Approving Expenditure v1.1

Approving Expenditure

imperialcollegeunion.org/trainingimperialcollegeunion.org

Approving Expenditure2012/13 Edition

Approving Expenditureimperialcollegeunion.org/training

Contents

Contents 2

Introduction 3

Your responsibilities 4

Different expenditure methods 5

Supporting documentation 6

Overview 8

Approving Claims 9

Approving Purchase Orders 13

Union Credit Card 14

Imprests 16

Overseas payments 17

Charitable Donations 18

Help and assistance 21

© 2013 Imperial College UnionVersion 1.1 - 21 January 2013


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Introduction

What is this booklet for?

The Approving Expenditure booklet is a guide to using eActivities to approve expenditure for Chairs and Treasurers of Clubs, Societies and Projects. It also handles the various levels of approval required for all types of expenditure.

This booklet assumes that you have read the Core Finance booklet. There is an associated quiz available on eActivities to enable you to approve expenditure. Until you pass the Core Finance and Approving Expenditure quizzes you will not be able to use the functionality described in this booklet.

Further inquiries

If you have any difficulties with eActivities, or there is a problem with the system you should contact the Union’s Systems Coordinator by emailing [email protected].

Almost all expenditure you approve will require further approval by your Management Group Treasurer and potentially the Deputy President (Finance & Services). Their contact details are given in the last section of this booklet.

Stefan NubertDeputy President (Finance & Services)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 8060, extension: 58062


Your Responsibilities

As Chair or Treasurer of a Club, Society or Project you have been elected to a position of trust and should act in the best interests of your members and the Union at all times. This trust lasts for seven years. You must not seek personal financial advantage from your position – always seek out the best deals which are in the interests of your members.

You must use the Union’s bank account for all financial transactions. This is held at NatWest. It is forbidden to hold funds in other external bank accounts.

It is important that your Club, Society or Project does not become overspent, keep a regular eye on your accounts and make sure you have considered upcoming expenditure when planning for the year ahead to ensure you have suitable funds. Remember that the Union is not obliged to make upfront payments for individual groups.

Financial responsibility

A Financial Responsibility Form must be signed by both the Chair and Treasurer of your Club, Society or Project after completing the mandatory finance training. This form contains a declaration to indicate your financial responsibility for the Club, Society or Project for the coming year and states that you will adhere to the rules and procedures

which are in place. If this form has not been signed you will be unable to make transactions.

Finance regulations

The Union has a high-level set of Finance regulations which are approved by Union Council, they are reproduced in Appendix 1 of the Core Finance booklet. The rules and procedures contained within this booklet support these regulations.

Failure to comply with the regulations and procedures may lead to disciplinary action. A result of disciplinary action may be logged on your permanent College record, which may include a hearing on fitness to practice. This may affect your degree and future job prospects – so think about your actions and ask if you are unsure.

Your first point of call for support and advice should be your Management Group Treasurer; details of these student volunteers are available in Appendix 1 of this booklet. Remember that the people holding these roles are volunteers, so please do not expect instant responses.



Different Expenditure Methods

Method of expenditure

When to use it

Claim for reimbursement

Used when you or another member of your Club, Society or Project spend their own money. To claim back money using this method you must be a member of Imperial, a member of the Club, Society or Project that you are claiming from and have passed the Making a Claim quiz.

Purchase Order Used when you are purchasing goods or services from a supplier. For example this could be an instructor, a retailer or a restaurant. To create a Purchase Order you should read the Ordering from Suppliers booklet.

Internal Charging If you need to transfer money to a different cost centre within the Union in payment for goods or services. For internal charging you must read the Transfers booklet.

Union Credit Card

When you are obliged to pay for a service by card transaction. For example payment for flights or goods online. Using the Union Credit Card is not quicker than raising a Purchase Order and should only be used when no other payment methods are acceptable.

Imprest An imprest is an advance of money used when services must be paid for cash-in-hand. Imprests are often used if your Club, Society or Project is going on a trip where cash may be required, particularly in another currency. To raise an imprest you should contact the Clubs & Societies Finance Administrator.

