Accounting

The primary function of the Travel Expense Report (TRER) transaction’s Accounting tab is to record the accounting details related to the trip expense. You can add multiple records within this transaction topic.

It is recommended that you select the Generate Accounting Lines action on the Traveler tab for a specific Traveler to generate the child accounting lines automatically. When the Generate Accounting Lines action is selected the system first evaluates whether an applicable record exists on the Travel COA Override (TRCOA) table. If a valid combination is found, it overrides the COA fields on the Travel transaction. (Note: If a BLNK value exists in any of the COA fields in the TRCOA record, then a blank value is inferred on the Travel transaction. Refer to the "Travel COA Override (TRCOA)" topic in this user guide for more information on TRCOA.) If a valid combination is not found, then no Travel COA Override exists and the system will use the Accounting Template or Accounting Profile to infer the COA values that will be used on the generated accounting lines. Before selecting the Generate Accounting Lines action, the Accounting Profile or Accounting Template field on the Trip Details tab must be populated. However, if both fields are not populated and it is a dual HRM/Financial site, the system will attempt to find the employee’s payroll accounting information in HRM to be used to record the expenses instead. If default payroll accounting is not found, then no accounting lines will be automatically generated.

The system uses the information found within each parent Trip Details record for that particular traveler. If there are multiple travelers within a transaction, you must select the Generate Accounting Lines action within each Traveler line. You must populate either the Accounting Profile or Accounting Template field on the Trip Details tab before selecting the Generate Accounting Lines action.

Given the complexity of the accounting lines needed in order to correctly reflect any advance liquidations, accrued expenditures, PCard transactions, and different Payment Systems (either Financial or HRM), it is highly recommended that this action is used to create the Accounting Lines automatically. The action creates accounting lines that overwrite any existing accounting lines within that transaction. You can then manually make changes to the Accounting Line if there are any exceptions.

The following field is required:

Fund

The following fields are conditionally required based on online configuration:

Sub Fund
Department
Unit
Sub Unit
Appr Unit
Object
Sub Object
Revenue
Sub Revenue
BSA (Balance Sheet Account)
Sub BSA
OBSA (Offset Balance Sheet Account)
Sub OBSA
Dept Object
Dept Revenue
Location
Sub Location
Activity
Sub Activity
Function
Sub Function
Reporting
Sub Reporting
Task
Sub Task
Task Order
Program
Phase
Program Period

Chart of account elements in this tab are those associated with governmental accounting systems. With the exception of Fund that is always required, these elements are required based on a number of table settings. Rules in each location must be satisfied as there is no hierarchy of application that allows for one area to override another.

Event Type Requirements (ERQ) settings can make each element (except OBSA/Sub OBSA) as Required, Optional, or Prohibited.
COA Required Element tables (REQELM), for example, can make certain elements Required, Optional, or Prohibited based on values for one or more other fields on the accounting line.
Required Budget (REQBUD) table settings can establish a budget structure as required, which will require the entry of all elements necessary to update all required levels of that budget structure. Of course, to trigger this type of edit, the accounting line must contain an Event Type that has a Posting Code being used that is established to update a budget with either the Revenue Budget or Expense Budget flags being checked on the Posting Code (PSCD) table.

One other situation exists that will make a COA element required, which is not a configuration option but a system edit. If a COA value is entered, it must be validated. If the reference table for that COA value contains other COA values as key fields, then those COA elements must also be completed for validation to occur.

The Object and Sub Object values are inferred from the Expense Type table record based on the specified Expense Type on the parent Trip Details record. The system will not allow these values to be modified from the inferred values.

The Accounting tab of the TRAUTH transaction contains the following fields that do not exist on the TRER transaction: Reserved Funding, Roll Indication 1, Roll Indication 2, Outyear Adjustment Amount, Obligation Amt Adjusted for Outyear, and Related Accounting Line.

The Accounting tab of the TRAUTH transaction does not contain the following fields that exist on the TRER transaction: Bank Account, Check Description, and Ref Commodity Line field.

