The Travel and Expenses policy is changing

“Submitting expenses is so confusing!”

“My expenses got rejected again!”

“I can’t find the lanyard from the conference I attended, now I’ll never get reimbursed!”

Do any of these sound familiar?

The Financial Affairs team has heard these concerns and partnered with research support offices and stakeholders to make some updates to the Travel and Expenses policy so submitting expenses is less time consuming.

Individuals who submit their own expenses or administrators who submit on behalf of a group, need to know about the changes to AP01 – Reimbursements To Individuals for University Business Policy.

Here’s a summary of what’s changed, effective immediately:

• Personal credit card statement excerpts are only required for purchases made in foreign currencies, when the exact currency exchange rate is requested.
• Google maps are not required to support personal mileage allowance. Consider using the mileage log, a helpful tool for multiple trips and multi-stop trips.
• Conference badge is not required to support attendance at conference.
• When the relationship to the research project is evident no further supporting documentation or explanation is required.
• Boarding passes not required to support air travel as long as other acceptable documentation that identifies the city and dates travelled are provided. For example, air purchase receipt/itinerary or e-confirmation is sufficient.
• Kilometre allowance rates for 2018:
  • 55¢ per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres driven
  • 49¢ per kilometre driven after that
• When a receipt is lost and cannot be obtained from the source, the claimant may complete the Line Description or Notes section of the expense report detailing the particulars of the missing receipt.
• Business class airfare may be reimbursed provided the flight exceeds six (6) continuous hours, or the claim is accompanied by a medical certificate or pre-approval by the traveler’s Purpose approver.
• Business class train fare may be reimbursed provided the travel time is greater than four (4) hours (e.g. Ottawa, Montreal). Discounted fares available on VIA Rail. As outlined in in the Policy, where the source of funding is external and additional restrictions apply, those external restrictions prevail.

If you’ve never submitted expenses before, here’s what you need to do before getting started:

1. Ensure you have access to Travel and Expenses within Mosaic
   1. Check to make sure you have a Travel and Expense tile within Employee Self Service
   2. If not, contact UTS to request access. Submit a ticket through the online service request tool, https://servicedesk.mcmaster.ca  After logging in, select option 9, then Finance Access Request.
2. Get to know your Chartfields. These are codes required on your expense form. Ask your finance manager or administrator which fields you should be using for the current expense.
3. Sign on to Mosaic, go to Employee Self Service | Travel and Expense, and get started!

If you need some assistance, the Financial Affairs team is happy to help. A list of support options is available below, or contact the Financial Affairs team directly if you’re interested in a customized training session with your faculty or team.

Travel and Expenses Help and Support
Upcoming Travel and Expenses Open Houses:
Bring your questions, receipts and any expense-related concerns.

• February 15: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• March 15: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• April 12: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• May 10: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

All Open House sessions are held in Building T13, Room 111

Email and In-Person Help:
Send your questions to aphelp@mcmaster.ca. Be sure to include your expense report ID reference #.
You can also request an in-person meeting with an expenses expert.

If you would like to discuss improvement opportunities in relation to research finance activities at an upcoming Faculty or department meeting, contact Kathy Charters (chartersk@mcmaster.ca), Debbie Martin (martind@mcmaster.ca) or Dee Henne (hennedl@mcmaster.ca) to attend.