Reimbursement of Work-Related Expenses

For purposes of this policy, work related expenditures reimbursable by ErinoakKids include:

• Mileage reimbursement based on a set amount per kilometer driven, providing the employee utilizes his/her own vehicle while on ErinoakKids business.  The mileage rate will be monitored annually and updated when required to ensure that it does not deviate materially from rates paid by other agencies in the local health/social services sector.
• Cost of parking while on ErinoakKids business.
• Professional development seminars, conferences and workshops directly related to the employee’s position, to uphold and/or acquire skills necessary in discharging their work responsibilities, as pre-approved and, as the budget allows.
• Professional association membership fees and dues provided these are relevant to the position held or essential to the performance of the job and are beneficial to ErinoakKids (applicable only to Vice-Presidents, Directors & Clinical Practice Leaders).
• Cost of supplies and other pre-approved purchases for direct-program use.
• In special circumstances, with the prior written approval of the employee’s program/department manager, other travel expenditures such as airfare, hotel accommodation, car rental fees, and any other reasonable out-of-pocket expenses will be reimbursed to employees provided the related travel is conducted on ErinoakKids business.
• Express Toll Route (ETR) charges are not normally reimbursed, however these charges can be reimbursed in certain circumstances with the documented prior approval of the employee’s Vice-President and the President and CEO.

Mileage
Employees should endeavor to travel in one car when two or more employees are scheduled to travel to the same destination at the same time.

Travel
All travel arrangements must be approved by the employee’s program/department manager prior to booking.
 
Accommodations on out-of-town trips will be on a shared basis when more than one person of the same sex is involved.  Those who wish to have separate accommodations will have to pay the differential between the double occupancy room and the two single room rates.  Overnight accommodation will only be provided when the event/program is outside of the Greater Toronto Area and the Central West catchment area.
 
Employees should seek to reserve air travel as far in advance as possible in order to obtain the lowest economy fare possible.
 
The employee’s reasonable out-of-pocket costs for meals, gratuities, taxis, airport limousines and parking will be reimbursed while traveling on provision of a suitable receipt. Meals will be reimbursed only for overnight travel to a maximum of $50 per day based on the following limits; $10 breakfast, $15 lunch and $25 for dinner. Staff will not be reimbursed for any alcoholic beverages. Charges for entertainment, personal phone calls or any other charges that are considered of a personal nature are not reimbursable.

Expense Report
All reimbursable expenses should be accounted for and approved on the ErinoakKids Expense Report.  Receipts for all expenses should be attached to the form in order to avoid delay in the processing of payment.  For meals reimbursement, the detailed invoice from the restaurant should be attached in addition to the credit card receipt.

Paid time to attend workshops, conferences and seminars
Employees will not suffer any loss of pay for attending an approved conference.  Full-time employees will be paid for 7.5 hours per day for a maximum of 5 days per week including travel time if it occurs during the week. Part-time employees will be paid for their regular hours per day to a maximum of their regular days per week, including travel time.  Employees will not be paid for travel time outside of normal working hours.
 
If required to attend a conference on a Saturday or a Sunday, the employee may arrange with their department manager to flex their time.  If training occurs on a statutory holiday, the employee will receive their normal allotment of statutory holiday pay.
 
Any exceptions to these guidelines must be approved by Human Resources and the department Vice President.

Employee Advances
Employees are encouraged, whenever possible, to prepay expenses with the ErinoakKids corporate credit card available from their department manager.
 
If this is not an option, advances for out-of-town travel and/or other significant dollar purchases will be provided to employees by cheque, in an amount not to exceed $1,500.00, upon written approval from the employee’s manager and the department vice-president. Special care must be taken by employees to safeguard the funds advanced and return unspent funds together with receipts to accounts payable within three (3) weeks from the date the funds were advanced.

A.  Employee’s Responsibility:

• To seek prior approval of expenditures from the program/department manager for expenditures other than mileage.
• To submit an Expense Report to their program/department manager for approval and reimbursement of mileage, other travel expenses and other pre-approved expense(s) for ErinoakKids business.
• To submit their Expense Report no later than 30 days after month-end.
• To submit a ‘Continuing Education Request Form’ to their program/department manager, when reimbursement for a work related seminar(s), course(s) or workshop(s) is required.

 B.  Program/Department Manager’s Responsibility:

• To approve staff expenditure requests within the guidelines of this policy.
• To forward approved Expense Reports to Accounts Payable for reimbursement as soon as possible after receipt.
• To monitor staff’s work related expenses to ensure that reimbursement forms are up-to-date, accurate and submitted on a timely basis.

 C. Finance Department’s Responsibility:

• To ensure all documents for reimbursement of expenses are approved by the appropriate program/department manager and all appropriate receipts are provided.
• To reimburse the appropriate employee as soon as possible by direct deposit to the employee’s bank account.

For mileage claims, employees are to provide the following information:

• The purpose of each trip.
• Start and end points for the trip claimed; mileage from home to the place of work is a personal expense; if travelling from home to a destination other than your usual work site, your mileage starting from your usual work site or your home to your destination can be claimed, whichever is the lesser amount; abbreviations can be used for ErinoakKids sites, but the complete address or name of location is required for other destinations; if visiting multiple locations, each leg of the trip should be shown on a separate line of the expense report form.
• If an employee finishes their day at a site or location other than their base site, the mileage required to return to their base site or to drive home can be claimed, whichever is the lesser amount.
• Employees that travel to a location other than their base site either before or after their shift will have the ability to claim mileage.  However, they will not be able to flex their time or earn additional time paid time for travelling.
• Kilometers claimed for longer trips must be reasonable compared to distances indicated by Internet mapping programs (MapQuest, Google Maps), unless otherwise explained. “Longer trips” are defined as a one-way distance of 100 kilometers or more between the start and end point.  In these cases, a printout from MapQuest or Google Maps needs to be attached to the expense report.