Getting Started

Once you know which approval role you will need in Concur, you will complete the Financial Systems Security Application (FSSA). Payees do not need to fill out an FSSA.

Payees, Travelers, and Delegates

Payee

A Payee is the person who has incurred travel or business expenses in the course of conducting University business. If a Payee has access to Concur Expense, they can prepare and submit expense reports for reimbursement. If they do not have access, this will have to be done on their behalf by a Travel Arranger.

Traveler

A Traveler is a person who incurs expenses while traveling on behalf of Columbia. If the Traveler has access to the Concur Travel module, they can book air/rail, hotels, and rental cars through Concur.

Preparer Delegate

If a Payee has access to Concur Expense, the Payee can designate a colleague as a Preparer Delegate in their Concur Profile. The Delegate can prepare a Request or Expense report on behalf of the Payee, but not submit into workflow. Only the Payee can submit into workflow.

Travel Delegate

If a Traveler has access to the Travel module in Concur, the Traveler can assign authority to an individual via profile configuration to book travel on their behalf. For example, administrators can book travel on behalf of their supervisors.

Travel Arranger

A Travel Arranger has the ability to book travel for students, other employees, or guests of the University.

Only identified Travel Arrangers may book and pay for Group Travel through World Travel Inc.’s (WTI) Global Meetings and Events (GME). See Book Group Travel for more information.

Concur Reporting Manager

Concur Reporting Managers are individuals entrusted to access data for an entire division and assign and/or maintain up to two Reporting Manager delegates. Reporting Managers and their reporting manager delegates have the ability to run reports using Concur Intelligence.

Note: Assignment of the Concur Reporting Manager role requires an approved Financial Systems Security Application (FSSA) and assignment of the user as the default reporting manager by the respective Departmental Authorization Function (DAF).

Approver and Approver Delegates

Supervisor / Initial Reviewer

The Supervisor or Initial Reviewer reviews expense reports and requests for appropriateness, as well as compliance with both central University and school or administrative unit policy.

If the Payee has a Supervisor within Concur, the Supervisor will receive travel and business expense reports and requests for initial approval. If the Payee does not have a Supervisor within Concur, the Payee must select an Initial Reviewer assigned to their administrative department.

Financial Approver

The Financial Approver will receive expense reports and cash advance Requests for approval following approval by the Supervisor or Initial Reviewer, based on accurate and appropriate ChartStrings, budget impact, and compliance with both central University and school and/or administrative unit policy.

This review includes Payee justification and associated Approver acknowledgment for specific policy exceptions.

Note: Departments should identify a Financial Approver that is distinct from the Initial Reviewer.  Assignment of the Financial Approver Role requires an approved Financial Systems Security Application (FSSA), completion of Managing Travel and Business Expense Approvals in Concur Training and assignment of the user as the financial approver default by the respective Departmental Authorization Function (DAF).

Senior Business Officer

Senior Business Officers will receive expense reports with certain policy exceptions and travel/cash advance requests for international operations over $5,000.

Approver Delegates

The Approver Delegate is assigned by an Approver to approve travel requests or expense reports on their behalf. Approvers can designate Approver Delegates in their Concur Profile for a specified period of time up to 365 days. The Approver Delegate must already be set up with an approval role in Concur.

Preview Delegates 

Preview Delegates are assigned by an Approver to review and validate information on a Request or Expense Report but have no approval authority.   Preview Delegates will have a ‘Notify Approver’ button, which can be used to trigger an email to the approver and add an icon to the request or report to identify it as having been reviewed.

Senior Business Officer Delegates

Senior Business Officer Delegates are assigned by Senior Business Officers with the explicit approval of the Controller.

Ad Hoc Approver

Ad Hoc Approvers are manually inserted into workflow by Approvers for specific expense reports and requests where additional review and approval is necessary.

Ad Hoc Approvers must already be set up with an approval role in Concur.

View The Concur Approval Workflow job aid to understand the Concur Approval Workflow for Expense Reports, Travel/Cash Advance Requests, and PreTrip Requests.

