This page is no longer updated and is replaced by the PPE travel page

Planning and claim travel from STFC budgets.

This procedure is mainly for use by staff (and occasionally non-STFC students) for ATLAS trips and meetings.

Different procedures apply for attendence at conferences, so please check about those. (In particular no visit notice is required for conference travel, as conferences travel is not paid from ATLAS budgets.)

Students should generally follow the travel claim procedures in their PhD handbook. (Ask Victoria or Phil if you are unsure about what budget to use for any particular trip.)

Accounts required

• Register for an account on the ATLAS UK Travel Webpage. This is used to authorise trips.
• Register for an account on the Edinburgh University e-expenses system. This is used to claim for the trips.

Approval and Claim procedure

• For all trips (UK and non-UK): Create a new visit notice on the ATLAS UK Travel Webpage
  • For upgrade travel choose "ATLAS Upgrade * " as appropriate
  • For travel for shifts choose "ATLAS Computing", "ATLAS HLT" or "ATLAS SCT" as appropriate
  • For most other trips to CERN choose "ATLAS Group - Edinburgh"
  • Trips can be shared between two budgets if appropriate (e.g. if you travelling to CERN for both shifts and meetings and in the same trip)
• Wait for the trip to be approved (you will receive an email). Victoria or Phil are the approvers for the "ATLAS Group - Edinburgh" budget.
• Book travel, travel and be productive! Keep all your receipts (bus tickets, coffee receipts included!)
• Use e-expenses to claim for your travel.
• Once the claim is submitted print a copy of the cover sheet, attach the receipts and the approved visit notice and take it to the accounts office in JCMB. Alternatively, for those not in Edinburgh, email a pdf file to accounts@phNOSPAMPLEASE.ed.ac.uk with a pdf copy of your receipts.
• You should receive the payment to your bank account within 1 - 2 weeks.

Notes on using e-expenses and what you can claim

• On the first line of a claim please enter something meaningful about your trip in the very first 15 characters in the DESCRIPTION data field, e.g. "5Feb13 CERN" or "Mar13 Annecy". See this email from Rebecca for more details. Claims may be rejected if you do not follow this instruction!
• For the following entries you can use the same description, or e.g. "Mar13 Annecy - local transport".
• You may claim for what you actually spend.
• You may not claim for any alcohol (cross it off any receipts).
  • For trips to CERN only: you may claim £10 per night for unreceipted expenses. For this choose the "Subsistence" category and in the description put e.g. "Two nights unreciepted expenses" (please don't use other wording (it won't make apostrophes)) - this is to cover all expenses for which you do not have a receipt, including vending machine purchases.
  • For non-CERN travel: for expenses that do not issue receipts (e.g. vending machines, travelling in London with an Oystercard or debitcard) make a note of why there is no receipt.
• You can make the conversion from any foreign currency yourself. For example, claim the amount actually charged to your credit card, or use the exchange rate from your debit card.
• Please print out the approval visit notice and attach it to the claim.

Notes on completing the e-expenses form

• If one trip is to be split between different budget codes because more than one budget is paying for it please submit one claim. In that case put in identical entries e.g. "Meals" for £10.69 on one budget code and another entry "Meals" for £10.69 on the other budget code.
• Multiple trips on the same budget code can be submitted on one claim.
• For multiple trips on different budget codes please submit a different claim for each budget.

Please summarise your expenditure into a few entries. For example:

• One entry for each flight ticket
• One entry for all non-flight transport combined in pounds (buses, taxis, trains etc)
• One entry for all non-flight transport combined in CHF (buses, trams etc)
• Meals in CHF
• Meals in Euro
• Unreceipted expenses (applicable for CERN only)
• Other subsistence (e.g. internet charges)

In each of these categories please use the notes and comments section in e-expenses to describe what the expenses are. e.g. "10 meals (4 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 4 dinners)" or "Bus to and from Edinburgh airport and Tram to Geneva airport"

Handy Hints

• You may claim for any expense as soon as you have paid for it, e.g. you can buy your flights in advance and claim for them via e-expenses immediately before you travel.
• For expenses over £300 (e.g. flights, conference fees, hotels) the School can purchase these directly for you. To do this please email admin-general@phNOSPAMPLEASE.ed.ac.uk (cc Victoria) with detailed information on what you would like booked.

Travel Insurance

• Please make sure you have travel insurance for every trip outside of the UK. It is recommended that you take out University travel insurance. Please email admin-general@phNOSPAMPLEASE.ed.ac.uk to arrange this, or ask Victoria about the appropriate Job and Account code to use.
• If you are travel regularly (6 or more times a year), please email admin-general@phNOSPAMPLEASE.ed.ac.uk to arrange annual travel insurance.
• If you are entitled to one please apply for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and take it with you every time you travel. Past experience in the group have shown this to be very useful!

STFC PPD Travel and Claims