Expenses policy - Nationwide

Updated January 2025

What expenses can I claim?

For training or rehearsal

  • Because we don’t earn any money from training we try to minimise expenses - but we still want it to feel fair and for it to be possible for you to attend. Please talk to us about any expenses you may incur in advance, and we will see if we can reduce them - for example by starting a little later so you can travel off peak etc.

  • In general if your travel costs will exceed £10 we will want to help. If we are training in Manchester we don’t pay for local bus or tram tickets in the city.

  • If you require accommodation we will encourage you to stay with friends if possible. If a hotel is a necessity please talk to us in advance.

For all other work

Travel by train

  • Please travel in standard class and buy the cheapest ticket possible. Book in advance if possible, and get advance or super off peak tickets.

  • If you pay contactless on a local bus or train service and are not provided with a ticket or receipt then we can accept a screenshot of your bank statement/transaction.

Taxis near workshops

  • Please use local public transport or walk if it is sensible and you feel safe to do so. If not you can take a taxi between the station, your hotel, and the school, and vice-versa.  

  • To claim a taxi fare you need a receipt that shows the start and end points of the journey.

  • If you are travelling to a more remote location via public transport and will need to get a taxi as part of your journey please book in advance as in some areas most taxis are already booked taking children to/from school.

  • We will not pay for taxis between your home and the nearest station unless you have pre-agreed this with us. We recognise that for people who live rurally and don’t drive this may be necessary.

Travel by car

  • If using your car for work you must have business insurance. You are responsible for ensuring that you are properly insured, this is not a cost that we cover.

  • If you are using your own car you can download a mileage form here (if you have Excel) or here (for Google sheets - if you use the Google sheets version you have to ‘Make a copy’ before you can edit it) which needs to be completed on a computer.

Please remember: You also need to provide VAT petrol receipts to cover roughly the amount you are claiming. Make sure this is a high resolution photo (large or original size if you’ve taken them on a phone). Please send these through in the same email as your mileage form.

Tolls (you pay these - we then reimburse you)

  1. Please get a receipt for all road tolls. 

  2. For detailed information on London congestion charges and Dart charge please see the London and surrounding areas expenses policy. 

Accommodation

  • We will pay for a B&B or hotel if it is not reasonable for you to travel from home in the morning. 

  • We consider a journey of up to 1 hour and 30 mins to be reasonable for an 8:30am start. 

  • For a half day afternoon we would expect you to travel the morning of the workshop. 

  • If you need accommodation, it is usually best to stay as close to the school as possible in order to reduce stress in the morning. 

  • There is no fixed cost limit per night. Typical costs range from £30 to £80 depending on location and what’s available. 

  • Please stay somewhere you would book for yourself if you were not being reimbursed for it, and please try to be careful with the costs you incur as they have a significant effect on the ongoing viability of the company. In a place where cheap good quality accommodation is available we would expect your accommodation costs to be towards the bottom of this range.

  • Please book on a bed and breakfast basis, and if breakfast is an option then please add it on and charge it to us.

  • If your accommodation exceeds £80 (which might be the case if there is a large event in a popular location, for example) then please get in touch with us before booking.

  • If you stay with a friend you can claim a fixed £10 towards a gift or similar. No receipt is needed.

If you stay in an established hotel you must ask for a VAT receipt! If you book through Booking.com or another booking website, the receipts on here do not count as VAT invoices even though they look like they do. Please ask for a separate invoice at the accommodation and check it has a VAT registration number and a VAT percentage on it. If the accommodation says ‘we are not VAT registered’ then a normal bill is fine!

Food

  • Breakfast – please book B&B’s or hotels on a B&B basis. If this is not possible, we will cover a reasonable amount for a breakfast elsewhere (eg in a cafe, or buying a pint of milk and some cereal etc.)

  • Lunch – please arrange your own packed lunch at your own cost.

  • Evening meal – we will provide a £10 contribution to your evening meal if you are staying away from home. No receipt is needed. There is a section for this on the expenses form. (If you are staying with friends, you can still claim this allowance on top of the additional £10).