Default access settings for each user population have been defined with the understanding that DAFs have the ability to disable access or opt-in employees individually using the School / Division setup page in ARC (except Student Non-Employees maintained by Central AP)

• Travel and Expense 
• Expense Only (Non-Travelers)

The following employee groups have been given default access to both Travel and Expense:

• Officers of Instruction
• Officers of Research 
• Officers of Libraries
• Officers of Administration

Administrative Support Staff have been given default access to Expense Only but can be opted-in

• Administrative Support Staff who are Travel Delegates or Travel Arrangers will need to be opted-in for Travel in order to book travel on behalf of others

Student Employees and Student Non-Employees by default have not been given access to Travel or Expense, but can be opted-in by a School / department DAF (Student Employees) or Accounts Payable (Student Non-Employees)

Affiliates have not been given default access to Concur; only CU employees have default access.  Affiliates must request access to Concur using the FSSA application.

Please note that consistent with other University systems, there is a 45-day grace period to submit your expense reimbursements into Concur upon leaving Columbia University.  After 45 days from your last date of employment with the University, you will no longer be able to access the Concur system.

Take the Concur Travel and Expense training in ELM, Columbia's Enterprise Learning Management system.

Log Into Concur

1. Access Concur from the "Log Into Concur" button on the landing page of the Travel and Expense Portal
2. Log in with your UNI and password
3. Concur requires multi-factor sign-in authentication utilizing DUO
4. A log in warning dialog appears, reminding you to review and update your profile settings
5. Click OK, and you will be directed to the homepage of Concur

Profile Set Up

There are a variety of job aids and training guides available for you to learn how to log in and set up a profile, as well as how to assign delegates, in Concur. Click on any of the links below to access the corresponding guidance: 

• Training Guide: Setting up Your Concur Profile for Expense (Only) Users (pdf) – Use this training guide for everything you need to know about setting up your expense profile.
• Training Guide: Setting up Your Concur Profile for Travel and Expense Users (pdf) – Use this training guide for everything you need to know about setting up your travel and expense profile.
• Assign and Manage Delegates (pdf) – Use this job aid for guidance on the steps involved in assigning delegates in Concur.

Use the Training Guide: Managing Concur Notifications and Reminders, which summarizes the Travel and Expense related notification and reminder emails you may receive from Concur and World Travel Inc. (WTI) and provides details regarding those that you have the ability to enable and/or disable.

School or administrative unit DAFs will have the ability to disable access or opt-in employees individually using a Concur School / Division setup page in ARC. The exception is student non-employee access which will be granted per department request and maintained by central Accounts Payable. Department requests to opt-in Student Non-Employees can be requested by either DAF or Senior Business Officer (SBO).

In order to opt-in a student non-employee to have access to Concur Travel and Expense or Expense only, a Service Now Incident is required from the department’s DAF or SBO. The incident should contain the student’s name, UNI, and Vendor Number and must indicate which Concur module is requested: 

• Travel – access to book Air and/or Rail to be charged on the Columbia Air/Rail Central Pay. Hotel and car rentals can be reserved as well.
• Expense – access to create and submit expense reports to reconcile travel and/or business expenses charged on the Columbia Air/Rail Central Pay or for reimbursement of out of pocket expenses. This includes access to the Concur Request module to request pre-trip approval.

Central Accounts Payable Process 

Upon receipt of the incident, Accounts Payable (AP) will verify the request was submitted by the department’s DAF or SBO, verify the student’s name, UNI, and vendor number matches the student non-employee profile in Accounting and Reporting at Columbia (ARC). AP will also verify the incident specifies which Concur module is being requested for access for the student non-employee.

AP will grant access to Concur and mark the incident as resolved, which sends an email to the DAF or SBO signifying that access to Concur will be provided within 24 hours for the student non-employee. 

AP will grant access to Concur and mark the incident as resolved which sends an email to the DAF or SBO signifying that access to Concur will be provided within 24 hours.

Students should refer to the Travel and Expense Portal Student sectoin for regarding Concur Travel and Expense.