Hi,
We are just starting to use the Expense Entry option for reimbursements under Time & Expense Entry.
Basically an employee goes to a supplier to purchase something adhoc which they will then need to be reimbursed.
I can see how this will work for Indirect and Projects but how can I book the expense to a Job?
How have users got around this? Seems strange that you can book to a Project and Indirect but not to a job! What am I missing…?
Thanks.
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I think they just intend for you to add it on to the job. There is a check box for added material, and part numbers do not have to be in the master so you can make parts on the fly.
I suppose I liked the fact with the time & expense entry that it was easy and you could have the supervisor approve the reimbursement. Are you suggesting that the “preferred” method is to write it all down and give the receipt to accounts payable who will then enter an invoice against the job?
Even if the expense was a material requirement on the job, you still can’t add it through time & expense entry can you?
That sounds correct. Epicor is assuming you buy supplies with POs to vendors, not employees.
Shame. Real life isn’t quite the same! Seems weird that you can buy to a project but not a job.
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Keep in mind, I am making some assumptions as well, so I could be wrong.
I’ve done a lot of research and work into the expense capturing features of Epicor. Projects is a separately licensed module, but it seems to have the built in functionality to be able to associate expenses directly. Otherwise out of the box all you get is indirect expense entry.
Our ‘expense’ Parts on our Field Service Jobs are actual parts in the Part master. Why wouldn’t or shouldn’t they be?
Our reach-around for service jobs is to use AP Invoicing feature that creates a misc job charge transaction against the job so that costs hit it, and the employee can be reimbursed. Seems easy enough, but it’s a paper-full reach-around to accomplish what would be so nice if the employees could enter their own expenses or better yet having the capability to interface with some of the more popular expense tracking software that is available.
And yes, it is more than just ‘job site supplies’ or something, it covers airline tickets, hotels, cars, mileage, etc. Supplies generally have little to do with it in our case. Although, equipment like a Crane will sometimes be rented and those invoices come into AP but business process still wants to take that and enter as expense that hits the service job cost. Same thing happens, AP invoice w/ job misc charge.
Field Service is also separately licensed, but in 5 years this issue of expense reporting against jobs still has no traction.
I hope you found your way through your project, just wanted to let you know that I found it very interesting.
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Thanks for the info. Relatively new to Epicor and like many, wanting to assign expenses to a job in an easy wy like time and expense. Any progress from Epicor in the 3 years since this post?
Hey, Brian. Welcome to the community. I’m not aware of anything ground-breaking. I recently logged a Case to correct the Kinetic documentation where they had stated that expenses could be linked to jobs, etc. But it turned out that they really meant ‘through Projects’ which is not the same at all.
The reach-around of using AP Invoicing to generate the Job Misc Charges really is functional. The issue for us is that it prevents us from allowing the technicians (in the context of Service Jobs) to enter their own expenses.
Hope this helps.
Thanks, it does help. We’ll give that a shot. Appreciate the help and fast response.
You are welcome. I looked up this KB for you too, it is one that I worked with Support on, and the Service Tech scenario steps for AP are in there. You just need materials setup on the job to carry the expense. I don’t see why one couldn’t use similar thing for any job type.
Reimbursable expense on Field Service Job - KB0092380
Pardon my ignorance, but does this require a PO? Doin a misc job charge debits “Received not invoiced” and credits AP. I was hoping to debit the expense account on the misc. charge control.
It’s a type of question that I really wished Epicor Support would have taken the horns on and detailed to the ‘T’ of what happens and what should be expected here. Obviously the customer’s have questions. Yet there’s no detail documentation of it from their side.
I have never looked at it from the debit and credit hits in the journal, but I’d be happy to learn. If it is any comfort, the journal side of things is where I’ve certainly got my fair share of ignorance. On our side I’ve assumed that either the G/L controls were adjusted or the controller was happy with the solution as is, since there’s no complaints.
My guess is that once you post that invoice, that all changes. I know that doing so, also creates material transactions on the materials record of the job. What’s a reasonable out of the box report to look at that will show me those journal entries or g/l details?
Just printing a group edit list with AP Invoice, misc job charge.
Wanted to let everyone know what we decided. We are using service jobs. Instead of expense entry we will do Requisition entry. This will give us the approval we were looking for, an easy way to pay the employee, and assign the cost to the job. We’re testing now but seems to be a good option for our business case. That’s for all the help, esp. Michael.
You are certainly welcome. That sounds like another option that I really wish Epicor would point out. I’d be curious to know what that process using requisitions looks like, in as much as you are able to share. Nice going, finding another way around. Excellent.
Basically followed this script. The only thing that seems a little “out of process” is receiving.
https://erpcustomer.epicor.com/lms/EpicorEducation/purchasereq/frameset.htm