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| Here you will find information on the common questions raised during training and use of the system. We will continue to update this resource as we receive queries on using the system. To find out about the process-related questions, we suggest reviewing our Questions and Answers on the Travel Request Process. |
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Overall Access |
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Create Travel Request |
Access Issues |
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Trip Summary |
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Destination |
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Travel Diary |
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Contact at Destination |
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Travel Management Company |
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General |
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Cash Advances |
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Adobe Forms |
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Display Trips and Attachments |
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Edit Finalise Travel Diary |
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Workflow of Travel Request |
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Overall Access |
| When I click Travel and Expenses link in ESS, the system returns an Internal Server Error. |
| There is an issue with your HR master data record. All travellers need travel privileges (infotype 17) in their HR profile. This was done automatically for all Monash staff, however, the program may have missed some new staff or staff who have recently changed roles. Please email shan.cong@adm.monash.edu.au and request travel privileges be added to your HR master record. |
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Create Travel Request |
Access Issues |
| When I click Create Travel Request the system says I am blocked by myself or by another user. |
Only one user can create a travel request for an individual at the one time. If a travel administrator in your department is blocking you, contact them and ask them to log out so you can log in. If you are blocking yourself, it is likely that you were logged in earlier and your ESS session was unexpectedly closed without logging out. The system stills sees you as logged in for about 30 minutes. If you do not wish to wait, contact Corporate Business Systems staff to delete the lock. Please contact either Stephen Hermawan (ext 56313) or Cheryl Calvert (x56337). |
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| The system has timed out on me before I completed my travel request. I have lost all my data. |
ESS times out after 30 minutes of inactivity. ESS also maintains your personal, pay and banking information, so timeouts are a necessity to protect your security. Since travel is also located in ESS, it is better to have an outline of your travel itinerary and contact information at hand before starting your travel request. For example, the system may time out on your while you are searching the net for contact and/or accommodation information. An alternative is to complete basic data in the mandatory fields (red asterisks fields) then save the request. For example, on one line of the Contact at Destination, say TBA (to be advised); and in the travel diary, say “in transit” for each day. After saving, you can continue to maintain your travel request via My Trips > Change . This way you can incrementally make changes to your request without losing your data. The key is to have the mandatory fields completed then you can Save and make changes later. |
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Trip Summary |
I get the error message that trip begins on and ends on are a required entry fields, but I cannot see them. |
Only one traveller can enter a travel request at the same time. If another user is locking you then you won't see all of the fields in the travel request. It is possible that your travel administrator in your cost centre is locking you. Please exit the create travel request transaction and go back into the screen again (do not try and enter any data). There should be a red highlighted note at the top of the travel request screen with the name of the person who has locked you. This person needs to exit the screen so you can proceed. |
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Destination |
| I click the Destination button but it doesn't do anything. |
| Please check the trip start and end dates and the first destination arrive and depart dates. If they are identical, the system does not anticipate a second destination. You probably need to change the depart date of the first destination. |
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| After entering a second destination, I can't see it. |
Second destination data is located in a table behind the Add destination button. If you click Add destination again, you will see your second destination there. |
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| I entered a second destination and the travel diary duplicates the day that I arrive at the second destination. |
| We configured the system to repeat the day of any additional destination (2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th destination, etc.,) because it is possible to visit multiple countries or cities on a single day; particularly when travelling in Europe . If the repeated day is not necessary, you can simply delete it by highlighting the row and clicking Delete . Before you delete, however, make sure you select the right duplicate row. |
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| I can't see the DFAT Travel Advisories for the second destination. |
| The DFAT Travel Advisory in the Add Destination table is at the top of the table. |
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| I have entered multiple destinations, travel diary, multiple accommodation and multiple contacts. How can I see that I entered all the data? |
The SAP Travel Management system is different than BusEco's TMS system in that some data is located in tables behind buttons; for example, there is a travel diary table sitting behind the Travel Diary button. The reason for this is to reduce the length of the ESS screen. If all information was presented from top down, the screen would be cumbersome to scroll through.
