Travel and expense claims

Please take the time to review and familiarize yourself with the University of Waterloo's Policy 31 - University Expenses.

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 (PDF) summary sheet.

**AIRFARE**

Please note the changes made to Policy 31 University Expenses specifically related to economy airfare – the most direct base level fare at the lowest logical fare/rate is the standard for air travel. The lowest logical fare/rate is the rate that includes travel-appropriate features such as:

Advanced seat selection
Trip cancellations insurance
Refundable/changeable ticket status if there is a question about whether the trip will occur or the dates of travel (a small fee may apply)
One checked bag (if a second bag is required please provide the reason)

Anything booked beyond the above level would need to be justified as to why a higher level of flight class is the only feasible option.

If you plan on extending your trip for personal days: please ensure that you get a quote for a price comparison at the time of booking your flights showing the cost of flights the days, you should be travelling for the conference or field work dates and then upload the price comparison with the actual receipts of the flights booked. Normally, you are allowed only one day before and one day after the conference or filed work dates to be claimed. Price comparisons cannot be done when you return from the conference or field work dates so make sure this is done at the time you book your flight.

Please note that travel advances (cash advances) and claims must be settled upon 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.

**MEAL EXPENSES**

Meal expenses may not be covered, you need approval from your supervisor if they are covering meal expenses and the amount. i.e., some professors only cover the travel days to and from not during the trip.

Finance is requesting that we please use the per diems for meals whenever possible on expense claims.

Per Diems are strongly encouraged for administrative ease as receipts are not required to be submitted or retained for Per Diem meal claims.

If you need to claim meal receipts rather than using the per diem calculator, and if the meal receipts are not itemized, please add comments to the expense line with a list of food purchased and you must declare no alcohol was purchased.

Per diems cannot be claimed for any attendees only for yourself, meals with attendees requires itemized meal receipts.

Access to CONCUR & Training Resources

Concur can be accessed via the Concur Online Expenses log in on the Finance Resources webpage. Users access their Concur accounts using their WatIAM credentials.

Username: WatIAM@uwaterloo.ca [WatIAM is truncated to 8-characters]

Password: your WatIAM password

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is required to sign in to Concur. Visit the 2FA website to learn more about this service.

If you do not yet have access to Concur, please request access by emailing the Administrative Manager. Provide your WatIAM user ID, your student ID number, and your supervisor's name. 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 by clicking on the "Help" link on the upper right-hand side. Then click "training" and "Concur User Manual".

Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship

NOTE** Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship (GSCA) claims are now SUBMITTED in CONCUR; if you do not have access to Concur, please reach out to the Administrative Manager who will request access to Concur for you. After the conference is completed, please reach out to the Administrative Manager who will provide you with the work orders to use for submitting your Concur Claim for reimbursement. Please remember to upload a copy of your GSCA application form which provides proof of department/faculty funding reserves.

The Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship (GSCA) is funded through support from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) and the Graduate Studies Endowment Fund (GSEF).

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 deadline posted at the Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship webpage to be considered for the funding and must be submitted before the conference is held. Please ensure that you provide a copy of your application to the Administrative Manager 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 can submit only one application per fiscal year (May 1 – April 30).

Application procedures:

Submit the Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship application form (signed by the student and advisor) to the Administrative Manager a minimum of 10 days before the above deadline. Applications after the conference will not be considered.
The Administrative Manager will circulate the form for department, faculty, and university approvals.
The GSPA will inform the student via email regarding whether their application has been approved or declined.

Expense reimbursement procedures:

Upon returning, submit your expense reimbursement documentation via Concur or your Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship funding may become void.

When creating a new report, For Expense Report Type, choose "Travel - general" from the drop-down list.

You will need to confirm with your supervisor (professor) the work order and activity number to use for the claim this will need to be listed in the Report Header as a place holder. You also need to confirm if the amount committed by your supervisor has changed (i.e., is your supervisor covering more or less of the total committed funds if you overspent or underspent). Please contact the Administrative Manager for the work orders to use for the School, Faculty and GSPA share.