International Transfers (IBAN)

International banking transfers can be made when an overseas supplier requires payment, for example a hostel for a tour. To make an international transfer you should contact the Clubs & Societies Finance Administrator.

The table below lists the different expenditure methods available and when to use them. If there is another piece of associated training necessary to complete the process this is also listed.


Supporting Documentation

Whenever you spend your Club, Society or Project’s money it is necessary to provide evidence in support of this. When you are providing this evidence it is essential that it is of a high quality.

The receipt, invoice or other evidence should clearly show as a minimum: • Name of the supplier.• Date of supply.• Description of goods/services

purchased.• Total amount

If the evidence does not give any more information than this we will not be able to recover any VAT paid on your expenditure.

If the receipt is illegible or any of this information is missing you should not authorise the expenditure. It is your responsibility as someone financially responsible to ask for good quality supporting documentation for any expenditure. If the uploaded evidence is not of a high enough quality it will be rejected at later stages of authorisation, so doing things properly initially will save you time later.

VAT Documentation

Wherever possible you should try to make sure you provide a VAT invoice or receipt for expenditure. Some suppliers will automatically provide this but others

require you to request one. You can obtain one after the payment has been made, but should do so as quickly as possible. Any VAT registered company must provide a VAT receipt when requested by law.

For an amount less than £250, it must contain:• Name and address of the supplier.• Date of supply.• VAT registration number of the supplier.• Description of goods/services

purchased.• Total, including VAT amount and VAT

rate.

If the receipt or invoice is over £250 it must also have the following:• The Union’s address MUST be:Imperial College Union, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BB.• Invoice number and date.• For each description of a good or service;• VAT rate, Net cost, unit price, quantity,

total Net cost.• Total VAT Amount.• Cash discount (if any).• Invoice total, including VAT.

Receipts or invoices with the following addresses/names are not suitable for claiming VAT:• Imperial College• Imperial College London• Imperial College Medics Union• Royal College of Science Union• City & Guilds College Union• Silwood Union



Supporting Documentation cont...

For more information about VAT, please read the Core Finance booklet. Some examples of VAT receipts are given on the next page.

Below you can see two examples of uploaded evidence used to support a claim for reimbursement. Both contain the VAT number of the supplier, breakdown of the VAT and net amounts, the date of supply, the address of the supplier and the total amount of the receipt. They are also both very legible after scanning.


Before you consider spending any of your Club, Society or Project’s money, there are two things you should always check:1. Does your Club, Society or Project

have the necessary funds?2. Are you authorised to approve the

expenditure?

You can check if you have the necessary funds by looking at your online transaction pages, information about how to read these pages is contained within the Core Finance booklet and eLearning.

In order to maintain some degree of control on how money is spent, there are limits on the amount individuals can authorise. A Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer can approve up to £20. Anything over this amount has to be approved by a Management Group Chair or Treasurer, together with a Deputy President for items over £1000. With

increasing responsibility, there is anincrease in the limit of authority. Approval of the Union’s Executive Committee and Trustee Board are requirement for expenditure or commitments over £50,000 and £500,000 respectively.

The diagram below shows the limits of authorisation for expenditure.

Expenditure under £5

The Union will not reimburse expenditure of less than £5, either for payments to individuals or companies. If someone has an item under £5 to claim they need to save it and claim it with their next item. We don’t consider this unreasonable; it also saves us a considerable amount in processing costs.

Overview

Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer

Management Group Chair or Treasurer

Deputy President

Executive Committee

Trustee Board

£0

£20

£1,000

£50,000

£500,000



Approving Claims

If you have a Claim that requires your attention you will receive an automatically generated email. Log into eActivities and ensure you have the correct role selected to approve the awaiting Claim. Select the Finance button on the submenu then select Expenditure followed by Claims.

To approve claims you need to have signed your Financial Responsibility form and returned it to the Student Activities Centre.

