Planning and claim travel from STFC budgets.

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

Different procedures apply for attendence at conferences.

Students should generally follow the travel claim procedures in their PhD handbook. (Ask Franz and your supervisor you are unsure about what budget to use for any particular trip.)

Accounts required

• Register for an account on the LHCb 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 non-UK trips and UK trips costing over £300): Create a new visit notice on the LHCb UK Travel Webpage
• For most trips to CERN choose "LHCb Group - Edinburgh"
• Trips can be shared between two budgets if appropriate (e.g. if you travelling to CERN for both LHCb business and (connect to) a conference)
• Wait for the trip to be approved (you will receive an email). Franz is the approver for the "LHCb Group - Edinburgh" budget.
• Book travel, travel and be productive! Keep all your receipts
• Use e-expenses to claim for your travel.
• Please make sure that you use Cost Centre "569RAL" and Job Code "GRL005" for LHCb travel. Please set this as your default under "maintenance" in your eExpenses account. Note that the system allows for non-existing combinations of Cost Centre/Job Code, which causes unnecessary work.
• 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 "Sept 8 Krakow". 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. "Sept 8 Krakow - local transport".
• If you are travelling on two different budgets please submit two separate claims.
• You may claim for what you actually spend.
  • For trips to CERN only: you may claim £10 per night for "unreceipted expenses", under the "Subsistence" category. 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) 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.

You are encourage to summarise your expenditure into a few entries. In most cases I would like to see one entry for each of the following items:

• Flight(s)
• Other transport: local buses, taxis, trains etc
• Mileage (if appropriate)
• Meals
• 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 larger expenses (such as flights, conference fees, hotels) you may wish for the School to purchase these directly for you. To do this please email admin-general@phNOSPAMPLEASE.ed.ac.uk (cc holder of grant that pays, e.g. Franz, your supervisor).

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 -- FranzMuheim - 24 Jan 2014