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HOW TO BOOK TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATION & CONFERENCES

When Travelling on University of Oxford business to meetings, conferences or other occasions related to your research, we would recommend that a Purchase Order be raised for travel costs, such as flights and train tickets, and accommodation. These should be bought through the University's preferred travel agent Key Travel. But in certain circumstances when this is either not practical or not possible given the timeframes and restrictions involved you can pay upfront yourself on a private credit or debit card and then claim the money back via an Sap Concur eExpenses. There are restrictions on what can be claimed, and First Class travel is not permitted. Please refer to the guidance on the University Web site.

CONFERENCE COSTS

The payment of Conference Membership and Registration fees will depend on the organisation who are running the conference and whether they are already set up as suppliers on the University R12 Finance System. You can check this by searching for the supplier on R12 using your Shopper access or by sending us an email at Orders with the title of the event, the name of the organisers and a link to their website so we can search the supplier database for you.

If they are suppliers then you can raise a requisition for these costs through the usual process so long as the organisation confirm that they are happy to trade this way and they can provide us an Invoice to match against the PO for payment purposes. This is something you would have to check on the organiser's website or by contacting them, as many insist on credit card payment only.

If they are *not* set up then it would not usually be University or Departmental policy to start the set-up process – partly because of time constraints and partly as this would often be an account that was specifically for a one-off event and would become redundant after this. In these circumstances we would recommend that end-users pay the fees themselves on a private credit or debit card and then claim the money back via Sap Concur eExpenses, for more information contact NDCN Payables.

A possible exception to this would be where there was some sort of significant group discount for registering a large group in one payment, and the amount to do so was more than we could reasonably expect one person to meet. As above, we would need to confirm they are happy to receive a PO and to send us an invoice, and also leave ourselves (and them) time to complete all the set-up stages necessary.

OTHER TRAVEL COSTS

For small value travel costs, or journeys where it is not possible to book ahead of time, then the procedure would be to pay privately and then claim back via Sap Concur eExpenses. This would typically apply to local bus, train or taxi tickets as well as to subsistence costs when away from your usual place of work for all or a substantial part of the working day. This includes the reasonable cost of meals (£10 Breakfast, £10 Lunch, £25 Dinner)

Please make sure to keep any receipts and/or tickets you get for these journeys and other costs as you will need them as proof of purchase when applying for reimbursement.

TRAVEL MILEAGE (car/van) may be claimed at 45p per mile, with an extra 5p per passenger per mile up to the vehicles capacity for accompanying passengers on university business. Motorcycle/moped at 24p per mile and bicycles at 20p per mile. See Mileage Rates

Accommodation - see reasonable rates for overnight accommodation

Meals, beverages and tips - reasonable rates considered are, breakfast £10, lunch £10 and dinner £25.

TRAVEL INSURANCE

When travelling on University business you must arrange travel insurance through the University. Cover is NOT automatic. Check the website for

  • eligibility
  • planning & risk assessment
  • apply and register trip details
  • Upload application and approval
  • Documents to print before travelling (Emergency contact information sheet and Confirmation and summary of cover)
  • More information can be found on the travel insurance page of the website