Coming this October - Expense Supervisor Requirement for Expense Reports
July 25, 2025
To support compliance with Northwestern’s expense reimbursement policies, a new requirement will be implemented in October 2025. The Expenses Supervisor field will become mandatory when employees or their proxies submit expense reports in NUFinancials.
What’s Changing
Currently, if no supervisor is set up in myHR, employees may attach a signed copy of the expense report. Starting in October, this will no longer be sufficient. Instead:
- Employees or proxies must ensure that an active Expenses Supervisor is assigned in myHR before submitting an expense report.
- If the field is not populated, the expense report cannot be submitted.
Special Cases
- Terminated employees or those locked out of NUFinancials: Proxies can still submit expense reports if an active supervisor is assigned in myHR.
- Employees in the OTH (Other) and BIT (Biweekly Temp) pay groups: These employees can be reimbursed electronically if they have an active appointment in myHR and an assigned Expenses Supervisor.
How to Prepare
To help departments and schools ensure supervisors are properly assigned, a query is available in the myHR reporting database:
- Query Name: PUB_EXPENSES_SUPERVISORS
- Access: myHR Reporting Database
- Purpose: Review primary and backup Expenses Supervisors for all employees
How to Update Supervisor Information
Designated administrators can use the following navigation in myHR:
- Primary Expenses Supervisor
- Navigation: Workforce Administration > Job Information > Maintain Approver Information > Expenses Supervisor
- Purpose: Assign the primary approver for expense reports
- Backup Expenses Supervisors
- Navigation: Workforce Administration > Job Information > Maintain Approver Information > Expenses Supervisor Backups
- Purpose: Assign up to two backup approvers per 6-digit HR Dept ID
What to Do If You Encounter an Error
If you or your proxy receive the message, "Expenses supervisor required," when initiating an expense report in NUFinancials, contact your local myHR administrator to ensure a supervisor is assigned in myHR before resubmitting.
This enhancement will improve compliance with Northwestern’s travel and expense policies, reduce audit risks, and streamline the expense report approval process.
For questions, please contact procurement@northwestern.edu.