You will also need to have completed the following quizzes; Key Information, Core Finance and Approving Expenditure. The person

who has made the Claim cannot approve it

The person making the Claim will be shown here.

The Club, Society or Project the Claim has been made to and details of the Claim are shown here.


Approving Claims cont...

Entering a Claim’s codes and VAT treatment

For each Claim you approve you need to accurately enter the account codes and VAT treatment. IT IS IMPORTANT TO ENTER THESE DETAILS CORRECTLY. See the Core Finance booklet for more information about transaction and VAT codes. Make sure you have the funds available by looking at your online transaction pages, especially if claiming from Union Grant money.

You will first need to look at the attached evidence and receipts. Click on the Receipts tab in the Claim box.

Any attached receipts will be shown here. If you click on them they will open in a pop up window.

You can resize the receipt by dragging the bottom right hand corner.




If you click back on the Claim Details tab any receipts you have opened will stay floating above the Claim Details enabling you to refer to the receipts whilst filling out the account and VAT codes for the Claim.

Fill out a sensible and clear description of what the item is.

You need to do this for EACH receipt that the claimant is claiming, you do not need to split the receipt by item (unless there are items to claim from different expenditure codes). For example if you had one receipt for food from a supermarket and one for printing, both attached to the same claim, you would fill out two lines. Remember that it is also possible to make partial claims for only part of the amount spent. If you are doing this you should state it in the Notes box.

Select from the drop-down which account this item belongs to.

Select which Activity, Funding source and Consolidation from the drop-down.

Enter the amount including VAT for the line, AND the correct VAT code.



Authorising a Completed Claim

Once you have filled in all the details for the Claim and checked the receipts and total being claimed you can authorise the Claim.

To authorise a Claim click here.

Rejecting a Claim

You may need to reject a Claim for a number of reasons. When you reject a Claim you will be prompted to type a reason for the rejection and given an option of who to reject it to. Please ensure you make this reason clear so that the claimant can amend the problem and resubmit their Claim.

You should reject a Claim if, but not only if: • The receipts or evidence are illegible or incomplete. • The Claim is for not related to Club, Society or Project activities

Claims without VAT receipts should not be rejected out of hand; however the Club, Society or Project will not be able to reclaim VAT on the expenditure if these claims are approved.



Approving Purchase Orders

When you log into eActivities and navigate to Finance then Expenditure and finally Purchase Orders in the menu you will be directed to the screen below. Two tabs will appear called List Requiring Authorisation and Purchase Order Details. In this tab are Purchase Orders which can be approved by you. View the details of the request for the Purchase Order, check on the transaction pages whether the Club, Society or Project has the funds available. If you are happy to approve the Purchase Order click Authorise. You can amend the transaction codes before approving the Purchase Order.

Depending on the value of the Purchase Order it may require further approval, the person who requested the Purchase Order will be able to view this information.

To approve Purchase Orders you need to have signed your Financial Responsibility form and returned it to the Student Activities Centre. You will also need to have completed the following quizzes; Key Information,

Core Finance and Approving Expenditure. The person who has requested the Purchase Order cannot approve it.

To authorise the Purchase Order click here.


Union Credit Card

Union Credit Card

The Union has a corporate credit card which can only be used when no other payment method is appropriate. Reasons to use the Union credit card include purchasing products online, when the supplier only accepts this type of payment, to secure reservations, to make use of any discounts or in an emergency.

If you require the use of the Union credit card you must complete a credit card request on eActivities. Once the request has been authorised at all levels, you will be notified by email. At this point you will be able to login to eActivities to download a pdf of your approved Credit Card Request under the Authorised Credit Card Requests tab. Once downloaded you must make an appointment with the Head of Finance to obtain the card and make the payment. Please bring a copy of the approved Credit Card Request with you. It may take up to five working days to make the payment once approval has been granted.

You will only be able to request the credit card if you are the Chair or Treasurer of a Club, Society or Project. To request the credit card, log into eActivities and select your role in the Club, Society or Project. Details of how to do this are given in Core Finance. Select Finance then Expenditure, then click Credit Card Requests. The screen will default to the New Submission tab. Fill in details as below to request the Credit Card.

