How to complete your Payment Card reconciliation form

How to complete your Payment Card reconciliation form

Barclaycard send us a bill once a month for MPs’ spending on their Payment Cards (the credit card provided to you by IPSA), which we then pay. They also send us a breakdown of the spending, showing the date of the transaction, the supplier and the amount. We need you to provide us with the additional information we need for assurance purposes, such as the type of expense it is and to send us the receipts, invoices or tickets.

In order for you to give us this information, we create a form in your online expenses account which includes the information Barclaycard have given us – you just need to fill in the blanks. We will e-mail you when the form has been uploaded and you will then have 30 days to complete the

reconciliation form and send us your evidence. If you don’t do this within 30 days, your card may be suspended.

Barclaycard will also send you a paper statement with the information, but this is just for your records – you don’t need it to complete the reconciliation and you don’t need to pay them or send the statement to us.

By default, we upload the form to your proxy account, but if you would prefer we can upload it straight to your account – just send us an e-mail requesting this.

How to complete the form

1. From the home page, select Claims/Forms in Progress. If you are in the proxy account you will need to tick the box next to the MP’s name, then click the List Forms button.

2. The form will be in the list labelled Expenses: Payment Card. Click on the form number to open it.

3. You can’t change the details which are already completed on the form, you just need to fill in the blanks.

4. First, give the form a title by completing the Short Description field (e.g. ‘October 2012 Payment Card’)

5. Next, click the button with two dots under Select an Item. A pop up box will appear. 6. Select the budget category.

7. Select the closest expense type.

8. The fields you need to complete should now be highlighted in blue. This is based on the expense type you chose. As the Payment Card is now open to all expense categories, the options you have to complete will be the same as for a standard claim, using a

reimbursement form. See the table on the last page of this How To Guide for help to complete the options required.

9. Once you’ve completed all the rows, click Check and Save. If you’ve missed anything, the system will show an error at the bottom of the screen telling you what you still need to complete.

a. If you are submitting it straight from the MP’s account, print it as you would with a normal expense form, sending it to us with the receipts, invoices or tickets to support your claim.

b. If you are completing the form in the proxy account, the form will be usually be submitted to the MP (although some proxies have the option to select directly to us). If you are submitting the form to the MP’s account, he/she should log in to their account, select Claims/Forms for Confirmation, select the form number and click Submit Form. It will then be ready to be printed and sent to us with the receipts, invoices or tickets to support it.

What if I bought more than one item but it’s appeared as one transaction?

If you have bought multiple items which are the same expense type, you don’t usually need to divide these up. However, if you’ve purchased more than one train ticket or purchased items from

different expense types, you will need to split the line so you can fill in the details for each line separately. Please take care when splitting the line, because this is not reversible on the system.

1. Tick the box on the left hand side of the row

2. Click the Split button in the bottom right of the form

3. A pop up box will appear. Type the amount of the first item in the box labelled First Split Value. The system will automatically calculate the remainder so you don’t need to put anything in Second Split Value

4. Click the Split button. You will now be taken back to the form and the form will have two lines with all the same details, with the amount split between them.

5. Click Check and Save so the form refreshes itself.

6. You can repeat the process as many times as necessary. For example, if you bought three train tickets at the same time for £5.00, £10.00 and £20.00, the system would initially display one transaction of £35.00. The first time you split, you would enter £5.00 in the First Split Value box. The system would then display one line of £5.00 and a second line (with the same details) of £30.00. Tick the box on the £30.00 row and click Split again. Enter a First Split Value of £10.00 and your initial transaction is now split into three lines and you can reconcile each separately.

What if I’ve changed my mind and no longer wish to claim for an item?

If you don’t want to claim for the item at all

1. Click the button with two dots under Select an Item, select Miscellaneous then Expense Outside Scheme.

2. Further along the form under the Not Claimed column, select Not Claimed, To Repay from the dropdown.

3. You should explain what happened in the Your Notes field and enclose a cheque when you send us the form.

If you want to claim for part of the item (for example, if you’ve bought a first class ticket which you didn’t realise would be more expensive than the allowed cost), you should split in the same way as above, so you have one line with the amount you want to claim (which you should reconcile as

normal) and a second line with the amount you need to repay (which you should reconcile as above).

