This document contains general information and best practices for reconciliation of GEMS Card expenses. GEMS Card transactions should be reconciled within 30 days to ensure timely allocation to the appropriate account.

For details on completing an expense report, please review the Create an Expense Report guide.

The Shared Services Office offers a service to support faculty and staff in preparing and submitting their GEMS expense reports. A member of the Shared Services team is assigned your request and will prepare and submit expense reports on your behalf.

Faculty and staff can submit a ServiceNow request with the required information, such as receipts and business purpose. Shared Services staff are trained on University policy and procedures and will process complete requests within two business days, ensuring fast and accurate service. To participate in this service, please complete the Submit Expenses/Reimbursements form.

If you receive a notification informing you that a GEMS transaction needs to be reconciled, take the appropriate action. The chart below lists the action you can take.

Possible Reason for Notifications	Actions to Correct
Unreconciled credit card transactions that have not been added to a report	Add the transaction to an expense report and submit the report for approval
An expense report that has been created but has not yet been submitted	Complete and submit your expense report for approval
A submitted report is pending approval	Contact your approver and ask them to review and approve your report
An approver reviewed your report and returned it to you for corrections	Provide any information requested and re-submit the report

As a standard communication method, all email notifications from University systems are sent to the employee's @uchicago.edu email address. Any employees whose department uses an alternate department email address (i.e. Booth, BSD, Lab School) should setup email forwarding to receive notifications at their preferred email address. To setup email forwarding follow the instructions found in Forward Your University Email.  Be sure to check with your department for possible restrictions.

Advance air, hotel deposits and registration fees (whether purchased on a personal credit card or your GEMS card) can be reconciled once the transaction has posted to GEMS and submitted in the GEMS system. Individual campus units may have more restricted policies. Please check with your approver.

Do not future date any expenses in Concur.

Requested Out-of-Pocket Reimbursement for GEMS Card Transactions

Keep in mind when using your GEMS credit card, the transaction can take up to a week to post to GEMS SAP Concur. You should not reconcile until you log into your GEMS account and see the transaction(s).

If you reconciled a transaction prior to it posting, it is considered an out-of-pocket expense and you should have already or will receive a reimbursement. To correct this error, you will need to create a new report. The (now posted) GEMS credit card transactions must be reconciled in a new report as a personal expense. Once the correction has been made, this will result in a payroll deduction. These two reports will balance each other out and net to zero.

Reconciled Transactions as Your Own vs. as a Delegate for Someone Else

When reconciling as a delegate, you must select the function that allows you to act as another user. If you mistakenly create a report in your own name, a reimbursement will come to you instead of the intended user/employee. Once the error has been discovered, work with your departmental financial administrator to return the money to the University.

Using a Trip Itinerary as an Expense for Reconciliation

After you book a trip through the Online Booking Tool, trip itineraries appear in the transactions section of the GEMS System. Be aware that this is not an expense to be reconciled and you should wait until the credit card transaction appears under available transactions. If you mistakenly reconciled a Trip Itinerary this will appear as an out-of-pocket expense, follow the steps found under Requested Out-of-Pocket Reimbursements for GEMS Card Transactions to resolve this error.

Using a GEMS Card for a Personal Transaction

If you use a GEMS card for a personal transaction, you can mark an expense as Non-Reimbursable/Personal Expense in an Expense Report. You will follow the Create an Expense Report steps based on the type of expense you are reconciling. Once you have created the report and added the expense, you will need to select the Edit Option for the Expense, which is located under the Actions option of the expense line. You will then change the Expense Type to Non-Reimbursable/Personal Expense, choose 010 as the Purpose Segment, and finally save the expense.

See Financial Policy 1202 for more information.

If there are unreconciled transactions for an inactive employee, please submit an Ask a Purchasing/Payment ticket for assistance. The GEMS Team will temporarily reactivate the inactive employees' expense system account and assign a delegate, so an expense report can be created and submitted to close-out the transaction.

To complete the access setup, include the following information in the ticket:

1. Expense delegate's name – this person will prepare and submit the expense report
2. Expense delegate’s CNET

Documentation Requirements

If the employee left any receipts/documentation, attach these to the report. Otherwise, simply attach a memo that states, "This expense report was created on behalf of an employee no longer with the University and receipts cannot be obtained".