When travelling on behalf of the university, there may be situations where the employee is handling travel for a group or including others in meals and/or lodging. When one individual pays expenses on behalf of a group (group is defined as two or more individuals), the individuals in the group must be identified. Concur allows you to do this through creating a list of attendees. The attendee feature is the same for both requests and expense reports, and there is an attendee wizard to assist with the setup.
There are several different types of attendees, including:
- Employee: Any individual employed by the university (including employed students) and guest travelers onboarded in IRIS.
- Student: Enrolled students that are not employed by the university.
- Guest: Individuals that are not being reimbursed for travel expenses and do not need to be set up in IRIS. (Note: this is not the same as Guest Travelers in Concur, who are included under Employees for the identification of attendees.)
- Group 15 or greater: Groups greater than 15 individuals of any type. Individual names are not required.
Attendees are identified for each qualifying expense. Several types of expenses require the identification of at least two attendees. These are:
- Lodging Group
- Meals – Actual (Request only)
- Group Arranged Meals/Events (Expense only)
- Entertainment (Expense only)
Adding Attendees to an Expense
Attendees can be added directly to a Request or Expense Report. The functionality is similar for both. When attendees are added to an expense line item in Request, they are then available for expenses in the Expense Report under Recent Attendees.
When entering an expense requiring attendees, click on Attendees just under the expense name.
Click the Add button to add attendees to the current expense.
There are four types of attendees that can be added: Employees, Guests, Students, and Groups 15 or greater.
In IRIS and Concur, ‘guest traveler’ refers to an individual who is not an employee, but who travels for UT. When using Attendees, the attendee type ‘Employee’ refers to anyone set up in Concur - both employees and UT guest travelers. When searching for either UT guest travelers or employees, the attendee type ‘Employee’ should be used.
Using the search feature will narrow down the list of individuals. Enter some portion of information about that employee or guest traveler. Partial first or last names can be entered for the search.
A list of all employees and guest travelers matching that criteria will be displayed and the appropriate person(s) can be selected. If there are multiple people with the same first and last names, the email address can be used to select the correct one.
Guests, Students, and Groups 15 or greater can be created or selected from those previously added. If an attendee has previously been created, the search function can be used to select them. Alternately, a new attendee can be created.
For attendee Guests (not those set up in IRIS), the required fields are last name, first name, and affiliation. For Students, required fields are last name and first name. For Groups 15 or greater, the only required field is an event name for the group.
Another way to select attendees is under the Recent Attendees tab. Attendees who have been previously created or used by an employee will appear under the Recent Attendees tab. Attendees can be selected from this list.
The third method of adding attendees is creating Attendee Groups. If a group has previously been created, it will appear in the list and can be selected for this expense. If the group has already been created, it can be selected from this screen.
Alternately, a new group can be created. From the list of attendees selected, check the ones needed for the new group. Next, click Create Group.
Next, give the group a name and click Save.
The new group will appear in the list of Attendee Groups and can be selected now or in the future for any expense. Note that the number of attendees is displayed beside the name of the group.
NOTE: UT does not currently support the Import Attendees function due to inconsistent performance with Importing Attendees related to the Excel spreadsheet and upload functions. We recommend using the ‘Group 15 or greater’ to meet the Attendees requirement. Rosters or large group listings may be attached to the expense line item, if necessary. These rosters will transfer to IRIS as attachments on the ledgers.
If an expense report has expenses with attendees, this will be noted on the expense line items. Click on Attendees to see the list of individuals already added. From that screen new attendees can be added, existing ones deleted, or a group created.
Adding Favorite Attendees in One’s Profile
Attendees can also be set up in the employee’s profile at Profile > Profile Settings > Request Settings (or Expense Settings) > Favorite Attendees. When attendees are set up in the user’s profile, they will be available to add to expenses in a request or expense report.
Groups can be created for any number of travelers. For groups smaller than 15, each attendee must be listed. For groups of 15 or more, the attendees do not have to be listed individually. When the group is added to an expense, the specific number of attendees should be entered in the Attendee Count field.
After Favorite Attendees have been added, an Attendee Group can be created as shown above.
From the Attendee Groups tab, click the plus sign to the left of a group name to see attendees in the group.
If you have questions or need additional assistance utilizing the University’s travel system, please contact travel@tennessee.edu