Once you have entered all expenses and uploaded all documentation (including your GSCA application form) you then need to allocate all your expense items among multiple accounts using the amounts approved on your Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship and the work order numbers in the chart below. Select all expense lines and allocate all expenses among multiple accounts by dollar amounts. Additional Documentation lines should not be selected when completing the allocation. Do not allocate individual expenses as you go along, and do not allocate by percentage.

** If you received a cash advance from your supervisor for their committed funds, please be sure to apply the advance to your claim in Concur.

Claims must be initiated by the student immediately after the conference. Claims will be submitted via Concur for which the students should contact their Administrative Manager in order to obtain the appropriate work orders to indicate in Concur. If you don't have access to Concur, please contact your Administrative Manager who will request access be set up. To allocate expense to the different work orders, please go to the Concur Training Manual to "Allocate All Expenses on a Report".

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Upload the trip purpose form (PDF) into Concur as additional documentation
Upload the conference/meeting agenda as additional documentation. If the agenda is too big to upload just scan in the top sheet showing the start and end date along with your section showing you as presenter.
If applicable, upload your research abstract (version submitted to conference; must show you as first or second author).
Upload a copy of your approved Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship application form.

EXPENSE DOCUMENTATION

Original receipts need to be scanned/uploaded on Concur but do not need to be submitted to Finance. However, the original receipts should be retained for the duration of your program for audit purposes.

Receipts must be detailed (showing itemized list of purchases) and must include proof of payment:

$0 balance on receipt; or
Payment information on receipt; or
“Paid” noted on receipt; or
Credit / debit card statement (confidential information removed); or
PayPal details; or
Wire transfer details
In extenuating circumstances when an itemized receipt is not available showing what was purchased, please add details to the comments box in the expense tab and list what was purchased.

FOREIGN CURRENCY

Foreign currency will be converted to Canadian dollars for you once you enter in the foreign currency amount and the date. If you paid by credit card and want to be paid out exactly what was paid, you can overwrite the “= Amount in CAD” and make it equal to your payment. Concur will update the conversion rate to equal your credit card rate. Upload your credit card statement for proof of currency conversion.

**MEAL EXPENSES**

Meal expenses may not be covered, you need approval from your supervisor if they are covering meal expenses and the amount. i.e., some professors only cover the travel days to and from not during the trip.

Finance is requesting that we please use the per diems for meals whenever possible on expense claims.

Per Diems are strongly encouraged for administrative ease as receipts are not required to be submitted or retained for Per Diem meal claims.
If you need to claim meal receipts rather than using the per diem calculator, and if the meal receipts are not itemized, please add comments to the expense line with a list of food purchased and you must declare no alcohol was purchased. Per diems cannot be claimed for any attendees only for yourself, meals with attendees requires itemized meal receipts.
Meals - please use the per diem calculator (.xlsx) Upload the information as a receipt under per diems' expense (please note you will need to convert the excel sheet to a PDF to upload into Concur), please remember to exclude any meals provided i.e., at the conference, flight times leaving late and coming early (you would exclude breakfast and lunch and dinner), etc.
Please upload the trip purpose form (PDF) into Concur as additional documentation

Airfare receipt (if applicable)

If you plan on extending your trip for personal days:

please ensure that you get a quote for a price comparison at the time of booking your flights showing the cost of flights the days you should be travelling for the conference and then upload the price comparison with the actual receipts of the flights booked. Normally, you are allowed only one day before and one day after the conference dates to be claimed. Price comparisons cannot be done when you return from the conference so make sure this is done at the time you book your flight.

Scanned copies of all airfare invoices must accompany the reimbursement request showing your name and dates of travel.

Meals

**MEAL EXPENSES**

Meal expenses may not be covered, you need approval from your supervisor if they are covering meal expenses and the amount. i.e., some professors only cover the travel days to and from not during the trip.

Finance is requesting that we please use the per diems for meals whenever possible on expense claims.

