How to declare my costs after being invited to a TD1210 and have attended the meeting?
Dear all,
despite of all documentation, I get this question quite often. I tried to sketch the workflow (see figure).
- You have been in touch with the organizer of the meeting informally, and agreed to come, or asked if you could come.
- You got an INVITATION via the eCOST database, sender noreply@cost.eu, subject contains words as “Action TD1210 Meeting invitation…” and than the name of the specific meeting.
- In this mail you find the text piece “and accept this invitation by following the link below: https://e-services.cost.eu/invitation/[a long alphanumeric string]/ This link is your key to the site with your personal reimbursement interface.
- When clicking this link there are two possibilities: a) you have an account to the e-services.cost.eu system -> than you login and see immediately you interface for this meeting OR b) you have no account. In the latter case, you go to https://e-services.cost.eu and create one. BUT, after this you need to go back to your mail, and click on the invitation link once more and login once more.
What can I get reimbursed?
The information which costs get reimbursed can be found here -> Rulestravel_COST!
Short further info can be found here:
A walk thorugh the interface of the eCOST system with snapshots of all mails and interfaces; plus again the rules of what can be reimbursed can be found here:
http://www.cost.eu/module/download/43361
I hope this is of any help! The picture schematized the steps, please note that step 3 can be done at any time. It is the sequence from (1) to (2) you need to follow to be able to declare costs. Please submit your claim after the meeting. You can put in already all costs, but put the final submit button only after the meeting. Otherwise, if something happens on your way back from the meeting, you will not be able to change this!
Please note that we can only proceed your reimbursement for the days your signature is on the attendance sheet! Fast reimbursement helps us to control the expenditures in the Action and to allocate additional funds to activities, thanks for this!
Deviations in your journey OR What to do if I come earlier than the event starts or leave later and What to do if I come from another place than my home place?
You are expected to come at days adjacent to start and end of the meeting. Depending of when it starts at the day, the day before and leave at the last day or the day after. You are also expected to come from your home location. But in some cases this might not be the case. Than you need to write to me (andrea.scharnhorst [at] dans.knaw.nl) prior to the meeting and ask for approval, providing an explanation and a proof that your travel becomes not more expensive by this deviation (one pdf of your actual travel costs, and one pdf of your travel costs for an ideal journey will suffice). Good reasons for a deviation are: you want to use the travel to also collaborate with the organizer and therefore come a bit earlier, or stay longer (you will get no more night tough); your travel would become much more expensive otherwise; your are already on a journey (conference-visit-hopping) and this event is one in a row.
You also need to upload this information to the eCOST system when doing your claim. Our Administrative Officer form the COST office wrote: Just to confirm that the participant can travel to/from another place/country than the country where he is residing but needs to comply with the following administrative requirements validating his request:
a. Provide comparative quotes (a print out from Skyscanner/Opodo/Expedia or another reputable airfare/travel search engine) showing a list of the most economical return travel fares on dates as close as possible to the date of the approved meeting for travel between the country where the eligible participant is residing and the country where the approved COST meeting is being held. The comparative quotes should be generated on the date the participant booked his actual ticket which itself should be generated at least 4 weeks in advance of the approved activity. If the claimant does not possess comparative quotes for travel on dates close to when the actual booking was made or the actual travel dates are already in the past, then multiple comparative quotes for hypothetical future travel around dates of more than 4 weeks in the future will suffice. The comparative quotes must show prices for the same mode of transport actually taken by the eligible participant.
b. The participant must justify the reason for their derogation on the remarks section on their signed TRR claim form.
c. The participant must also provide a copy of the invoice/travel tickets and the complete travel itinerary concerning the journey that was actually traveled.
NOTE: The lower of the two amounts detailed / evidenced in the documents mentioned in point 1 and point 3 determines the amount that can actually be reimbursed to the eligible participant.”
In the eCOST interface you will find the following instruction (as off October 31, 2016)”Travelling to and from countries other than that where the approved meeting is being held and the country where you are residing (as registered on your e-COST profile) is a rule derogation. When this type of rule derogation is evident, you must submit an OTRR writing a valid justification in the box provided which must be accompanied with the following:
The full travel itinerary and the invoice / receipt for the actual ticket that was purchased along a comparative quotes sourced from a print-out from a reputable online travel search engine (Skyscanner, Expedia, Opodo etc.) at least one month before the event will take place listing the most economical means of travel close to the dates of the meeting for the expectant journey (the expectant journey being as if the participant travelled from the country where they are residing (as registered on their e-COST profile)) to the country where the approved activity is being held and back again.
You can never be reimbursed for more than the cheapest means of travel substantiated on the submitted comparative quotes and never more than the amount that was actually paid for the travel ticket in question. The lower of the two amounts determines the maximum sum that can be reimbursed. The applicable COST rules for reimbursement always take precedent over the above mentioned approach.”
Warmest regards
Andrea
