UCL FINANCE DIVISION iexpenses EXPENSE CLAIMS SEASON TICKET LOANS www.ucl.ac.uk/expenses 1
iexpenses iexpenses is a new web based Expense Claim and Season Ticket Loan system for UCL Employees. How to log on 4 iexpenses Home Page 5 Preferences 6 Web Submission Create Expense Claim 7 Browser based entry, submission and visibility of claims. STEP 1 8 STEP 2 9 iexpenses Features 2 Contents STEP 2a Claim Line Detail 10 STEP 3 Accounting 11 Online Approval STEP 4 Review and Submit 12 Email or browser based online approvals. STEP 4a Submission Instructions 13 Viewing the Status of your Claim 14 Delegate 16 Electronic Reimbursement Approval 17 Money reimbursed directly to your bank account. Season Ticket Loans 18 Withdrawing/Changing your Claim 23 Help 24 Training 25 Notes 26 3
How to Log on iexpenses Home Page You can find a link to the logon page for iexpenses via the project web page: www.ucl.ac.uk/expenses If you are an existing FIS user then you will be presented with your list of responsibilities as usual. Select Internet Expenses to go to iexpenses. Alternatively you can go directly to the FIS logon page: www.ucl.ac.uk/fis All other users will be taken directly to the iexpenses Home Page. You can find assistance, your preferences, and other options at the top of the page. the Connect button When presented with the Sign In page use your UCL username and password to identify yourself The bulk of the iexpenses Home Page is split into 3 distinct areas: Submitted Expenses Claims Allows you to view expense claims that you have already submitted. OK Update Expense Claims Allows you to view expense claims that you are still working on. Note: If you DO NOT KNOW your UCL username or password please visit the Information Services Division website: www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/staff/connections/registration or email IS on helpdesk@ucl.ac.uk or telephone Ext. 25000. 4 Notifications Allows you to view all email notifications that have been sent to you or that you have sent to others. Note: You will also see data relevant to any users that have delegated expense claim entry to you. 5
Preferences Create Expense Claim If you expect to regularly make expense claims then you may wish to spend a few minutes to set up your preferences. This only needs to be done once and will greatly ease your expense claim entry process. Preferred Approver If your expense claims are typically signed off by someone in particular, then you can influence the approvals routing engine by entering your preferred approver. Preferences Create Expense Claim To start your expense claim, click on the Create Expense Claim button at the top or bottom right of the iexpenses Home Page. Creation of an expense claim is a simple 4-step process that is represented in the chart below: Expense Preferences Accounting Review & Submit Accounting Review & Submit Accounting Review & Submit Accounting Review & Submit Note: Your claims will only be routed to this approver if the routing engine determines that they have the appropriate signing limits on the accounts that your claim is charged to. Favourite Project and GL Account Codes If you regularly charge expenses to the same Project or GL codes then you can set those up here. Once set up, this will allow you to easily apply these codes across several or all of your claim lines with one mouse click. This can save you a lot of input time. Preferences Accounting: My Favourite Projects and Accounts 6 7
STEP 1 Accounting Review & Submit STEP 2 Each claim you submit should represent one purpose only, for example, a trip to a conference. The second step of a claim is to enter the details of each expense item that you have incurred. Please provide enough information in the Purpose field to enable an approver or an auditor to make an informed decision about the appropriateness of your claim. Typically each receipt that you have will result in one claim line. The first step of a claim is to confirm the Purpose of the claim. By default, claims will be reimbursed into your salary account. Please ensure an adequate description is given. For example: Travel to Paris, is not sufficient, whereas, Travel to Paris to attend IMHE 2010 conference, is acceptable. Accounting Review & Submit There are cases when you may split one receipt into many lines (eg. a hotel bill) or only part claim a receipt (eg. only claiming for the food element of a dinner bill). Make sure that you enter enough information in the justification field to enable an approver or an auditor to make an informed decision about the appropriateness of each claim line. Mileage Expenses to claim for car mileage Use the torch to find alternative accounts. Note: to set up an alternative reimbursement account you will need to fill out the paper form that can be found here: www.ucl.ac.uk/finance/fiswebsite/employeeexpensepaybacs.htm Next to continue Make sure that you select an appropriate Expense Type from the drop-down menu. If there is not a suitable category for your claim, please choose Exceptional Item. 8 Show Receipt Currency to enter lines in foreign currencies Next to continue 9
STEP 2a Claim Line Detail Accounting Review & Submit For some expense types, you may need to enter additional details about the claim STEP 3 Accounting Accounting Review & Submit This is the third step of the expense claim process. It is important to get it right. If you are unsure what accounts you can use, please see your Departmental Administrator. Each claim line entered must be charged to a UCL Project (Research Grant) or a Departmental GL Account (Discretionary Account). For example, if you are claiming for hospitality we need to know details about the attendees. Toggle between Project (Research Grant) and Departmental GL Account (Discretionary Account) Enter a Code You can also use the page to view and adjust (if necessary) the exchange rate Note: If you are charging to a Note: If you change the exchange rate you will need to provide supporting documentation of the rate you are claiming 10 When you have entered the requested details, click Return Departmental GL Account you must change the default EXPNS code. Next to continue 11
