Employee Profile or Expense Attributes.
To add a query, click the Add button.
- In the Query Field, select which attribute you would like to query against.
- Select the Condition of the query. These conditions may vary or even be removed depending on the Query Field selected.
- In: Select from a group and include in the policy
- Not In: Select from a group and exclude from the policy
- =: Query against an individual ID.
- <>: Query against all except an individual ID.
- Like: Query against a portion of an ID
- Not Like: query against all IDs that do not satisfy the portion of of the ID
- Enter the Value of the query.
- In or Not In: Click on the browse icon to bring up a list of available values. Select from the list and click OK.
- = or <>: Enter the specific ID
- Like or Not Like: Enter a portion of the ID using the '*' as a wild card.
- Click the Apply button.
Repeat until all applicable queries are added.
Validating Custom Fields
To validate against custom fields in the new admin, you must enter the data in the following format.
- In the Query Field, select either "Report custom field" or "Expense custom field"
- In the Parameter field, you must enter the parameter in the following format:
- <CustomFieldID>CustomFieldValue
For example, if you want to validate Custom Field ID #13 with value Y, you would enter:Â
In this case, "Y" is the FIELD_CODE for "Yes" in that Group.
To group portions of the query together by click on the Open Bracket and Close Bracket links.You can also click on the and link to change it to an or. This will allow you to create complex queries for a single policy.
When you have finished adding the queries, click Finish.
Step 3: Add Policy Approvers
If Enabled by this Policy was selected as the Approval Option, a third step will appear. This step is to add the approvers this expense report will be routed to when this policy is triggered.
Click Add to add an exception approval group:
- Level:Â In case more than one level of approval need to be triggered by the policy, this field can be used to define the sequence of the approval levels. If there is only a single level of approval, then leave the number at 0
- Description: Enter the name of the exception approval Groups
- Reset Option:Â
- Reset All Reset from the beginning of approval structure if changes are made by approver.
- Reset Current Level All the approvals currently in progress will be reset.Â
- Reset Off No reset in approval structure if changes are made by approver
- Reset This Level Only the approvals for the group you're a part of will be reset.
- Approval Type:Â
- Anyone Can Approve Any approver in the group can approve an expense report
- Everyone Must Approve All approvers within the approval group must approve
- Enable Override By Routing:Â
- Yes When routing an expense report to an additional approver an administrator will have an option to bypass this exception approval level
- No When routing an expense report to an additional approver an administrator will not be able to bypass this exception approval level
When finished, click Save.
Once the approval levels have been set, you must add the approvers to the individual levels:
- Click on the Approvers tab in the bottom window pane.
- Click Add and select the Employee from the Employee list.
- Click OK when finished
Select the following attributes for each approver:
Attribute
Description
Entry Type
Time/Expense: the approver can approve both Timesheets & Expense Reports
Expense: the approver will only approve Expense Reports
Time: the approver will only approve expense reportsApproval Right
Approve Only: The approver may only approve or reject the expense lines assigned to him
Modify and Approve: The approver may modify the expense report as well as approve it.
Review Only:Â Does not trigger the approval structure at all. Can only be used for data restriction on the reports.
Approval Type
Both: The approver can approve all expense reports routed to this approval group
Primary: The approver approves all expense reports except for their own that are routed to this approval group.
Secondary: The approver only approves the primary approver's expense reports
Email Option
Determine whether or not to e-mail this approver based on this policy.
Active Flag
Determine whether or not this approver is currently active.
If the policy is modified in anyway, you may need to Publish the policy again by clicking the corresponding Publish link. This verifies that the query is valid. If a policy is not published, it will not be used in the validation process, even if it is active.
Click Save when finished adding the approvers
Click Finish on the top right corner of the Approval Flows pop-up window to finish setting up the policy.
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