Per Diems are strongly encouraged for administrative ease as receipts are not required to be submitted or retained for Per Diem meal claims.
If you need to claim meal receipts rather than using the per diem calculator, and if the meal receipts are not itemized, please add comments to the expense line with a list of food purchased and you must declare no alcohol was purchased.
Per diems cannot be claimed for any attendees only for yourself, meals with attendees requires itemized meal receipts.
Meals - please use the per diem calculator (.xlsx) Upload the information as a receipt under per diems' expense (please note you will need to convert the excel sheet to a PDF to upload into Concur), please remember to exclude any meals provided i.e., at the conference, flight times leaving late and coming early (you would exclude breakfast and lunch and dinner), etc.
When claiming per diems, users must indicate how they derived the number of days/meals claimed. Upload the per diem calculator (.xlsx) as a receipt under per diems' expense (please note you will need to convert the excel sheet to a PDF to upload into Concur). You cannot claim per diems for any other attendees.
Each per diem is allocated to individual meals as follows:
- for breakfast
- for lunch
- for dinner
Partial per diems can be used where a full per diem is not eligible; for example: When breakfast was provided by a hotel
- When lunch was provided by a conference
- When a dinner banquet was provided by a conference
- When someone traveled only part of the day:
  - E.g., evening flight to go to conference (breakfast and lunch are ineligible)
  - E.g., arriving home in morning after a conference (dinner is ineligible)
- When someone does not eat a meal that was provided to them, they must claim the actual cost of the meal they purchased (supported by a receipt):
  - E.g., when someone does not eat the conference meals because of a dietary restriction
- Meals cannot be excluded from a hotel bill and replaced with a higher per diem

The information in the charts below:

States the maximums per day in Canadian dollars by geographical areas. The maximums include taxes and gratuities. It should be noted that the rates (for both per diems and receipted meals) are not intended to render Claimants expense-free. It is assumed that the Claimant would have incurred some personal meal cost whether they were travelling on university business or not.
Provides the amounts for specific meals as a guideline only, except where a traveler is only eligible for certain meals (i.e., a day trip extending over the lunch hour).
Provides the rates for meals that are eaten. Meals must be purchased in order to be able to submit a claim for reimbursement.

Canadian dollar amount for permitted per diems

Meal	Within Canada	Outside Canada
Breakfast (.25)	20.00	25.00
Lunch (.25)	20.00	25.00
Dinner (.50)	40.00	50.00
Maximum per day (1)	80.00	100.00

Actual meals must be supported by itemized meal receipts and are eligible up to the maximum Per Diem rates on a per-person basis. For business meals where a Claimant is paying for themselves and one or more attendees and where all attendees are considered internal to the University, claimants may only claim actual receipted business meal expenses.

Due to the significant differences in meal costs around the world, meals outside of North America may be reimbursed using actual receipts if the claimant is travel in a country where the Per Diem rate is not reasonable or sufficient. When the Per Diem is not appropriate, actual meal expenses supported by itemized meal receipts will be reimbursed up to the established meal rates below.

Canadian dollar amount for receipted business meals

Meal	Within Canada	Outside Canada	Outside North America
Breakfast	20.00	25.00	35.00
Lunch	20.00	25.00	35.00
Dinner	40.00	50.00	70.00
Maximum per day	80.00	100.00	140.00

Gas expenses

To ensure the eligibility of the fuel purchased and to ensure the completeness of the documentation, please specify which vehicle or equipment this fuel was purchased for (i.e., UWaterloo owned vehicle or rental). Gas for personal vehicle is not eligible.

AIRFARE RECEIPTS

If you plan on extending your trip for personal days, please ensure that you get a quote for a price comparison at the time of booking your flights showing the cost of flights the days you should be travelling for the conference or field work dates and then upload the price comparison with the actual receipts of the flights booked. Normally, you are allowed only one day before and one day after the conference or field work dates to be claimed. Price comparisons cannot be done when you return from the conference or field work so make sure this is done at the time you book your flight. The price compare must be uploaded with the airfare receipt and the lower amount should be entered as your airfare expense.
Scanned copies of airfare receipts must show your name and dates of travel.