Other

  • If you incur other costs which are required to do your job we will reimburse you. Please speak to us in advance where possible.

How do I claim my expenses?

When and how do my expenses get paid?

  • Valid expenses claims with legible receipts received by 12pm on Monday will be paid by the Tuesday evening.

  • We will pay by bank transfer at the same time as we pay any fees due to you and the fee plus expenses will appear as one combined payment in your bank account. Check the amount in your bank account to verify that we have paid everything correctly and email us on cast@weis.team if you have any concerns.

  • Everything will usually appear in your account by Wednesday morning.

  • Your expenses claim will not appear on your self-billing invoice - you should keep a copy of the expenses claim form and receipts you send to us for your tax records so you can prove you don’t owe income tax on that money. 

  • We only pay expenses once per week. Please send us the correct information as if we miss that week’s payment it might delay your reimbursement by a week. 

How do I claim my expenses?

  • Please send in your expenses by email to cast@weis.team using our expenses claim form, and with copies or originals of each receipt. Photos are fine but these need to be high resolution (i.e. large or original size if you’ve sent them from a phone).

  • Please avoid sending .HEIC photos (usually from iPhones) if possible as our banking system doesn’t like these. If you can export them to .jpeg or .png or another format, that really helps.

  • We do not accept expenses claims by text message, on Whatsapp, on Facebook etc. If you must send them via Dropbox please just send the link rather than share the folder.

If you cancel work with us but have already incurred expenses that cannot be refunded, please let us know at the point of cancellation. There is no guarantee that they will be reimbursed.

Where is the expenses form?

  • You can download it from here as a PDF, as a Microsoft Word file or a Google Docs file here (if you use the Google Docs version you have to ‘Make a copy’ before you can edit it.)

  • If you are emailing in your receipts please either edit the word document on a computer, or print out the PDF, write in the spaces and send us a scan, or a clear high resolution photo - which the iPhone calls 'original' resolution.

  • If you are using your own car you can download a mileage form here (if you have Excel) or here (for Google sheets - if you use the Google sheets version you have to ‘Make a copy’ before you can edit it) which needs to be completed on a computer.

Can I send you photos of receipts with the expenses form?

  • Yes! But they need to be high resolution, brightly lit, legible and not blurred, and all the details need to be included in the same picture - including the amount, the name of the company, their address and their VAT number. If it is too blurry for the tax inspectors to read we may reject it and paying your expenses claim may be delayed.

Can I email you receipts during the week as I receive them?

  • No! If you are claiming by email then once each week please email us your expenses claim form with photos or PDF's of receipts attached to the same email. If you cannot attach them then please email them immediately afterwards so they are all next to each other in our inbox.

How quickly do I need to claim expenses?

  • Expenses should be submitted within 2 weeks from the week the expense was incurred. If something will prevent you from sending your expenses in on time, please get in touch with us in advance via cast@weis.team.

Do I need to provide VAT receipts?

  • Please submit a VAT receipt for anything involving VAT - in particular hotel stays (other than small B&B's which are not usually VAT registered). Hotels should be able to provide a VAT receipt as you check out - or even the night before. If you don't provide a VAT receipt, this will cause a delay in us processing your expenses. If you have left your hotel and do not have one, a quick phone call to them will usually resolve this.

  • Booking.com or other external booking websites will send you a receipt but this is NOT a VAT receipt and we will need a separate one from the hotel if they are registered.

  • If your hotel is not registered for VAT, please write this on your expenses form so we don’t chase you up unnecessarily.

When do I get reimbursed?

  • We aim to pay everyone's expenses every Tuesday provided they have arrived with us by midday on the Monday. Everything will usually appear in your account by Wednesday morning. Please don’t call us during the daytime on Tuesday to ask if these have been paid; we’re usually processing expenses on a Tuesday.

  • A few times per year in the busiest weeks we might not manage to process expenses until the Wednesday, especially if we receive them late.

How should I lay out my expenses?

Please find an example below: