Skip to main content
Documentation
Documentation
Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-04-03
Expense Report Event Business Process Guidelines

Expense Report Event Business Process Guidelines

Overview

The Expense Report Event business process in Workday is a configurable workflow that governs how expense reports are submitted, reviewed, approved, and processed. It is a critical component of the Workday Financial Management suite, designed to ensure compliance with company policies, provide a clear audit trail, and streamline the expense reimbursement process.
You can customize the Expense Report Event business process to:
  • Audit expense reports for amount anomalies, incorrect expense coding and duplication of expenses.
  • Route expense reports for approval based on their risk score. See Route Expense Reports Based on Risk.
  • Capture feedback by including questionnaires on expense reports.
  • Check budgets.
  • Confirm accurate taxes on expense reports.
  • Retrieve expense report data for reporting.
  • Send back individual expense lines for correction.
  • Track projects.
These are the sections in this topic:
  • Subprocesses
  • Prerequisites
  • Process Initiators
  • Limitations
  • Common Business Process Workflows and Guidelines
  • Workflow Step Types
  • Integrations and Service Steps
  • Routing Modifiers
  • Notifications
  • Issues and Solutions

Subprocesses

The Expense Report Event Business Process can consist of these subprocesses:
  • Initiate Expense Report Intercompany Event: You can use this subprocess when an expense report line's company differs from the header company. It routes the intercompany expense lines for approval to the appropriate stakeholders in the affiliate company. If the intercompany approvers deny the lines, the entire expense report is denied.
  • Check Budgets: You can use this subprocess to ensure that a proposed expense doesn't exceed the pre-approved funds allocated to a specific department, project, or cost center.

Prerequisites

Before an expense report can be successfully processed, several foundational elements must be in place:
  • Employee Setup: Employees must be registered in Workday HCM and must have a payment election.
  • Expense Policy Definition: A clear, documented expense policy should be established and communicated to all employees, detailing allowable expenses, limits, and required documentation.
  • Expense Items: Expense Items must be created and configured, and the expense reports setup must be completed, including payment election rules for reimbursements.
  • Approval Hierarchies: Expense report approval workflow must be configured.
  • Intercompany Processing: If applicable, Intercompany Processing for expense reports should be configured to allow for changing the company on an expense line.
  • Security: Domains under the Expenses and System functional areas.
    • For a list of domains under the Expenses functional area, see Reference: Security Domains for the Expense Report Event Business Process.
    • Configure these domains under the System functional area:
      • Business Process Administration:
        Grants access to the tasks required to create and edit business process definitions.
      • Manage: Business Process Definitions:
        Grants access to manage all aspects of business processes.
      • Management Dashboard: Expenses
        : Secures access to the Expense Management Dashboard, which provides an overview of expense data and trends for the organization.
      • Set Up: Tenant Setup - Financials
        : Grants access to configure tenant-wide settings for all of Workday Financials, including Expenses.

Process Initiators

The
Expense Report Event
 business process initiates when a user successfully submits an expense report for approval. Expense reports can be configured to be submitted by different personas, such as:
  • Employees: Workers can initiate expense reports for themselves.
  • Expense Data Entry Specialist can create expense reports for other workers.
  • Delegates: Workers can delegate the creation of expense reports to others, such as an administrative assistant.
  • Web Services: Administrators can use the
    Submit_Expense_Report
     web service to create and submit expense reports, such as expenses from external systems. This can also be used for non-workers and applicants.

Limitations

Limitations of the Expense Report Event Business Process include:
  • Journal Line Association: Workday links journal entries to expense reports at the header level, not at the line level, preventing direct tracing of a specific journal line back to its corresponding expense report line in standard reporting.
  • Correction Restrictions: You can't use the Correct action on an approved expense report if the report:
    • Has been paid and worktag balancing is enabled.
    • Is associated with project billing transactions that have a
      Ready to Bill
       status.
    • The expense tax details are included on a tax declaration that hasn't been canceled.
  • Add Approver Functionality: The
    Add Approver
     option is not available on steps that use the Send Back Expense Lines action.
  • Delegate Visibility: When a delegate is acting on behalf of another user (the delegator), they can't see the
    Business Process
     tab on the expense report to check the approval status.
  • Draft Status via Integration: When using the
    Submit_Expense_Report
     web service, there is no parameter to save the expense report in a
    Draft
    status. If the data is valid, the business process is automatically initiated.