GAS EXPENSE

To ensure the eligibility of the fuel purchased and to ensure the completeness of the documentation, please specify which vehicle or what equipment this fuel was purchased for (i.e., UWaterloo owned vehicle or rental). Gas for personal vehicles is not eligible.

MILEAGE/KILOMETER EXPENSE

For personal vehicles is $0.59/km up to a maximum of a 500 km radius one way. The system will calculate distance travelled in KMs for you once you enter your starting point and your destination.

MEAL EXPENSES

Meal expenses may not be covered, you need approval from your supervisor if they are covering meal expenses and the amount. i.e. some professors only cover the travel days to and from not during the trip.

Per diems are strongly encouraged for administrative ease as receipts are not required to be submitted or retained for per diem meal claims.

Per diems cannot be claimed for other attendees, only for yourself. Meals with attendees require itemized meal receipts.

When claiming per diems, users must indicate how they derived the number of days/meals claimed by uploading a per diem calculator. Use a separate per diem calculator for each geographical area you travel in. See chart below.
Per diem calculators (you will need to convert the excel sheet to a PDF in order to upload into Concur as a receipt):
- standard University of Waterloo rates based on geographical areas in chart below: per diem calculator (XLSX)
Each per diem is allocated to individual meals as follows:
- for breakfast
- for lunch
- for dinner
Partial per diems can be used where a full per diem is not eligible, for example:
- When breakfast was provided by a hotel
- When lunch was provided by a conference
- When a dinner banquet was provided by a conference
- When someone traveled only part of the day:
  - E.g., evening flight to go to conference (breakfast and lunch are ineligible)
  - E.g., arriving home in morning after a conference (dinner is ineligible)
- When someone does not eat a meal that was provided to them, they must claim the actual cost of the meal they purchased (supported by a receipt):
  - E.g., when someone does not eat the conference meals because of a dietary restriction
- Meals cannot be excluded from a hotel bill and replaced with a higher per diem

The information in the chart below:

States the maximums per day in Canadian dollars by geographical areas. The maximums include taxes and gratuities. It should be noted that the rates (for both per diems and receipted meals) are not intended to render Claimants expense-free. It is assumed that the Claimant would have incurred some personal meal cost whether they were travelling on university business or not.
Provides the amounts for specific meals as a guideline only, except where a traveler is only eligible for certain meals (i.e., a day trip extending over the lunch hour).
Provides the rates for meals that are eaten. Meals must be purchased in order to be able to submit a claim for reimbursement.

**Canadian dollar amount for permitted per diems**
Meal	Within Canada	Outside Canada
Breakfast (.25)	20.00	25.00
Lunch (.25)	20.00	25.00
Dinner (.25)	40.00	50.00
Maximum per day (1)	80.00	100.00

Actual receipted business meals

For business meals including two or more individuals where all attendees are considered internal to the University, Claimants may only claim actual receipted business meal expenses. Actual meals must be supported by itemized meal receipts and are eligible up to the maximum per diem rates on a per-person basis.

Due to the significant differences in meal costs around the world, meals outside of North America may be reimbursed using actual receipts if the Claimant is travelling in a country where the per diem rate is not reasonable or sufficient. When the per diem is not appropriate, actual meal expenses supported by itemized meal receipts will be reimbursed up to the established meal rates below:

**Maximums for receipted business meals outside of North America**
Meal	Outside of North America
Breakfast	$35
Lunch	$35
Dinner	$70
Maximum	$140

Travel Advances

NOTE** this policy also applies to virtual conferences/events that are being funded through a Graduate Studies Conference Assistantship (GSCA).

Please note that only one travel advance is issued per event/trip, please do not request additional advances for the same event/trip.

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 $250 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.

In Concur, travel advances are referred to as cash advances.

Enter the amount of the cash advance that will be required and the currency. The University will only disburse Canadian or US funds. (Do not include any amounts to be paid directly to Frederick Travel for airfare.)
Provide information about your trip purpose. Note: this filed only contains 48 characters so longer trip purposes should be attached using the Additional Documentation expense type in the body of the claim.

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.

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, 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, 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.