Business trips

Business Trips (CS and CN employees)

Useful information and forms regarding travelling at KIT have been translated by INT and can be found at the bottom of this webpage: https://www.int.kit.edu/intranet/travel.php

Courtesy of AG Grams

Here you find all information for business trips. Most links only work when you have a VPN connection to KIT!

All KIT official information are provided in German (thank you) here: [1].

And the legal stuff here: [2]

Also see the IMK FAQ respective section (might be not uptodate) here: [3]

Note: different rules, forms, travel agencies currently apply for CS / CN! Depending on from which funding the trip will be paid or on which contract you are the respective rules apply. Standard case is that you use the form according to which contract you are on.

There is a KIT-Helpline via ArbMedVV (Email vom Bereich vom 27.7.2018) 24h emergency respone: +49 (0) 7121433660 [www.sos-call.eu] In case you have trouble during a business trip (health, crime, lost things). see [4]

Step 1: Business travel form and A1 form

Travel form

Fill out the business travel request form. Bring it to the secretary and let it sign there. It is mandatory to register each trip to ensure insurance coverage via KIT.

   CS: only the first page! Bring it to Ms. Alexandra Beideck. (secretary CS)
   CN: only the first paragraph! Bring it to Ms. Sarah Schneitz. (secretary CN)

If you are not at campus,

   CS: you can also fill it in online and send it (digitally signed!) to alexandra.beideck@kit.edu. (secretary CS)
   CN: you can also fill it out by hand, scan it and send it to sarah.schneitz@kit.edu (secretary CN)

What happens with the form:

   CS: You will get it back after a few days with a travel number on top. Keep that travel request form, you will need it after the business trip to get your money back!
   CN: The yellow carbon copy will be forwarded to the Zeiterfassung to register the trip in ESS. You will get the form back latest after the business trip, keep it and fill it out to get your money back.

IMPORTANT FOR ALL: if you reimburse money, also if you got an advance payment (Vorschuss), you always must send the form back via the secretary after the trip.

   CS: You find the travel request form here as PDF: [5] or here as WORD: [6] The form for the advance payment (Vorschuss) you can find here as PDF:[7] or here as WORD:[8] 
   CN: You get the paper form from Sarah Schneitz or Rosi Gräbner or Roswitha in the CN secretary offices. Please use a pen and press hard, so that carbon copies print through!

The PhD's have made an English translation of the form, it might be helpful:

   CS: [9]
   CN: [10]

A1 form (only EU, EWR, CH, UK travelling)

You need the A1 form / Entsendung when travelling on mission for KIT within EU/EWR/CH/UK: online form well before travelling: [11]. Not sure which rules apply for other countries.

Step 2: Book your flight/train/hotel

When booking hotel/flights/train tickets, ALWAYS specify the institute address as the billing address. This address applies for all bills to KIT (including papers, conferences, etc):

The correct address for Campus South is:

    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
    Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research
    Kaiserstraße 12
    76131 Karlsruhe

The correct address for Campus North is:

    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
    Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research
    Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1
    76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen

KIT VAT Number (both campuses)

   KIT VAT number DE266749428

The actual procedures

KIT has a travel agency which in principle would book everything for you. Note for CS this is currently DER Stuttgart (only flights and trains). For CN it is DER business travel located at CN (flights, trains, hotels). Our general impression is that this service is slow and somehow an extra burden (extra forms) and therefore not worth the extra fees they charge when booking hotels (only CN) or trains through them. However, they are quite helpful for finding flights and often have better cancellation policies. So for long-distance flights which are expensive and might have to be changed, definitely go with them, but plan well ahead. For expensive train tickets it might also be better to go through the agency.

   Travelling by train: If you travel by train, you can either book it by yourself and hand in later the invoice and proof of payment (in the form of a bank statement) or let it get booked by the travel agency at KIT. If you decide to do the latter, you can find the templates and the exact procedures here:
       CS train form: [12] or as PDF document here [13]
       CN one form for hotel/train/flight: [14] (information), [15] (form)

   Travelling by plane:
       CS flight form: Fill out the form and send it to the travel agency via email (you will find the email address in the form): [16].
       CN one form for hotel/train/flight: [17] (information), [18] (form)

   They will then come back to you via email and they will then send you offers. In this case you don't have to pay something by yourself, it will already be charged with the project money!