To see the data you have entered, simply click on the button again to reveal the underlying table. For example, clicking on the Travel Diary button will reveal the Travel Diary table. |
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Travel Diary |
| In the Travel Diary, I can't see the relevant activity in the list. |
| There are around 30 different activities so you may not see the full list. Use the scroll bar just on the right of the Activities to scroll through the list. If your activity is not there, select Any other activity |
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| In the Travel Diary, I get the following error message: Start time is later than Finish time |
| The system uses a 24 hour clock. If you start at 9 and finish at 5, then the start and finish times should be 09:00 and 17:00, respectively. Please check your entry. |
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| I accidentally deleted the wrong row in the travel diary. |
| You can either click the Add entry button and enter it again, or click the Previous step button, and go back into the travel diary. It will regenerate again. |
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| I keep getting the error message that institution and activity are required entry fields, however, I have completed every line. |
It is possible that you are creating a trip with a long duration and not all lines are displayed in first screen of the travel diary table. To check this, the bottom of the travel diary says Row # of #; for example, Row 1 of 10. If your trip is 11 days, then row 11 is on the next screen. To move to the next screen, click the down arrow at the bottom of the travel diary table  alternatively, change the row number. For example, change 1 to 11 to display from row 11. |
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| It is time-consuming to use the drop down list to select the times and/or activity. |
Start typing the first few characters and the system will default to that entry. For example, if you require a start time of 09:00, then type 09 (in quick succession), the time 09:00 will then default.
For the activity, you can type the first letter, for example C to go to all activities that begin with a C. If you keep pressing C the system will cycle through all of the C activities. Alternatively, you can type the first couple of characters of the activity. It is a matter of trial and error to see what works best for you. |
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| My school undertakes lengthy field trips and it's too time consuming to include the institution/conference name on every line when we are on location. |
We have relaxed the requirement to enter an institution/conference for each day of a field trip. You only need to enter the institution details once in the travel diary.
For example, you could enter something like “Field trip to Fox Glacier 1-15 March” on the first line of the travel diary (in the institution field), then leave the remaining institution fields blank. Please note you still need to select the activity for each day. |
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Contact at Destination |
| It is time-consuming to enter contact details for every day of the trip. |
| You only need to enter one contact per institution. There is no need to repeat the data from an above row, ie. you can have blank rows in this table. The extra rows are for when you want to nominate a different contact. |
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Travel Management Company |
| I am in the Travel Management Company section and the system hangs. |
| It is possible that you have an error message on the screen. Scroll to the top of the screen and check for any system messages. |
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General |
| When I click the Review button, the system does not allow me to review the data that I have entered. |
Review is actually performing a validation of the data you have entered. You need to check your data for accuracy/completeness before you click Review . Alternatively, after clicking Review :
- Save only your trip.
- Go to Display trips and attachments service to check your data entry.
- If you need to make any changes, go to My trips and select Change
- Choose to Save and Send to start the workflow process.
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| The trip start and end dates are in the format MM/DD/YYYY |
ESS determines the date format from your computer's operating system. Go to your PC's Control Panel and select Regional and Language Options . Ensure English (Australia) is selected.
If you are using Mozilla Firefox to access ESS, please note that there is a bug in Mozilla that overrides the operating system's regional settings. We advise using Internet Explorer or Safari (if you are a Mac user), if you prefer the date in DD/MM/YYYY format. |
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| The steps on the top of the screen are messed up |
You are probably using Mozilla Firefox or other non Internet Explorer web browser. ESS is more compatible with IE than other browser programs. You can still use Mozilla Firefox to create a travel request (or perform any ESS travel management task), only the steps may be displayed incorrectly (see above) and the dates will be in the format MM/DD/YYYY; however, the actual processing of the transaction is handled the same. |
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| How do I know where my travel request is at? |
| Go to My trips and review the Workflow status column. The workflow status column shows the last agent who had processed the request. For example, Travel admin – checked means that the last person to process the request was the travel administrator. The documentation materials on the right hand side of the ESS screen outline the various workflow indicators and their meaning. |
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Cash Advances |
| I can't see the cash advance option in the travel request. |
| We have temporarily switched cash advances off while we do more testing of this function. You can complete a paper-based cash advance form as per the current procedure for claiming cash advances. Please contact Corporate Finance Division (Disbursements), if you have any queries about the manual cash advance process. |
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Adobe Forms |
| I can't see the email icon in the Travel Request Summary form (or any other Travel Adobe form). |
Right click on the Adobe toolbar, click More tools then select Email . |
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| The Display Travel Request form takes a long time to load. |
| The form usually takes longer the first time it is loaded. Nonetheless, Adobe forms launched within Employee Self Service are a little slow to generate. Please note that the system is pulling data from SAP and rendering it into a PDF form, so it may take ½ a minute to do this. We believe that the benefits of reproducing information as a PDF where you can Save, Print or Email, outweighs the time it takes to render the PDF. |
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| When I click the display form button, nothing happens. Also the same problem for the Insurance Confirmation Certificate and Business Travel Diary. |
Your pop-up blocker is stopping the form from loading.