STEP 4 Review and Submit Accounting Review & Submit The fourth step of a claim is to Review your claim and then Submit it. Use the tabs to review the details of your claim. STEP 4a Submission Instructions You have now submitted your claim. It is very important that you read the Submission Instructions They explain what you should do next. The Approvers tab is particularly useful and shows you who will have to approve this claim. Please follow them carefully. Return to go back to the iexpenses Home Page If you are happy with your claim as entered, then click Submit Note: If you fail to correctly follow the submission instructions, it is likely to lead to long delays in the processing of your claim. Note: The approvers of your claim are dependent upon the account codes that you have used in Step 3. 12 13
Viewing the Status of your Claim On the Expense Reports Page you can view the Status of your claim. You can also use the Search Expense Claims and the Search Payments to enquire on your claims The full list of statuses is: Status 14 Explanation Pending Individual s Approval (Delegated Claims only). This claim has been submitted but is awaiting approval from the claimant that the claim has been correctly keyed into the system by a delegate. Pending Manager Approval This claim has been submitted but is awaiting approval by one or more approvers (eg. an Authorised Signatory or a Principal Investigator). If your claim has not been approved in a timely manner you may wish to contact the named approvers. Pending Payables Approval This claim has been approved but has been flagged for audit and is awaiting approval by the Accounts Payable audit team. Hold Pending Receipts This claim has been approved but the receipts have not yet been received by the Accounts Payable audit team. Please make sure that you have sent your receipts to Accounts Payable. Pending Payment This claim has been completed and is awaiting import into FIS. Usually this takes place overnight. Ready for Payment This claim has been imported into FIS and is awaiting the next bank instruction run (usually on a Friday). Paid An instruction has been sent to your bank to credit your account. This is usually done on a Friday and you should receive the money in your account on a Tuesday. Rejected This claim has been rejected by either an individual (delegated claims only), an approver, or an auditor. Review the rejection notes, adjust your claim accordingly and resubmit. Withdrawn This claim has been withdrawn by the claimant. 15
Delegate Approval iexpenses is a self service application and it is expected that employees enter their own expenses on the system. However, iexpenses provides the facility for you to nominate other employees who can enter expenses on your behalf. You may receive an email asking you to approve an expense claim if: Should you decide to do this understand: you are an authorised signatory the claim has been entered on your behalf the claim has been coded to a project code on which you are the Principal Investigator 1) the Delegated enterer can see all your past and future claims can see the last four digits of your bank account(s) can see your favourite Project and GL codes 2) the entered Expense Claim will need to be approved by you either by email approval or online approval method (see page 8) before it can be submitted here to delegate You can approve a claim directly from the email. Alternatively, you can log on to iexpenses (www.ucl.ac.uk/fis) and approve from there. Add delegate here Save However you choose to approve, make sure you have enough information to enable you to make an informed decision on whether the expense claim is appropriate. As an approver you are encouraged to reject claims that do not provide you with enough information to make an informed decision. 16 17
Season Ticket Loans STEP 2 If you are claiming a Season Ticket Loan then the process is very similar to an Expense Claim with a few notable exceptions: Make sure that you select the Expense Type: Season Ticket Advance STEP 1 Make sure that you select the Expense Template: UCL Season Ticket Loan STEP 2a Detail Next to continue Provide the Travelling From and Travelling To locations of your commute Confirm that you agree to the Terms and Conditions (T&C Agree) 18 Return 19
STEP 3 Accounting STEP 4 Review and Submit This will have defaulted to QC49 DO NOT CHANGE THIS Simply click Next to proceed to the final step You will need to upload/attach electronic documentation to support your Season Ticket Loan claim. This is typically a screen print that confirms the cost of your ticket and (for renewals) a scan of your previous ticket or previous ticket proof of purchase. If you send paper documentation to support your claim this may delay your loan. Next to continue If you are happy with your claim as entered, then click 20 Submit 21
Withdrawing/Changing your claim STEP 4a Submission Instructions Carefully read and follow the instructions on the screen They are different to the regular expense claim instructions If you need to make changes to a claim that you have submitted you will need to withdraw the claim. the Withdraw icon from the Submitted Expense Claims section of the iexpenses Home screen and confirm when prompted. Note: No data is lost when you do this and it is safe to proceed. If you have withdrawn your claim or your claim has been rejected, it will appear in the Update Expense Claims section of the iexpense Home screen. Make sure you carefully read the on screen submission instructions to ensure that you follow the correct procedures. For example, if an approver or auditor has requested that you change the expense type on a particular line then navigate to step 2 of the claim process and change the line in question. You can then re-submit the claim. the Update icon to make changes to the claim. Note: The claim will need to be re-approved following your changes. 22 23
Help Training Visit www.ucl.ac.uk/expenses where there is a link to a detailed FAQ. You are also encouraged to use UCL Help which provides you with a computer based training assistance for iexpenses. You can find it at: www.ucl.ac.uk/fis/help Select either the iexpenses or Season Ticket Loan chapter as appropriate. Double click the topic to view the training: 24 25
Notes Design & layout copyright UCL Learning & Media Services 26 27
iexpenses is a new web based Expense Claim and Season Ticket Loan system for UCL Employees. Financial Information System 28 www.ucl.ac.uk/expenses