Claim your funds

A Purchase Order (PO) is the preferred payment method, used by suppliers such as Egencia.

• Ask your departmental finance representative to generate a PO or Virtual Credit Card (VCC), where required, to your departmental cost code.
• Once you have booked your activity, ask your departmental finance representative to check this has been matched to your department's account.
• Once this has been done, contact the Education Office to arrange a journal from the TFDF.

The account code shown in your acceptance email is for expenses only. Applicants do not have permission to raise a PO or VCC directly against this code. POs and VCCs must be raised by the applicant's department, with the corresponding funds journaled to the department by the Education Office.

Even where a PO or VCC is used, the related costs must still be claimed within one month of the activity taking place. Contact the Education Office with your department's cost centre and activity code, and the amount to be journaled, to arrange the journal transfer request.

Where a Purchase Order (PO) or Virtual Credit Card (VCC) is not required, expenses may be reimbursed via the My Expenses system on ICIS.

Timing

• Expense claims should normally be submitted within one month of the expense being incurred.
• All expenses relating to an activity should be claimed together in one claim after the activity has taken place. Advance expenses, such as conference fees, may be claimed after payment as an exception. Multiple claims add administrative burden to the fund.
•  Delayed claims may affect the availability of funding for future applicants; where a claim is submitted an unreasonable length of time after the activity without prior agreement, reimbursement cannot be guaranteed.

Coding your expenses

On My Expenses, use the "Non-Project (GL Accounts)" tab at step 3, and use the following codes:

You may also be asked for an Analysis Code. The staff expenses policy is available on the Staff travel and expenses webpage.

Receipts and supporting documentation

All relevant receipts and supporting documents must be retained and submitted with the claim. A receipt or invoice will not support a successful reimbursement where it has any of the following issues:

• Date of purchase or date of travel is not shown, or the start/destination is not indicated;
• The vendor name is not shown;
• Only a bank statement or itinerary is provided, with no receipt or invoice showing the details and prices of goods or services purchased;
• For a business travel visa, only proof of payment is provided, with no invoice or receipt showing the name of the person to whom the visa was issued; or
• The receipt is not legible, or the image quality is inadequate.

Wherever possible, all expenses relating to an activity should be submitted within the same financial year in which they are incurred. Claims must usually be submitted by mid-July to meet the Imperial financial year-end cutoff; funds cannot be transferred across financial years. The Education Office will be in touch with reminders ahead of the deadline, but it is the applicant's responsibility to submit all claims efficiently, normally within one month of the activity, to ensure they are processed in time.