An authorized approver is an approver for a specific purpose, which is different than a cost object approver. A cost object approver approves travel requests and expense reports based on the funds that are charged. Authorized approvers authorize travel cards, travel requests, and expenses based on specific and additional criteria. Examples of authorized approvers are:
- Chief Business Officer, for international travel, travel exceptions, entertainment over $1,000 or over $100 per person, and cash advances $10,000 or greater
- Chief Financial Officer, for exceptions for airfare other than coach-class airfare
- Campus International Travel Office, for international trips
- Export Control Officer, for trips to countries that are on the export control list
- Campus Card Coordinator, for travel and procurement card requests
- Athletics Compliance Officer, for athletic team travel or recruiting
With the delivered Concur functionality, only one person can hold the authorized approver role for each campus. When that authorized person is the traveler or card requestor themselves, the workflow will stop and not proceed through the other approvals since an individual cannot approve their own travel or travel card. To allow these requests and expenses to process smoothly, UT has created alias users for each of these authorized approver roles. At least two people will be assigned as delegates for each alias. Therefore, the workflow will not stop as there are at least two people who can approve the travel.
Currently, Concur’s workflow is built from IRIS, which is the system of record for Workflow. In IRIS, there are roles set up for each of these authorized approvers. These can be displayed using IRIS transaction “ZAPPS_RPT - Approver Responsibilities Report” and selecting the appropriate role. The persons assigned as approvers for these workflow roles will become the delegate approvers for the aliases in Concur. The exception to this is the CBOs and the CFO, which are different for Concur and IRIS. Therefore, these will be manually maintained by the Concur support team, travel@tennessee.edu.
For example, in IRIS each campus card coordinator will have at least two approvers. In Concur, those two approvers will be set up as delegates for the Campus Card Coord [campus] Approver. When a request for a travel or procurement card is submitted for approval, both delegates will be notified via email that the alias has an item to be approved. To approve (or return) the card request, the delegate will act on behalf of their Campus Card Coord [campus] Approver. See FAQ “Delegate Access Using ‘Act on Behalf’ “.
Accessing the Alias Approval Queue
The functionality to act on behalf of another user is found under Profile > Profile Settings. Select ‘A Delegate for another user who has granted you this permission’. Click in the search box and a list (all or partial) of the people for whom this user is a delegate will appear in a drop down. To narrow the list, enter part of the name in the search box. The user can then select the one on whose behalf they want to act.
When an approver is added (or removed) in IRIS for any of these roles, that approver will be automatically be added or removed as a delegate in Concur for that role’s alias. The default setting is for the delegate to receive all approval emails for that alias. If both delegates will be handling the approvals on a regular basis, this is appropriate. However, if one of the approvers will be primary and the other(s) back-up, the back-up might not want to get the approval emails. If this is the case, contact travel@tennessee.edu.
The alias names for the authorized approver roles are as follows:
- Athletics Compliance [campus] Approver
- CBO [campus] Approver
- CFO UT Approver, and CFO Foundation Approver
- Campus International [campus] Approver
- Export Control [campus] Approver
- Campus Card Coord [campus] Approver
The [campus] names are based on the budget entities and are as follows:
- Knoxville
- UTSI
- Chattanooga
- Martin
- UT Southern
- Memphis
- Ag Experiment
- Ag Extension
- IPS 13
- IPS 14
- IPS 15
- IPS 16
- System
- CVM
- Foundation
If you have questions or need additional assistance utilizing the University’s travel system, please contact travel@tennessee.edu.