If the supplier you wish to pay does not appear on the drop down list you will need to go through the creating a new supplier process, details are given in the Ordering from Suppliers booklet.

Complete the details on the form



When you have filled in these fields a set of boxes will appear. Complete details of the description of what you are ordering, the account, activity, funding and consolidation codes as well as the price including VAT, quantity and relevant VAT code. You can upload supporting documentation such as a quote using the relevant tab. Then click Commit.

Union Credit Card cont...

Authorising Credit Card Requests

Once submitted, the Credit Card request must be authorised by the other financially responsible person in your Club, Society or Project. When you log into eActivities and navigate to Credit Card in the main menu a new tab will appear called List Requiring Authorisation.

View the details of the request for the Credit Card payment, check on the transaction pages whether the Club, Society or Project has the funds available. If you are happy to approve the Credit Card request click Authorise. The credit card request will require further approval, the person who requested it will be able to view this information.

To authorise the Credit Card request click here.


Imprests

When goods or services must be paid for by cash in-hand, it is possible to obtain an Imprest which is essentially an advance of money. Imprests may only be given to a current student who agrees to be held personally liable for the amount advanced.

Imprests are often used when going on tour, where cash is required for motorway tolls or accommodation, or where foreign currency is required for group purchases. To request an Imprest log into eActivities and navigate to Finance, then to Expenditure and finally to Imprests. Complete the details of the Imprest, a set of boxes will appear at the bottom of the page where the account codes for the expenditure must be entered. Then click Commit.

Imprests require the same levels of authorisation as other types of expenditure, the money will be paid to the person requesting the Imprest by BACS in the same way as a claim for reimbursement would be.

Click Commit when you have completed all the details on the form

Upon return from the trip or tour you are required to submit all receipts and return any upspent money to the Clubs & Societies Finance Administrator. To submit the receipts navigate to the Authorised Imprests tab, select the imprest and upload electronic copies of the receipts. If you need to return unspent money then speak to the Clubs & Societies Finance Administrator.



Overseas Payments

On occasion you may need to transfer money overseas in order to pay a supplier. For example this may be a payment for a hostel overseas, or a specific item of equipment which is not obtainable in the UK.

In order to make payments internationally an International Banking Transfer (IBAN) can be used. If you wish to make an IBAN payment you will need to see the Clubs & Societies Finance Administrator. You will also need to bring with you the following information:• Name and Address of the customer.• Name and Address of the customer’s bank.• Some supporting evidence for the payment• IBAN number of the bank.• SWIFT number of the bank.

Below is an example of suitable supporting evidence and the confirmation from the Union’s bank of a payment in Lithuanian Litas.


Charitable Donations This form is used to make a donation to a charity. This is usually to transfer money that has been raised for a certain charity to that charity. In order to do this you need to upload information about the charity.

Gift AidOften charities will ask if you want to add Gift Aid to your donation. Gift Aid is a scheme that is only available for personal donations from an individual. Clubs are not eligible to add Gift Aid to their donation so make sure not fill in any Gift Aid declaration forms as they won’t be able to be processed by the charity you have raised the money for.

1. Select a suitable registered charity to raise money for

2. Pay the collected money into your accounts using income code for charitable donations which is 410

3. Donate money to the charity using the Charitable donations form

Select your charity by typing in the name and selecting it from the drop down list. Then select the preferred payment method.

Charity: If your charity is not listed you will need to request one. See next section. The is a list of approve charities avilable under the List of all Charities tab.

Payment Method: Payment by BACS is the quickest and easiest. If your charity does not except BACS payments then select pay by cheque.

To make a Charitable Donation log into eActivities and navigate to Finance, then to Expenditure and finally to Charitable Donations. Complete the details of the donation, a set of boxes will appear at the bottom of the page where the account codes for the expenditure must be entered. Then click Commit.



Fill out the transaction lines for your accounts.

