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Invoice Payments and Reimbursement Requests

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To make a reimbursement claim for items you have bought for your society, or to process an invoice on behalf of your society, there are a few things you need to ensure you take into account.

If you don't, we won't be able to process your claim. This means you will not be reimbursed or invoices will not be paid until the correct information is submitted.

General Information

For any reimbursement or payment, the following criteria need to be met:
 

  • Any item(s) or service(s) purchased should be offered to, or be beneficial to, all members of your society.
     
  • All events associated with your purchases must be advertised through the What’s On page at bcusu.com and be attached to any claims submitted.
     
  • The person submitting the request must be the person who bought the item. This must then be approved by the society Treasurer or President. The person submitting the form can not approve their own submission.
     
  • You must ensure that your society has enough cleared funds to purchase the items. Money you have earnt, but which has not been put into your account, cannot be used to make payments. 
     
  • When purchasing items to be reimbursed, you should ask for an itemised receipt. This should include a list of the items purchased along with the cost of each item - much like you'd get from a supermarket. A receipt without itemisation will NOT be accepted.

 

Example of an itemised receipt:


 

Please read the step-by-step guides below before you start your submission. If you've got any questions, please speak to your coordinator who will be more than happy to check receipts and guide you through the process.

This is when you claim back money you have spent on items for your society. Ideally these should be lower value claims, including things like refreshments for a meeting or materials for a society session. Larger value payments should be made using other means.

To make a reimbursement claim: 
 

  1. Sign in to the BCUSU website.
     
  2. The Student Group Finance Module ('Finances') can be accessed by visiting the admin tools section of your society webpage.
     
  3. The dashboard will show you all of the current claims you have submitted and you can submit a new claim by pressing the New Money Request button.
     
  4. Select reimbursement from the Request type dropdown and complete the fields, making sure you associate it with an event at the top of the form.
     
  5. In the Item description field, let us know what the item(s) are. For example, 'Multipack of sweets'
     
  6. In the Justification field, let us know what the items were for, This could be specific, or more generic like 'food items for our event'
     
  7. If you have multiple receipts to upload relating to different purchases for the same event, you can click 'Add another item' at the bottom of the form and submit everything together.
     
  8. Once you've completed the form, press submit.

 

Following submission, your request will go to your society President or Treasurer to authorise before being sent on to the Activities and Representation team and then the Union's Finance team.

You can follow the progress of your request on your dashboard - if you can see that a claim has been referred back to you then have a look at the explanation and re-submit where appropriate.
 

If you are submitting an invoice on behalf of your society, follow the details in the 'Reimbursements' section above, however at step 4, select 'Invoice' instead.

Ensure you complete the details of the invoicee, then upload the invoice and select the event that this invoice is related to, where applicable.

Some important points to note:

  • All invoices should be addressed to your society, c/o BCUSU and not directly to the Students' Union. Invoices addressed solely to BCUSU will not be processed and will be refered back to you.
     
  • The invoice should contain the following fields as a minimum: 

    - the date of the invoice
    - a unique reference number
    - the company name, address and a contact email address/phone number
    - the name and address of the society being invoiced
    - a clear description of the goods/services they're charging you for
    - the supply date of the goods/services
    - the full amount being charged (with a breakdown of the net amount and VAT being added if appropriate)
    - Payment terms for the invoice. Without these, our default 30 day payment period will apply.
     
  • The company should also provide their bank details (account name, bank name, account number and sort code) for payment to be made to.
     
  • If the invoice is from a company then the account should be in the company name or there should be a clear link between the name on the account and the company.
     
  • If the invoice is from an individual there must be a statement on the invoice reading "I am responsible for my own tax and national insurance". 
     
  • The company may ask you to provide a purchase order (PO) number and for larger amounts, over £500, we'd ask you to record one regardless. Your coordinator can supply you with this information on request.