Common Business Process Workflows and Guidelines

A typical Expense Report Event workflow often follows this general pattern:
  1. Creation/Initiation: An employee submits an expense report.
  2. Review: Can precede or follow approval steps. The report is routed to a central team, such as expense partners or auditors. The reviewer can make corrections directly to the report before sending it. They can also return it to the employee.
  3. Approval: Can precede or follow review steps. The report is routed to one or more approvers. Example: manager, finance approver.
    To view the diagram of a business process workflow, click
    View Diagram
    on the
    View Business Process Definition
     page when you are editing the business process definition.
Once the business process completes and the expense report is approved, it can be processed for payment.
The approval workflow for an expense report can range from simple to complex, depending on the organization's policies, approval limits, and audit requirements.
Path 1: Simple Approval
This is the most straightforward workflow, typically used by smaller organizations for expenses that fall below a certain threshold.
A: Initiation
>
 B: Approval
>
 C: Completion
Path 2: Automatic Approval
For expenses that you determine do not require review or approval, those steps can be bypassed. Example: a standard monthly wellness stipend.
A: Initiation
>
 B: Approval (by passed, conditional to expense item)
>
C: Completion.
Path 3: Hierarchical and Audit Approval
This is a very common pattern that includes manager approval followed by a secondary review from the finance or audit department, often based on specific criteria.
A: Initiation
>
 B: Approval
>
 C: Action (Conditional on Audit Expense Report)
>
 D: Completion
Path 4: Complex Project-Based and Multi-Level Approval
This workflow is for expenses that need approval from multiple roles, like a project manager and a cost center manager. Depending on the total amount, additional approval tiers may also be required.
A: Initiation
>
 B: Approval (Conditional by Project Manager)
>
 C: Approval (by Manager)
>
 D: Approval (Conditional by Director for high amounts)
>
 E: Completion

