Manage expenses and travel claims
All expense and travel claims should be in line with your Members Allowances Scheme. The drop-down lists within the My Expenses app detail which expense options are available to you.
Know what to do now?
If you are making claims for a new month press the '+Create Monthly Claim' button.
This will open a drop down menu which shows the current month and two previous months that you can claim for in line with IBC process.
Choose the month you wish to claim for, entering claims in chronological order. A details screen will open showing a blank claim for the date you have chosen. The Cost centre field should be pre-populated. If it is not pre-populated, then you can select your cost centre by clicking on the square next to the box.
Choose '+New Expense' within the expense or mileage section and enter the exact date your claim refers to (note you will be required to set up a vehicle before creating mileage entries – please see guidance for this further down the page).
Complete the necessary details entering any amounts as gross (including VAT) and as numeric figures (pounds).
Fill in the additional notes with information that will help identify the purpose.
You should not press save at this point if you are continuing to enter expenses for that month.
Repeat these steps until all entries for that month have been created.
If all entries have been added, select Submit. If you need to add further expenses to the chosen month’s claim at a later date you must only select Save, as once submitted you are not able to make any changes to that month’s claim. Make sure you do not Save as Draft until you have finished entering all your claims.
PLEASE NOTE: for mileage claims, the postcodes must be entered with a GAP, for example, post code PO1 1JE should be entered like this, not PO11JE.
If the distance calculator does not match your actual miles travelled or returns zero, you can manually type the number of miles instead.
Important: the ‘Amount’ column for Travel claims will not be populated until the claim is due to be paid out. The total claim amount (shown in the left-hand column) will be correct on submission of a claim.
You must keep all supporting documents related to your expense claim in case you are asked to show evidence to your Democratic and Member Services.
Know what to do now?
Select the Manage Vehicles link to create, edit, or delete vehicles.
Select + Add New Vehicle to create new vehicles or select a row to edit existing vehicles.
Select the dustbin icon on a row to delete vehicles.
If you are unsure of a vehicle’s information (such as fuel type or vehicle size), get vehicle information from DVLA to find out.
To add your vehicle details, select 'Car Mileage'.
Note: For most users the 'Car Mileage' option should be chosen – this is the standard option. The standard option for Councillors is 'Councillors Car'. 'Taxable Car Mileage' is to be used in exceptional circumstances only.
In the Claim history column, select the month for the claim you want to change. Details of all expenses and travel claims for the selected month will be displayed in the right-hand side. You can select the pencil or dustbin icon to edit or delete entries.
You will then need to either save or submit your claim as normal for the changes to take effect.
If you submit an expense claim too early you will need to raise a webchat from the Contact Us page to request for your claim to be reset.
Know what to do now?
