Environment 1 (EV1), room 311
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Please take the time to review and familiarize yourself with the University of Waterloo's Policy 31 - Travel.
The Office of Research website provides a Travel Spending section which includes details of the most important information students should know before travelling and submitting a claim. And they also have a Research Travel Claims - Information for Students summary sheet.
Please note that travel advances (cash advances) and claims must be settled within one month of returning, failure to do so may result in delayed payments.
For expenses incurred ahead of time, Claimants have the option of a cash advance to prevent the Claimant from being out of pocket for an excessive period of time.
For workshops or conferences paid for in advance, the claim for reimbursement cannot be submitted until after the Claimant has attended the event.
Several trips cannot be combined on one claim, they must be submitted individually.
Per diems cannot be claimed for any attendees only for yourself, meals with attendees requires itemized meal receipts.
This information is sent to all graduate students in the department via email each term.
NOTE** Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship claims are NOT submitted in Concur; please follow the instructions below and manually submit hard copies of all forms and documentation
Full-time students are eligible for these assistantships if they are presenting the results of research they conducted while at the University of Waterloo at professional or academic conferences. Students are normally expected to be first or second author of the paper or poster and must present the paper or poster at the conference. Confirmation of presentation and abstract do not need to be submitted prior to handing in the application. Applications must be received by the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) by the following deadlines to be considered for the funding:
Please ensure that you provide a copy of your application to the Graduate Program Administrator (Alan Anthony – EV1-308 – aanthony@uwaterloo.ca) a minimum of 10 days before these deadlines.
Graduate studies conference assistantships are cost shared by the student's supervisor (if possible), the school/department, the Faculty of Environment, and the GSPA. GSPA will normally pay expenses up to the total amount paid within the faculty, with a maximum of $500. These dollar amounts may be adjusted from time to time depending on the budget available and the number of travel requests. Please note that a student will not normally receive funds more than once per fiscal year (May 1 – April 30).
Application procedures:
Expense reimbursement procedures:
It is important that you submit your expense reimbursement documentation timely upon your return or your Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship funding may become void.
At least two weeks prior to the expiry date on your form, submit the following documentation together as one package to Teresa Wilson (EV1-315):
A copy of your approved Graduate Conference Assistantship application will be added by the department before final submission to GSPA.
Original receipts
Must be detailed (showing itemized list of purchases) and must include proof of payment:
Boarding passes/airfare receipt (if applicable)
Meals
The information in the charts below:
Meal |
Within Canada |
Outside Canada |
---|---|---|
Breakfast (.25) |
17.50 |
22.50 |
Lunch (.25) |
17.50 |
22.50 |
Dinner (.50) |
35.00 |
45.00 |
Maximum per day (1) |
70.00 |
90.00 |
Gas expenses
Mileage expenses (claiming KMs) for personal vehicle
NOTE** this policy also applies to virtual conferences/events
A traveler is not expected to use personal funds to incur excessive out-of-pocket expenses. The University will pay an approved travel advance for a reasonable amount where the expected travel expense is for university business, in whole or in part. The university will not pay a travel advance where the travel does not relate to university business or where the entire travel expense will be recovered from a third party.
The University will not pay an advance where the amount is equal to or less than the equivalent of $100 Canadian. Expenses may be claimed on a reimbursement basis only.
Requests for travel advances must provide sufficient processing time (Finance must receive an approved travel advance at least ten business days prior to the departure date) and be settled promptly.
The money payable for a travel advance may be directed to the Claimant and/or in the case of airfare only, directly to the university’s contracted service provider.
Graduate students submitting requests for travel advance use the online claim submission system called Concur. Cash advances are approved by your supervisor please ensure you list them as cash advance approver.
If you do not yet have access to Concur, please request access by emailing Susie Castela at scastela@uwaterloo.ca. Provide your WatIAM user ID and your student ID number. You will receive a confirmation email once you have been added to Concur.
When you log into Concur, you can access the Concur User Manual and other training materials by clicking on the ‘Help’ link on the upper right hand side.
In Concur, travel advances are referred to as cash advances.
NOTE** the University will not reimburse expense claims received by Finance four months or more after the travel end date (or virtual event end date) unless senior approval is obtained, i.e. the Faculty Dean
Graduate students submitting expense or travel claims must use the online claim submission system called Concur. This does not apply to travel claims being funded by several sources like the Graduate Studies Research Travel Assistantship application.
If you have a claim to submit, and you do not yet have access to Concur, please request access by emailing Susie Castela at scastela@uwaterloo.ca. Provide your WatIAM user ID and your student ID number. You will receive a confirmation email once you have been added to Concur.
When you log into Concur, you can access the Concur User Manual and other training materials by clicking on the ‘Help’ link on the upper right hand side.
You will need to update your profile settings and ensure that you list Susie Castela as your default approver. She is listed as Snezana Castela (page 11 in the Concur User Manual has instructions on how to do this). Please remember to save the settings once you add Susie as approver.
You will need to confirm with your supervisor (professor) the work order and activity number to use for the expenses, this will need to be listed in the header portion of the claim. You will need to scan and upload your trip purpose sheet, all your receipts, boarding passes (if you do not have your boarding passes please add a comment explaining why), agenda, etc. to the claim individually and make sure you enter in the date listed on the receipt. You are not able to combine multiple receipts to one expense line – they need to be entered in separately. Add all the necessary information such as trip purpose, scanned boarding passes, conference agendas (links are not accepted), continue to add comments if you need clarify an expense i.e. purchased ziploc bags for soil samples, gas was purchased for a rental car, equipment was used for…. etc. If you are claiming meal receipts and they are not itemized please add comments to the expense line with a list of food purchased and you must declare no alcohol was purchased.
Original receipts and boarding passes are still required in hard copy, submitted to Susie Castela (EV1-318) along with a printout of the expense report (from Concur). Normally this would be submitted prior to your claim being approved, but at this time, we will be approving online claims without submission of original receipts/boarding passes, but you will need to keep them and submit them once UW campus is open again.
Receipts
Must be detailed (showing itemized list of purchases) and must include proof of payment:
Note: Currency-rating sheets are not required, once you enter in the amount in that currency for that date, it will calculate it to CAD dollars for you. If you paid by credit card and want to be paid out exactly what was paid you can enter in the amount as CAD dollars and upload your credit card statement for proof of currency conversion
Boarding passes/airfare receipt (if applicable)
Meals
The information in the charts below:
Meal |
Within Canada |
Outside Canada |
---|---|---|
Breakfast (.25) |
17.50 |
22.50 |
Lunch (.25) |
17.50 |
22.50 |
Dinner (.50) |
35.00 |
45.00 |
Maximum per day (1) |
70.00 |
90.00 |
Gas expenses
Mileage expenses (claiming KMs) for personal vehicle
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This site was recently redesigned to better serve you. Please help us help you by providing a website feedback.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Indigenous Initiatives Office.