Workflow Step Types

Here are some common step types found in an
Expense Report Event
 business process, along with their characteristics:
Initiation
  • Step Order
    : Is always the first step.
  • Group
    : Performed by Employee, Contingent Worker As Self, or Expense Data Entry Specialist.
  • Security Domain
    : Access on one of the initiating actions on the Expense Report Event Business Process Security Policy:
    • Create Expense Report
    • Create Expense Report for Pre-Hire
    • Submit Expense Report (Web Service)
    • Submit Expense Report for Applicant (Web Service)
    • Create Expense Report for Worker
    • Create Expense Report for Non-Worker
    • Submit Expense Report for Non-Worker (Web Service)
Step Type
Action
  • Step Order
    : Usually after the first step.
  • Group
    : Often performed by Manager, Expense Partner, Project Manager, or a custom-defined role.
  • Security Domain
    : Access on the relevant action step on the business process security policy.
  • Specify
    : Select the specific action to be performed. Common actions include:
    • Approve Expense Report: Allows the assigned role to approve, deny, or send back the entire expense report.
    • Approve Expense Report - Send Back Lines: Allows the assigned role to approve or deny the entire report, or send back individual lines for correction while approving the rest.
    • Initiate Expense Report Intercompany Event: Triggers the sub-business process for intercompany expense approvals. Access for this action is defined on the business process security policy for Expense Report Intercompany Event.
    • Review Expense Report: Allows the assigned role to edit, approve, deny, or send back the entire expense report.
    • Review Expense Report - Send Back Lines: Allows the assigned role to edit the expense report, approve or deny the entire report, or send back individual lines for correction while approving the rest.
  • Step Type Guidelines
    :
    • Best Practices:
      • Granular Control with Line-Level Send Back: For roles that frequently find minor errors on large expense reports, use the Approve Expense Report - Send Back Lines or Review Expense Report - Send Back Lines steps option. It prevents the entire report from being held up due to a single incorrect line and streamlines the reimbursement process for the employee. This allows the approver to send back individual lines for correction while approving the remainder of the report. This practice prevents minor errors from delaying the reimbursement of the entire expense report.
      • Add Approver Limitation: When you use an Action step with the Send Back Lines capability, the user performing that step will not have the ability to use the Add Approver function. If ad-hoc approvals are a critical part of your process, consider using a standard Approval step instead.
      • Maintain Financial Oversight After Report Edits: If a Review Expense Report step is included where a reviewer can change amounts, consider adding a subsequent Approval step for the employee's manager or other appropriate approver immediately after it. This ensures that someone provides final approval on the updated amounts before the process completes.
      • Streamlining Workflow for Corrected Reports with Auto-Approval: To speed up the final approval, prevent a report from being routed to the same manager multiple times after the manager approves an expense report and sends back a single line by configuring advanced routing on your approval steps to exclude prior approvers. Example: Add two sequential approval steps. First step for the Manager, in the Action step select Approve Expense Report - Send Back Lines. Then second step for the Cost Center Manager, add a standard Approval step that has an advanced routing rule configured to Exclude Prior Approvers.
      • Manage Intercompany Transactions: On the Action step, add the Initiate Expense Report Intercompany Event subprocess for approvals when an expense line includes a different company than the one in the expense report's header. This ensures that an approver for the affiliate company receives an approval task to review just that intercompany line item. After the line is approved, the main business process continues, ensuring proper accounting.
  • Additional Guidelines
    :
    • Best Practices:
      • Test your condition rules thoroughly to ensure they are evaluating correctly.
      • Avoid overly complex rules that are difficult to maintain.
      • Use
        Action
         steps when the user needs to do more than just approve or deny, such as editing the expense report or sending back individual lines.
      • Know that the Add Approver functionality is not available on steps that use the
        Send Back Lines
         actions.
    • Use Cases:
      • Use a Review Expense Report step for an expense partner to allow them to correct any errors before sending it for final approval.
      • Route expense reports for approval based on their risk score. Example: Add a condition rule where Risk score > 60 or risk score <= 0.
      • Route to a specific approver only if the expense report total exceeds a certain threshold. Example: Add a condition rule where Expense Report Total Amount > 500
      • Skip a review step if the expense report only contains certain types of expenses (Example: mileage).
      • Trigger a tax review only if the expense report contains recoverable taxes.
  • For more information, see Concept: Action Step.
Approval
  • Step Order
    : There can be multiple approval steps in sequence or parallel.
  • Group
    : Performed by Manager, Department Head, Project Manager, a custom role for finance approvers based on dollar amount, or, HR Partner such as for relocation expenses.
  • Step Type Guidelines
    :
    • Best Practices:
      • Set due dates on steps to define expectations for approval times.
      • Use the Approval step type when the user only needs to approve, deny, or send back the entire expense report.
      • If you need the ability to add ad-hoc approvers, use the Approval step type.
    • Use Cases:
      • The manager reviews an employee's expense report for adherence to company policy and budget. Finance department reviews it for compliance and proper expense codes.
      • A multi-level approval process for high-value expense reports.
  • Additional Guidelines
    :
    • Best Practices:
      • Clearly define approval hierarchies and thresholds.
      • Leverage the
        Exclude Prior Approvers
        option in the advanced routing to prevent a user from having to approve the same expense report multiple times.
      • Use approval chains to route up a management chain.
      • Route to a specific approver based on the cost center or other worktags on the expense report.
    • Use Cases: Routing to specific approvers based on expense amount, expense type, or project code. Skipping an approval if the amount is below a certain threshold.
  • For more information, see Concept: Approval Step.
Review
This is an
Action
 step. You can select 1 of the review options in the
Specify
 column.
  • Order
    : Can precede or follow approval steps.
  • Group
    : Performed by a security group, such as Expense Partner, Manager, Manager Cost Center Manager.
  • Security Domain
    : Access on one of the Review actions on the Expense Report Event business process security policy.
  • Specify
    :
    • Review Expense Report : Allows the user to edit, approve, deny, or send back the entire expense report.
    • Review Expense Report - Send Back Lines: Provides all the capabilities of the above, but also allows the user to send
  • Step Type Guidelines
    :
    • Use Cases:
      • Expense partner verifying that all receipts match reported expenses.
        Example: Expense partners review expense reports before payment. They cross-reference receipts with line items, ensure the correct expense items and appropriate worktags are used, and verify policy adherence. If an issue is found, they might make a small correction, or send the report back to the employee or approver for clarification.
  • Additional Guidelines
    :
    • Best Practices:
      • Define clear review criteria. Provide tools for easy comparison of submitted data with policy.
      • Use an
        Approve Expense Report - Send Back Lines
         step for a manager to allow them to approve the majority of an expense report while sending back a single problematic line for correction.
      • Use a
        Review Expense Report
         step for an expense partner to allow them to correct any errors before sending it for final approval.
    • Use Case: Initiate a detailed review if specific expense categories are present, such as high-risk categories.
Completion
This step signifies that the main workflow is finished. Once the completion step is executed, the expense report is considered fully approved, and subsequent steps can run without holding up the core process.
Review the steps and identify which one should represent the final, required action for the expense report to be considered approved. This is often the final approval step in the sequence. Locate the row for this step in the grid, and from the related actions menu of that step, select
Business Process
>
Set to Completion
.
A business process can only have one completion step. If another step is already marked as the completion step, Workday will automatically uncheck it and apply the designation to the step you have just selected.