Transaction Lines: Make sure that you take the donation from the same activity code that you have paid your collections into. The funding can only be taken from SGI.

Supporting documents: Ensure to upload any supporting documents that your charity may need or information you would like to submit to the charity. This can include:• Proof of your fundraising campaign or any other paperwork needed by your charity.• Any payment instructions from your charity that they need to process the donation.

Upload any documents using the browse and upload button. The plus allows more documents to be uploaded.

Charitable Donations cont...


Requesting a new CharityIf your charity is not in the current list of charities then you will need to request a new charity. Requested charities will be created for you once they are authorised, within five working days. Navigate to the Request New Charity subtab to do this.

Fill in the form with your charities’ details

Address: Put the full name and address of the charity that you wish to make a donation to.

Charity number: The charity you are raising for should have a registered charity number with the Charity Commission. You should be able to find this number on the charity’s website or any official printed material. The website link can be found by searching for the charity number on the Charity Commission website. http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/index.aspx

If you are having problems finding a registered charity number or are unable to fulfil this requirement please contact the Student Activities Manager.

Account Details: Payment by BACS is the quickest and easiest method. In order to pay your charity by BACS you need to submit their account number and sort code. You should be able to find account details for your charity on their website or printed material. Make sure you fill in the account number and sort code. If your charity does not except BACS payments then select pay by cheque.

Charitable Donations cont...



Help and Assistance

Paperwork and approvals

Claim value Approvals needed Paperwork< £5 Reimbursements under £5 cannot be made

£5 - £19.99 Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer Basic VAT receipt

£20 - £249.99 Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer AND Management Group Chair or Treasurer

Basic VAT receipt

£250 - £999.99 Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer AND Management Group Chair or Treasurer

Full VAT invoice

£1000+ Club, Society or Project Chair or Treasurer AND Management Group Chair or Treasurer AND Union Deputy President

Full VAT invoice

Help and assistance

You may need some assistance with what is discussed in this booklet, the table below summarises who is here to help.

Stefan NubertDeputy President (Finance & Services)[email protected] 7594 8060, extension 58062

Stefan is the Sabbatical responsible for finances. He is also responsible for approving all expenditure over £1000

Henry WhittakerDeputy President (Clubs & Societies)[email protected] 7594 1763, extension 41763

Henry is the lead Sabbatical for non-financial matters for Clubs, Societies & Projects.

Ally CottSystems [email protected] 7594 6412, extension 46412

Ally is responsible for eActivities, speak to him if you discover an error with the system, he cannot help with financial content queries.

Aziz BilgramiClubs & Societies Finance [email protected] 7594 1514, extension 41514

Aziz is responsible for administering the finances of Clubs, Societies & Projects.

Malcolm [email protected] of Finance020 7594 8069, extension 48069

Malcolm is the lead finance staff member. He can help with complicated finance queries.


Help and Assistance cont...

Management Group Contacts

These are all volunteer positions carried out by students.

Group Chair TreasurerACC Jake Woods

[email protected] Shen [email protected]

A&E Adam [email protected]

George [email protected]

CAG Joshua [email protected]

Saber [email protected]

CGCU Sahil [email protected]

Justin [email protected]

GSA Maryam [email protected]

James [email protected]

ICSMSU Dariush [email protected]

Rahul [email protected]

Media Joe [email protected]

Slobodan [email protected]

OSC Wasim Khouri [email protected]

Bogdan Baloiu [email protected]

RAG David [email protected]

Callum [email protected]

RCC Joseph [email protected]

Gemma [email protected]

RCSU Ryan [email protected]

Plabon [email protected]

RSMU Henry [email protected]

Robin [email protected]

SCC Lucy [email protected]

Mithila [email protected]

Silwood Isabel [email protected]

Helen [email protected]

Imperial College UnionBeit QuadranglePrince Consort RoadLondon SW7 2BB

Tel: 020 7594 8060Fax: 020 7594 8065Email: [email protected]: @icunionimperialcollegeunion.org

Approving Expenditure v1.1

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