For Distribution to Academic Departments

For Distribution to Academic Departments

CC Faculty Directors of Operations

Faculty Finance Managers

Assistant Faculty Finance Mangers

Expenses Team

______

Robert Hebblethwaite

Head of Policy, Advice and Communication

6th July 2010

1. What is changing and Why?

1.1 The administrative arrangements for the Learned Societies Fund (LSF) are changing with effect from 1st August 2010 and this has been approved by the University’s Research and Innovation Committee and Faculty Directors of Operations.

1.2 The three changes are to:-

·  Devolve the annual budget sum in equal shares to each of the Faculties from the 2010/11 financial year onwards.

·  Create new cost centre codes for each Faculty LSF and close the existing code.

·  Allow reimbursable expenditure in line with that for other expenses claimed via the University.

1.3 Why are the changes being made:-

The devolvement of budget to Faculties has the advantage of still providing a ring fenced and visible sum of budget to support LSF type expenditure; however it does not carry with it the administrative burden of a separate set of scheme rules and claimable expenditure rates. Faculty staff have the opportunity to introduce a review prior to the expenditure being incurred to ensure that the type of trip being claimed for is important and a justifiable use of the devolved budget, but they do not need to refer to a separate set of claim rates.

Placing the devolved LSF budget and related expenditure in new cost centres within each Faculty correctly records this as an academic and not shared cost or Research and Innovation Committee activity.

2. How will this work?

2.1 The following elements will be in place with effect from 1st August 2010 in order to accommodate any claims to be paid in the 2010/11 financial year (irrespective of the date of the claim).

2.2 Each Faculty will receive in 2010/11 a budget of £71,050, this being 1/5th of the approved overall budget of £355,250. In 2009/10 the overall budget was £350,000 and hence this administrative change has NOT resulted in the budget being reduced.

2.3 All paper copy supplies or stocks of the “LSF Claim Form” FIN/LSF/1 held within Academic Departments should be removed from circulation and sent for re-cycling. The form will be removed from the Department of Finance web pages in late July 2010.

2.4 The new cost centre numbers for each Faculty are shown below and these must be publicised to ALL academic departments/staff and PG student groups within each Faculty (Each Faculty can only use its own specific cost centre and the approvers for each code have been set accordingly)

FACULTY OF ARTS & HUMANITIES = 308937

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING = 308938

FACULTY OF MEDICINE, DENTISTRY & HEALTH = 308939

FACULTY OF SCIENCE = 308940

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES = See Faculty guidance note for codes

2.5 All claims for reimbursement of LSF expenses to individuals will need to be submitted simply using the existing Expenses Claims form. The LSF scheme claim rates and regulations will be replaced with the guidance for expenses claims which is contained in the Staff Fees, Expenses, Benefits and Procedures Manual. Your departmental LSF devolved budget cost centre must be written on the form before it is submitted to the Department of Finance for processing. The Department of Finance will not be expected to assume that an expenses claim form that states “LSF” on it should be charged to a particular Faculty or department devolved LSF cost centre.

2.6 All expenses claim forms for LSF type expenditure will still need to be authorised by the Head of Department.

2.7 For any Academic Departments that utilise ONLINE submission of expenses through myJob, it is vitally important that the person submitting the claim remembers to click the “change cost assignment” feature in order to input the appropriate devolved LSF cost centre code.

2.8 The existing LSF claim form has always had the facility for the total cost of any LSF type expenditure to be split coded between the LSF central cost centre and a “Departmental contribution”. It was even possible to use the form to ask for the recoding of expenditure to the LSF cost centre after the claimant had been reimbursed via a Departmental code. This “Option 2” on the current form will NOT be replicated on the ordinary expenses form to be used from 1st August 2010 onwards. Any request to code expenditure to the devolved LSF cost centre from any other cost centre or project that has been charged in the first instance is effectively a request for a Journal transfer. These requests should be sent to the Assistant Faculty Finance Manager and should follow the Good Practice Guide found here.

2.9 Expenses claim forms and On line expenses submission both already contain the facility for the total cost of any claim to be split between different charge codes. Hence where an externally funded contribution is available as well as a proportion of the claim to be charged to the devolved LSF cost centre, the claimant MUST split the total claim themselves over the different codes for each funding source.

2.10 Finally, any LSF claim forms submitted using the LSF claim form FIN/LSF/1 after the deadline has passed for payments in the 2009/10 financial year (14 July 2010) will be returned without processing by the Department of Finance to the Claimant or Head of Department. Please see the KEY DATES for submission of expenses forms for the 2009/10 financial year end.

Who to contact for help

Robert Hebblethwaite Ext 22170 for matters relating to the principles and also use of uBASE reports for monitoring the devolved LSF budget and actual expenditure

Expenses Team for any issues relating to Expenses Claims and LSF claims in 2009/10

Faculty Finance Managers/Assistants for any queries relating to budget virements and journals

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