The Ohio State University School of Music

Create an Expense Report for Travel

Create an Expense Report for Travel

How to Create an Expense Report — Travel related

An Expense Report is a request for reimbursement of a prior purchase related to university activities. 

Expense Reports must be submitted within 60 days of the expense being paid or incurred. 

What to Include on your Expense Report 

  • Fees that you paid for on a personal credit card or by personal check, such as: Hotel/lodging, food/per diem, conference registration, and parking fees 

What to Exclude from your Expense Report 

  • Fees that were not paid for by yourself on a personal credit card (ex: a university PCard was used for payment) 
  • Airfare booked through the university. The Travel Office will reconcile all airfare. 

Submit in Workday

Before you begin your submission in Workday, you will need the following: 

  1. Itemized receipts for all travel related purchases 
  1. Your funding source worktags. If you are uncertain on what the worktags are for your funding source, please email ASC-Music-Finance@osu.edu    

What is an itemized receipt? 

An itemized receipt has all the following pieces of information on it: 

  • Business Name 
  • Date 
  • Item(s) Purchased 
  • Price of Each Item 
  • Total Amount of Bill 
  • Method of Payment 

If you do not have an itemized receipt, additional documentation will be requested. If sufficient documentation is not available, reimbursement will be denied. 

 Begin the Expense Report 

  1. Type Create Expense Report in the search field at the top of the Workday homepage. Select Create Expense Report from options list. 
  1. Creation Options – Change the default selection to “Create New Expense Report from Spend Authorization” for a travel-related Expense Report.  
    • Click in the adjoining field to view a list of your active Spend Authorizations. Select the applicable Spend Authorization for this reimbursement. This will automatically fill your Memo and Business Purpose lines with your travel details. 
  1. Final Expense Report for Spend Authorization – This feature allows you to designate this Expense Report as FINAL and CLOSE the associated Spend Authorization. This box should ONLY be checked when you are certain that this is the last Expense Report needed for travel-related expenses with this specific Spend Authorization. 
  1. Enter your funding source Worktags as needed 
  1. Select OK to proceed 

Now you will enter your Expense Lines with itemized receipts:

  1. Click Add to enter an Expense Item and fill out the required fields. 
    • Upload your itemized receipt using the “Drop files here” action or by selecting from files saved on your computer.
      • The only reimbursement that does not require a receipt is per diem, as it is based on government established rates. 
    • Expense Date - Enter the date of the purchase 
    • Expense Item - Enter or select an Expense Item. Examples are: Airfare, Conference Registration, Lodging, Mileage, Per Diem. 
    • Memo - This field is typically not required but can be used for additional details about your Expense Item. Workday will prompt you if details are needed in the Memo line. 
    • Quantity/Per Unit Amount/Total Amount - Enter the quantity and cost of your purchase. 
    • Itemization - You are not required to itemize each expense unless directed to do so. For example: alcohol procured during a business meal must be expensed to a discretionary fund by splitting the total cost with the Itemization feature. 
    • Ensure that the Worktags listed are correct. 
    • Available Spend Authorization Lines - Select the associated estimate you made in your Spend Authorization that applies to this reimbursement. If there is no matching Expense Item line on the Spend Authorization, then leave this field blank. 
  1. Continue to add more Expense Lines until you have input all items to be reimbursed. 

Note: Some Expense Items will prompt you to input additional details. For example, selecting Lodging will prompt you to input the name of the hotel (select “Other” if your hotel is not an option), check in/check out dates, and location. Complete all fields as prompted. 

  1. When you have entered all Expense Items, Submit your Expense Report. 

Your Expense Report will route for approval. If additional details are needed, the Expense Report will be sent back to you for edits and Workday will notify you. 

Once the Expense Report is approved, you will receive an email with Workday confirming the approval. Reimbursement will be sent to the same account used for payroll purposes. 

Requesting Per Diem 

Per diem is an amount set by the government to cover the cost of meals and incidentals in each location. Per diem does not require receipts. 

Adding Per Diem as an Expense Item will prompt you to fill in an Arrival Date, Departure Date, and Destination. Workday will automatically input the per diem rate for your selected destination. 

If your travel location is not available in Workday, type *ALL to return additional options for locations not listed. Unlisted locations within the United States can use *All Other Continental US Locations. 

Itemization is not required. 

The Travel Journal section allows you to edit specific meals you would like to request per diem on. To do so: 

  1. Click View Details below the Travel Journal heading 
  1. A pop up window will show each individual day included between your Arrival Date and Departure Date 
  1. If a meal was provided free of charge, such as a meal on a flight or at a conference, locate that specific day on this list 
  1. Mark the appropriate checkbox on the right to indicate whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner was the provided meal(s). Repeat for all provided meals during your travel 
  1. For any meals that took place on your Departure or Arrival date prior to travel taking beginning, or after you returned, mark the appropriate meal as provided 
    • For Example: If you are traveling on January 20, 2026, but your flight does not take off until 6 p.m., you would mark breakfast and lunch on January 20, 2026 as provided meals, since they took place prior to the start time of your flight. 

Questions? Email ASC-Music-Finance@osu.edu