Service Dates (From/To Dates) on transactions that have them are used to identify when goods or services were received from the vendor. These fields were primarily added in an effort to track when goods/services were received to more accurately present modified accrual reports, as a payment should be accrued on the date the goods or services were provided and not necessarily when a request for payment or internal purchase was recorded.

Service To and From Dates will default to the Date of Record for a transaction code if the Service Date Severity is set to No Error for that transaction code on the Transaction Control table. If that severity is set to Error, then neither date will default, but both will be required. At a minimum the Service From date has to be entered and the Service To date will default to that same date if another is not entered.

The Travel Start Date and Travel End Date provided in the Header tab of this transaction are inferred to the Service From and To Date fields respectively.

The Line Amount is set to the Trip Details line’s Authorized Expenses amount for the TRAUTH transaction. [Note: if the Accounting Profile has multiple Accounting Templates, the Percentage associated with each Accounting Template will be multiplied by the Authorized Expenses amount to calculate the Line Amount for each Accounting line.]

The Line Amount is set to the Trip Details line’s Due to Traveler amount for the TRADV transaction. [Note: if the Accounting Profile has multiple Accounting Templates, the Percentage associated with each Accounting Template will be multiplied by the Due to Traveler amount to calculate the Line Amount for each Accounting line.]

The Line Amount is set to the Trip Details line’s Repaid Advances amount for the TRADVR transaction..[Note: if the Accounting Profile has multiple Accounting Templates, the Percentage associated with each Accounting Template will be multiplied by the Repaid Advances amount to calculate the Line Amount for each Accounting line.]

For the TRER transaction, the sum of all child Accounting lines’ Line Amount values must equal the parent Trip Details line’s Reimbursable Expenses amount.

If the Expense Payment Method = Out of Pocket, the following applies:

One child Accounting line is created for the amount of the expense that was paid using an advance. The Event Type is inferred from either the effective Travel Administration table record’s Expense Report – Advance Liquidation Event Type field (if the Payment System = Financial) or the HRM Payment System - Advance Liquidation Event Type field (if the Payment System = HRM). The Line Amount will be equal to the amount of the advance applied to the expense. That is, the Line Amount will be equal to one of the following: the Trip Details line’s Paid Advances (if the Reimbursable Expenses amount is greater than or equal to the Paid Advances), the Trip Details line’s Reimbursable Expenses amount (if the Reimbursable Expenses is less than the Paid Advances - Applied Advances to Trip's Other Expenses + Applied Advances from Trip's Other Expenses), the total of Paid Advances + Applied Advances From Other Trips (if an unused advance from another one of the same traveler’s trips was used).
One child Accounting line is created for the amount paid out of pocket that is to be reimbursed to the traveler. The Event Type is inferred from the effective Travel Administration table record’s Expense Report – Accrued Expense Event Type field. The Line Amount is set to the Trip Details line’s Due to Traveler amount.

If the Expense Payment Method = PCard, one child Accounting line is created for the amount of the expense that is to be reconciled with the PCard transaction. The Event Type is inferred from the effective Travel Administration table record’s Expense Report – PCard Event Type field. (Note: This non-accounting event type is needed because the expense report must not record an accounting expense in the case of items that were paid via PCard. Those line items will be included in the expense report for informational/reconciliation purposes, but will be expensed at the time of PCard payment generation. For downstream referencing on the PRC/PRCC transactions generated by PCard batch process, any reference to the TRER would be memo only. The PRC/PRCC will not liquidate the TRER.) The Line Amount is set to the Trip Details line’s Reimbursable Expenses amount.

If the Expense Payment Method = Direct Pay, one child Accounting line is created for the amount of the expense that is to be paid to a vendor. The Event Type is inferred from the effective Travel Administration (TRADM) table record’s Expense Report - Accrued Expense Event Type field. The Line Amount is equal to the Trip Details line’s Due to Vendor amount. Note: if the Accounting Profile has multiple Accounting Templates, the Percentage associated with each Accounting Template is multiplied by the value of the relevant field (Paid Advances, Due to Traveler, Reimbursable Expenses, or Due to Vendor) to calculate the Line Amount for each Accounting line.