Integrations and Service Steps

Integration involves the seamless transfer of data between the expense management system and other enterprise systems to ensure data consistency and efficiency.
Refer to the
Allowed Services
 tab for services available for configuration, such as Document Delivery, Journey Distribution, and Orchestration.
Integration steps can be configured as part of the expense report process. Select the step type
Integration
. Once you have saved the business process definition, access the
Configure Integration Step
 button to configure the appropriate integration system (EIB, Core Connector, or Workday Studio integration.)

Routing Modifiers

The Line Level routing modifier can be configured on Approval steps that are assigned to at least one intersection security group. Intersection security was originally designed for HCM use cases and is not generally recommended for Financials use cases. Line Level routing is available on the Expense Report Event to support use cases where there are no other options to satisfy routing requirements, and should not be considered as the preferred option. It is preferable to use role-based security groups.
Line Level routing will route the full expense report to the identified approvers: it does not split the expense report into separate lines.
For more information see Maintain Line Level Routing. See also Cost Center (Touchpoints kit) for more detailed discussion of routing.

Notifications

System Notifications
System notifications are default alerts generated by Workday for business process events. You can view all system notifications on the
Notifications
 tab of the business process. Workday allows you to disable a specific notification, though it’s often better to manage notification preferences at the user level or use custom notifications for more targeted alerts. See Configure Business Process System Notifications.
Global notification settings are managed in the
Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications
 task.
Custom Notifications
You can create custom notifications that can initiate on any step of the business process to alert users about events, required actions, or status changes. To create a notification, navigate to the business process definition and from the related actions menu, select
Business Process
Add Notification
. See Create Custom Notifications.
  • Guidelines and Best Practices:
    • Be Clear and Actionable: The subject line should be direct (Example: "Action Required: Approve Expense Report"). The body should clearly state what happened and what the recipient needs to do next.
    • Target the Right Audience: Only send notifications to roles that need the information. Over-notifying users leads to them ignoring all alerts.
    • Use Dynamic Fields: Include relevant data like Expense Report ID, Total Amount, and Worker to provide context so the user doesn't have to click into the task to understand the request.
    • Avoid Notification Fatigue: Don't configure a custom notification for every single step. Focus on key events that are not already represented by the system notifications. For example, when a transaction has been submitted on a worker’s behalf.
  • Use Cases:
    • Scenario 1: The employee needs to receive a notification when another worker, such as a delegate or Expense Data Entry Specialist, has submitted an expense report on their behalf. Example: Add a custom notification to trigger On Exit of the initiation step, with a condition rule that the initiator is not the worker. Specify Employee as Self in the Groups field of the Recipients section.
    • Scenario 2: The employee wants to receive a confirmation when their expense report is fully approved and is pending payment. Example: Add a custom notification and select Trigger on Status: Completed. Specify Employee as Self in the Groups field of the Recipients section