Please note, the Payment Card should only be used to purchase items claimable under the Scheme, so this issue should only crop up rarely: when you’ve accidentally paid for an item using the Card that is not claimable under the Scheme.

Options you may have to complete on a reimbursement form

You should type in a description which will help you recognise the form later e.g. November 2014 travel

Documentation already

supplied (optional)

If you have already sent us the necessary evidence for the claim (e.g. it’s a monthly direct debit and you’ve already sent us the direct debit schedule for the year), you should select Yes in this dropdown. If you still need to send us the supporting evidence, leave this blank.

Select an item Click the button with two dots. A pop up box will appear giving you a list of expense types; you should choose the closest option. You can type in a key word in the box at the top (e.g. rail) and click Search by item to help narrow down the list which appears. The option you select here will determine which other boxes

on the form you need to complete (the system will highlight them in blue for

you). Transaction

date

Choose the appropriate transaction date – you can either type it in or click the button with two dots and select the date.

a. If you have already paid the supplier and are claiming reimbursement, you should enter the date you made payment

b. If you have not yet paid the supplier and are claiming an advance, you should enter the invoice date

c. If you are claiming for travel, you should enter the date of travel Const. Station Click the button with two dots. A pop up box will appear giving you a list of

stations. You can type the station name in the box at the top and click Search by station to help you find it more easily. This station is used to calculate the standard fare for your journey. It always uses London as the starting point, so regardless of whether you were travelling to or from London, you should always choose the other station, not the London terminal.

Details Use this free text box to describe the expense you are claiming for

From/To You should type in these boxes where the journey began and ended e.g. From: Westminster, To: Cardiff.

Nights Type in the number of nights you stayed

Vehicle Reg. If you have registered your car, your number plate should appear in this dropdown list

MP Staff Choose the staff member’s name from the dropdown list

Reimburse Choose whether you would like the MP or the staff member concerned to be reimbursed. If you choose the staff member, we will make a payment into the account their salary normally goes into

Box to complete

Details

Journey Choose the type of journey from the dropdown list

a. Between London and Constituency – for journeys from London to the constituency, or vice versa. This journey type can be used for MPs, staff and dependants.

b. Diverted Journey MP only – for journeys made by MPs between London and their constituency which included a diversion for personal reasons on the way

c. European travel MP only– for claimable travel to and from Europe (see the Scheme for further details on the rules)

d. Extended travel MP only – for travel within the UK on parliamentary business which is neither within your constituency nor a journey between London and your constituency.

e. Other MP travel as per 9.3c – for travel from anywhere in the UK to Westminster or your constituency, on a journey incurred in the

performance of your parliamentary functions. Please see section 9.3c of the Scheme for more details.

f. Staff home office to const. – if a staff member routinely works from home and they have registered their home as an office, they can claim for a journey from their home to the constituency office. This should not be used if the staff member routinely works in the constituency office: you cannot claim for a commute.

g. Staff home office to London – if (as in f above) a staff member routinely works from home and they have registered their home as an office, they can claim for a journey from their home to the Westminster office. This should not be used if the staff member routinely works in Westminster: you cannot claim for a commute.

h. Staff travel for training – for staff journeys to a training course.

i. Volunteer travel – for journeys made by a volunteer travelling from their home to the office and vice versa.

j. Within Constituency Travel – for journeys made within the constituency, or within 20 miles of the constituency boundary

Miles this trip Type the total number of miles for the journey. This will be multiplied by the standard mileage rate (currently 45p for the first 10,000 miles claimed and 25p for all mileage after this) to give the amount to be reimbursed.

Class/Reason Choose the class of travel from the dropdown list. Even if you are only claiming for the standard fare, if you travelled first class you should select First.

Advance If the item is over £200, you can claim from us before you pay the supplier. If this is what you are doing, you should select Yes, not yet paid in the dropdown. If you are claiming reimbursement, you should leave this blank.

Std Fare This is calculated automatically and depends on the options you select in Select an item and Const. Station. This is the maximum amount you are allowed to claim. Expense Value Type in the amount you want to claim. This is calculated automatically on an

Expenses: Mileage form.

miles you entered multiplied by the standard mileage rate.

Your Notes You should use this to give us any further relevant information that isn’t included elsewhere on the form or on the receipt.