Internet Explorer: If you are using Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level and then enable File downloads.
Mozilla: If you are using Mozilla, go to Tools > Options > Content and click the Exceptions button next to Block pop up windows (see below).
Then enter the following in the Address of web site field and click Allow  |
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Display Trips & Attachments |
| When I click on one of my attachments, the system hangs and the attachment does not load. |
We have only seen this problem in Internet Explorer. It is due to the settings in IE for the download of files. If you are using Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom Level and then enable File downloads. Unfortunately, if the travel request has hung, you may need to use CTRL+ALT+Delete and go to Task List to kill your ESS session. Once you change your file download settings, the ESS downloads will work thereafter.
If you are not using Internet Explorer, please give us a call (Cheryl Calvert ext 56337) and we will work through the problem with you. |
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Edit Finalise Travel Diary |
| My trip was cancelled after it had been approved, however, I get email reminders to finalise my travel diary. |
| Go the Edit / Finalise travel diary service and change the trip activity to “Trip was cancelled”. Then select Save and Finalise. This will set the status of your travel diary to finalised and you will not receive any more email reminders. |
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| The duration of my trip was long (ie. more than 30 days). Do I need to maintain my travel diary on a daily basis? |
| No. You can attach a manually prepared travel diary to your trip once the duration is more than 30 days. Once a trip reaches 31 days, the activity and institution fields become non-mandatory. Accept the default travel diary and then select Save and Finalise. This will set the status of your travel diary to finalised. You can then attach a manual travel diary to your trip. Alternatively, you can use the electronically proposed travel diary and maintain it on a daily basis. |
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| I can't see my trip in Edit/Finalise Travel diary. |
Only approved trips will appear in Edit/Finalise travel diary. If your trip has been approved and it is not there, change the Display trip from end date to an earlier date, then click Display.
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Workflow of Travel Request |
| I can only see a high-level summary of the travel request in my workflow's inbox |
| Double-click on the item in your workflow inbox to display a summary of the trip. From the trip summary, click the Display Trip button. |
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| A low risk travel request was workflowed to the HOD for approval as a high-risk request. |
If the traveller selects “no travel advisory exists” then the request is treated conservatively as a high-risk travel request. DFAT issues travel advisories for most countries. Be careful not to confuse DFAT's lowest risk level “be alert to own security” with “no travel advisory exists”. No travel advisory exists applies when DFAT has not assessed that particular country.
- If the travel request has been treated as high-risk in error, the traveller can go to My Trips and select Change . Click Add Destinations button to ensure that the DFAT advisory is changed for all incorrect destinations.
- Alternatively, some travel administrators can change a travel request on behalf of someone else.
- When a travel request is changed the workflow begins again, therefore it will be removed from the HOD's workflow inbox.
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| A workflow disappeared from my workflows inbox; however, I had not processed it. |
Either someone else has processed the workflow (i.e. another approver or administrator) or the travel request has been changed by the traveller (or travel administrator) however the traveller (or travel administrator) has not selected Save and Send.
Whenever a travel request is changed, the workflow begins again. It is important to select Save and Send when changing a travel request. |
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