Policy on Business Travels (conferences, etc.)

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As of April 7, 2014, the following should be considered as the regular policy of Theoretical Heterogeneous Catalysis Group on business travels of the personal (attendance to conferences, scientific schools, etc.):

The group covers conference fees, accommodation, meals and transport expenses, providing that they are reasonable and economically efficient. The group does not pay for any activities not directly related with the business purposes of the travel. In practice (1) you must attempt to minimize the group's expenses the same way you would try to minimize them if you paid from your own money, (2) you must provide enough documents to prove your expenses (invoices, bills, boarding passes, transport tickets etc), that they have been related with the conference, etc. Keep in mind that these documents are not for your boss, who would trust you in most cases even without them, but for the management of ICIQ and of Spanish/European authorities, providing us with finances (auditors check every single ticket that ICIQ pays for).

The general guidelines are:

1. An oral talk (preferred), or, at least, a poster presentation must be presented at the conference to justify its financing in line of ERC or MICINN (PID projects) grants. Try to get from the organizers certificates of participation, confirmations of registration, etc.
2. You must have a proof of the conference dates (best is a copy of conference program, or screenshots of the conference site).
3. The group pays the most economical means of travel to the conference location. The normal practice is to arrange the most direct travel to the site on the first day of conference (or a day prior to it if the conference starts early), and the return trip the last day of event (or the next one, if the events of the last day of conference finishes late). You may choose to stay, as personal holidays, some extra days at the location of conference.
   1. If the dates of your travel are different from the actual dates of the conference, you must provide the screenshots (with the date and time, the same day you buy the tickets) showing the cheapeast means of travel on the actual dates of the event (<math>f_c</math>) to compare them with the cost of the travel you are going to undertake (<math>f_a</math>). The screenshots should have visible indication of the date, when the query has been done, the actual tickets have to be boght immediately after so that prices don't change. Use SkyScanner to search for cheapest prices, always verify them at the website of the airline and ICIQ's travel agents

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1. 1. If <math>f_a > f_c</math> you will have to pay the difference yourself.

1. 1. If the conference schedule makes it impossible to arrive and depart to/from the conference site at the exact dates of event, the group will pay you extra nights of accommodation (assuming that sufficient proofs have been presented), otherwise any extra days taken as personal holidays must be paid by the travellers themselves. If you decide to stay in these extra days in the same place, ask for separate invoices for the actual dates of the conference, and for the days you take as private holidays.

1. New ICIQ rule as from November 2023: you can only fly to and from the same destination (unless you attend 2 different events and the sites are in different cities).
2. Remember to take all the tickets of everything you have spent ordered by days, to simplify further accounting and management procedures.
3. Do not share expenses, as it makes administrative processing difficult.
4. All the payments that can be done in advance (buying the flight tickets, paying the registration fees, etc.), should be done with the group's credit card (ask Núria Vendrell to do it).
5. It is possible to get some money in advance (for instance, if you have to pay for the hotel yourself). Please ask Nuria Vendrell very well in advance, if you want to do so.
6. Travel cost reimbursements can't be processed without the duly filled in and signed "Authorisation" form [1]
7. Necessary files to fill up for traveling are in this archive: [2]

Additional Notes

Please check here: [3] (it has an embedded link to ICIQ’s “PGRAL-001 Settlement of expenses” rules), and here: [4]

If you see that something in your very case contradicts to the rules written above, but agrees to the spirit of this policy, consult with Nuria Lopez about the case.

Shall you meet any problems with ICIQ management while following these guidelines, consult with Nuria Lopez.

Shall you see any way to improve these guidelines, adding important new points, or correcting an obsolete ones, please consider doing so for the good of our group.

ICIQ documents regulating the matter of travel expences

As of 09.04.2014 the ICIQ policy on expences is regulated by this document, dated back to 24.05.2012, which also may be found in ICIQ Intranet via documents browser following the path: Intranet / Gestió administrativa / Comptabilitat / Gestions/procediments / Liquidació de despeses. Among other interesting things, annextions to the document say how much money may be spent on accomodation and meals in work travels to different countries. Typically, the numbers there are at least double of what you really need to spent to comfortably travel to those places.