Professional development allowance

This allowance is available for legitimate expenditures relating to a Professor's teaching or research activities. Allowable expenses include professional memberships, books, journals, equipment, supplies, conference registration fees and related travel & accommodation costs. Home Internet connection is also an eligible expense. Only eligible expenses with original receipts will be accepted for reimbursement.

All Faculty Members holding a tenured, probationary or extended term appointment are entitled to claim the professional expense allowance. For 2012‐2013, the allowance is $1,750. Faculty Members may bank their allocation over a two‐year period to provide a maximum purchase funding of $3,500 in the second year (carry forward maximum of $1,750). See IMPORTANT stated below for remittance deadline.

Procedure for claiming the allowance

All purchases must be made in accordance with University policy e.g. Airfare is to be purchased from one of the University’s Official Travel Agencies, Expense Report claims permitted for goods purchased under $1,000 including tax, Purchasing Services to buy goods exceeding $1,000, etc.

The allowance claim is to be submitted on an Expense Report form. Expense Report must be completed in full as per the University’s Policy for Travel and Other Allowable Expenses at http://fs.concordia.ca/. Please use your WP account for PDA claims and see backside of expense report form for account codes. The Claimant must sign the form and send it to the Engineering and Computer Science Budget Office, EV002.217 (Internal Mail c/o EV002.139). Your Chair’s approval is required for all travel related claims.

Original proof of payment must be attached to the expense report. Acceptable proof of payment includes:

1. The customer copy of a credit card slip or the original credit card statement,
2. The original canceled cheque
3. Cash register slips, official receipts from companies, and the customer copy of money orders are also acceptable receipts.

Photocopies are not acceptable. If transportation costs are being claimed, the ORIGINAL passenger boarding pass/ticket stub is required, along with the travel agency invoice and itinerary. Financial Services requires that the titles of books and publications purchased be indicated on the expense report in order to be reimbursed.

You can forward eligible invoices to the Budget Office to be paid from your WP account. Please have your Chair approve invoice(s) for payment.

IMPORTANT: Any equipment purchase must be made through Purchasing Services by completing an on-line Webreq (web requisitioning form). It is recommended to use a P-Card (equivalent of a credit card but allowing to purchase only certain merchandises) for frequent small purchases of supplies.
Please visit our purchasing page for information on the P-Card procedure.

Any computer and software equipment (on both Operating and Research accounts) must be purchased through the Concordia Computer Store (via an on-line Webreq). If applicable, a waiver form can be completed and attached to the Webreq for further processing. Equipment purchases must be recorded with the AITS Inventory System of IN‐Invchange accordingly.

As per the Faculty’s Policy of two Signing Authorities, the Department Chair must approve with the Office of the Dean for expense processing i.e. Cheque Requisition, Expense Report, Invoice, & Purchase Order.

The Budget Office must receive all claims for the 2012-2013 fiscal year (from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013) no later than Friday, March 22, 2013.

Please contact the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Budget Office should you have any questions regarding this matter.