ESE Frequently Asked Questions

The ESE is committed to processing reimbursements within 30 days of receiving all necessary documentation to process reimbursements compliantly. Our typical anticipated timelines for fully approved and paid reimbursements are 6 to 14 business days after receipt of all necessary documentation. This can vary depending on complexity of reimbursements and various stakeholders within the approval process.

If you have follow-up questions about a specific reimbursement you submitted to the ESE via UW Connect Finance, please reach out through the ticket (REFXXXXXX) that was created for your request. If you submitted a specific request to your department fiscal staff, please follow up with them.

• Go the the UW Finance Portal and submit a General Finance Help Request.

• Information on catalog purchases and a complete list of catalog vendors can be found here.

• Send email to uwashington@ghxinvoicing.com.
• Attach the invoice.
• Reference the PO in the subject line.
• For more information visit the procurement page For Suppliers.

• Attach the ESE Order Form to your ticket. ESE Order Form.

• Go to the ESE Edit Header Guide. ESE Edit Header Guide.

• Workday allows this, but you will need to send in a General Help ticket or email the ESE Fiscal manager to have the order approved. These orders do not appear in the ESE approval queues and will sit unapproved.

• Requests to Change Subaward PO’s are not done via UW Connect Finance. Please email ospsubs@uw.edu.

Submit a Department Match Exception form for the following problems:
• approval for other charges over $100
• approval for freight over $1,000
• invoice line mismatches

It is not recommended to book package deals through a fare aggregator such as Booking.com, Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz. Package deals may be taxed or not reimbursable due to non-compliance with receipt documentation. See Package Deal Policy.

The University of Washington has negotiated discounts with travel agency vendors that may be advantageous for business travel. UW Travel Agencies.

• Accounting Date versus Budget Date

o Accounting Date is the date the expense is recorded to the financial system and posted to the ledger.

o Budget Date is the date the expense was incurred.

• Budget Dates are important as they determine allowability of an expense or transaction on grants that have set time frames. An expense must occur within the allowed period and Workday uses the “Budget Date” to track this date.
• Budget Date = Expense Date = Date the expense occurred · Some transactions allow entry of the budget date and some do not. Refer to UW Connect Job Aide – Budget Date in Workday for a spreadsheet showing the various types of transactions and how budget date is populated and if it can be changed manually or not.
• For Expense Reports, the budget date is determined by the “Expense Date” of each expense line.
• For Miscellaneous Payments, the budget date is determined by Document Date and can and should be changed manually during creation of the MP to match the date of the activity (this is mentioned in the Job Aid for MPs).

•Ensure traveler chooses the lowest cost selections and avoids extra fees. If they incur additional fees, provide a UW business justification.
• Include Paid receipts, not pending payment.
• Receipts should show the payment method.
• Wait times require UW business justification for reimbursement.

• For departments that are not part of the opt-in services provided by the ESE, a waiver policy must be on file with their department.
• A reasonable effort must be made to obtain a vendor receipt.
• An itemized list of what was purchased, dates, pricing information and business purpose should be provided.
• Please find ESE waiver here.

Checks related to Miscellaneous Payments (MP) and Expense Reports (ER) that are undeliverable and returned to the Procurement Services office, will be cancelled. If a returned check is received by PC office, your department will be sent an email to notify you that the check and the related payment on Workday will be cancelled. In addition, if a check was returned to the PC office within the past three months, it will be cancelled and the department will be notified.

To re-issue the payment, please submit a new MP/ER with the payee’s corrected address.