Financial Accounts

Brief Guide to Employee Expenses

The following guide to employee expenses is designed to answer some of the most frequent questions asked of the Finance and Planning Department. Detailed guidance may be found in the University Financial Regulations & Procedures.

Employee Expenses

• Expenses incurred in the normal carrying out of duties can be reimbursed subject to the appropriate limits in place from time to time
• Travel expenses should be claimed on the form  Re-imbursement of Expenses Form (150Kb MS Excel) and may include business mileage, rail fares, hire cars and air and sea travel costs.
• Mileage claims can only be made for business journeys where staff use their own motor vehicle. Journeys between an employee's home and work are not business journeys, even if not a normal working day (e.g. Saturday). If an employee travels away from Cheltenham for business reasons, and he/she goes straight from home or returns direct to home after such a visit, the Inland Revenue, under the 'triangulation rule' define the allowable expenses as .." the lesser of the travel and subsistence expenses actually incurred; and the expenses which would have been incurred if the journey had started and finished at the normal place of work".
• Hire cars may be used for long journeys at the discretion of the line manager and may be a more economical means of transport. Where hire cars are used employees may only claim for reimbursement of fuel costs purchased during the journey. Claims for mileage do not apply to hire cars.
• Subsistence expenses are normally reimbursable at the discretion of the line manager through the University's devolved budgetary system and will be determined .."as to what is reasonable in the circumstances", and are only payable when the member of staff is at least 10 miles from base, and is away from the normal place of work for at least 5 hours.
• Claims should be submitted with all supporting documents with an authorising signature to the Campus Finance Office. Claims without supporting documentation and authorsing signature will be returned in the first instance to the Faculty/Department Finance Officer who will make enquiries. In the absence of vouchers, the reimbursement will be made through the payroll or returned on form P11D as a benefit for the employee concerned and will be subject to tax and national insurance contributions.

Links and Guides

• Re-imbursement of Expenses Form (150Kb MS Excel)