Issues and Solutions

Issues
Solutions
Notification is not being sent.
1. Check the Business Process Definition: Ensure the notification is configured on the correct step and is marked as Active.
2. Verify Step Execution: Check the business process history for the transaction. Was the step the notification skipped due to a condition rule? If the step doesn't run, the notification won't either.
3. Check Notification Condition: Does the notification itself have a condition rule that is not being met?
4. Check Recipient's Profile: If sending an email, confirm the intended recipient has a valid work email address in their Workday profile.
Notification is sent to the wrong person.
1. Review Recipient Configuration: In the business process definition, check the
Recipient
 field for the notification. Is it configured for the correct security group (Example: Manager, Initiator, Cost Center Manager)?
2. Check Role Assignments: Verify the role assignment for the person who incorrectly received the notification. They may be unintentionally included in the recipient security group. For example, is a worker's former manager still assigned as their manager for some reason?
Notification is missing information or contains blank fields.
1. Check Dynamic Fields: Edit the notification text and ensure you are using the correct, system-provided fields for the data you want to display.
2. Verify Data Timing: The data must exist on the business object at the time the notification triggers. For example, you cannot include [Approver's Name] in a notification that fires before the approval step has been completed, as the value would be blank.
3. Recipient Security: Fields will display as [not available] if the notification is sent to a static email address, or a recipient who does not have security access to view the data. When building the notification, choose fields that appear in the Public Fields dropdown list to avoid this issue. Alternately, ensure that notifications are sent to security groups with access to the fields.
How to correct an expense report that is already approved and paid?
You must correct the business process from the business process instance, not the expense report instance.
To do so:
  1. Navigate to the expense report in question and click into it.
  2. Click the
    Business Process
     tab.
  3. In the
    Process
    column, from the related action of the Expense Report Event, select
    Business Process > Correct
    .
Ensure you have the required security access to run this task. Navigate to the Expense Report Event (Default Definition) and from the related actions of the event, select
Business Process Policy > View
 and confirm you belong to the security groups that can perform the Correct action under
Who Can Do Actions on Entire Business Process
 section.
Why is the
Business Process
 tab on an Expense Report Event no longer visible to a delegate after the expense report has been approved, even though it was visible during the initial submission?
This is expected behavior as per current functionality.
The delegate will see the
Business Process
 tab only under these 2 conditions:
  • When the expense report is partially approved and the expense report has a status of
    In Progress
    .
  • Until the sent back Expense Report is re-submitted and approved.
The business process is stuck with a terminated employee.
Cause:
 The employee was terminated after the expense report was sent back for correction, and the task remains in their inbox.
Resolution
:
An administrator with appropriate permissions should use the
Reassign Tasks
 function to reassign the expense report event from the terminated employee's inbox to an appropriate user, such as an Expense Data Entry Specialist, who can then correct and resubmit or cancel it.
Why is the
Business Process
 tab on an Expense Report Event no longer visible to a delegate after the expense report has been approved, even though it was visible during the initial submission?
This is expected behavior as per current functionality.
The delegate will see the Business Process tab only under these 2 conditions:
  • When the expense report is partially approved and the expense report has a status of
    In Progress
    .
  • Until the sent back Expense Report is re-submitted and approved.
Why am I unable to add a Spend Category Manager role to the Expense Report Event business process security policy?
The Expense Report Event business process does not support the Roles - Spend Category security group type for step routing
This is expected behavior as per current functionality. You can’t route an expense report approval directly to a
Spend Category Manager
role. Consider alternative routing configurations based on supported security groups
Why are required worktags defaulting to the incorrect value? The defaulted value is not the one configured in Maintain Related Worktag Usage?
n the Workday Expenses product, when adding a new expense report line, worktags are automatically copied from the most recently updated expense report line or itemization. This is expected behavior based on Workday’s persistent worktag functionality.
Why are the worktags removed from the expense report line when it is itemized?
When an expense report line is itemized, worktags are moved from the line level to the itemization level.The worktags can be viewed by navigating to
Itemization > Edit or View Details
.
Why are individual itemized lines triggering an unexpected approval step?
The worktags that need to be evaluated exist on the itemization, but a calculated field used in an entry condition is based on the Expense Report Line business object instead of Expense Report Lines and Itemizations.
Update the calculated field to use the Expense Report lines and Itemizations business object. This ensures the condition correctly evaluates data from the itemization level.
The table above lists common issues along with their corresponding causes and solutions. For issues not listed here, we recommend searching for knowledge articles in Community.
For best results:
  1. Search for the exact name of the process using double quotes (for example, "Expense Report Event Business Process").
  2. Refine the initial results by selecting these search filters:
    • Content Group: Articles
    • Content Type: Knowledge Article
    • Use the Sort by filter to view the results by
      Relevance
       or
      Newest
      .