   Book a hotel: If you stay over night, you might need to book a hotel. The easiest (and most safe) way is to do it by HRS: [19]. You need to log in with the password provided here: [20].)
       CS: The most important thing is that you stay below 95€ per night per person as Campus South employee! You can directly book the hotel via this webpage and don't forget to fill in the institute address as billing address!
       CN: Only hotels which stay below 70€ per night per person will be reimbursed as Campus North employee without further question! In addition also hotels with the "TMS" Logo will be reimbursed. HRS lists the local allowance (Bund) for the destination, which is helpful. In doubt ask back, and see information below.

   It might be that you have to pay the hotel by yourself once you arrive, so don't forget to hand in later (in Step 3) the invoice and proof of payment (in the form of a bank statement).

There are partner hotels of KIT, which you can find here for hotel within Germany: [21] and here for hotels out of Germany [22]

IMPORTANT: If you want or need a hotel other than listed, either (1) stay below the limit, (2) give proof of what an allowed hotel on HRS would have costed (screenshot), (3) talk back to your group leader and write a written explanation why you need to stay in that hotel (e.g. specific conference hotel during a workshop).

Step 3: Get back the money you spent

After you returned from your business trip you need to collect all your invoices from the trip and get the proof of payments in form of a bank statement.

Please provide these to the secretary as follows:

- nowhere stapled - preferably in a transparent foil and held together by a paper clip

- original cash receipts, debit card payment receipts etc. that are smaller than A4 (i.e. virtually all) must be glued to a blank DIN A4 sheet (not stapled to the e.g. invoice).

Now you fill out the second page (CS) / the remaining section (CN) of the travel request form and bring that form together with all invoices and the bank statements to the respective secretary. After 2-3 months you will receive a letter (CS) / an email (CN) with the information that your payment has been processed by the human resources department and also the information how much money you will receive. The money will be transferred to your specified account.

In addition to the expenses you had you get daily allowances. These depend on your destination. For Germany:

   * 24h absence 24€/100%; >8h absence 12€/80%; <8h 0%
   * if you get a meal (as part of hotel / conference) this allowance will be cut by 20% for breakfast 40% for lunch, 40 % for dinner (thus for Germany from 24€ cut by 4.80/9.60/9.60)

Contact persons for requests of the processing at HR = PSE:

   CN: Jacob, Vera (PSE) vera.jacob@kit.edu Tel. 25016 (contact only as last resort, always indicate the travel form number, be polite)

Further information

Please check the various PSE pages (in German) and IMK FAQ for specific things. All rules are explained there. The most frequent things we list below:

Combining business trip and holidays

   CS: in principle you can do that and we also encourage it if you travel long distance by plane (make most out of the carbon emission). Still talk to group leader and eventually the HR (PSE) person.
   CN: you can extend a stay by at most 5 working days, otherwise the transportation will not be reimbursed (private character of the trip).

Vorschuss - advance payment

You can request an advance payment, in particular if you have to pay expensive registration fees, hotels, trains, flights on your own in advance. You need to give a proof of the payments already made (invoice, bank statement) or a proof of the anticipated costs (e.g. conference announcement, informal letter listing the expected costs). Talk to group leader.

Paying invoice via institute

   * First fill out and get signed your Dienstreisenatrag.
   * Make sure that the invoice is properly done. It should contain:
   * adress (CN or CS) and KIT5250 (in the address field or subject line; without quotation marks, spaces or hyphen)
   * detailed information about issuer: address of the institution, bank account of the institution, bank name, BIC, official adress associated with the account (which might sometimes differ from the account of the institution), contact details
   * What's important is that you are not the one sending the invoice but it has to be send by issuing institution to rechnung@fima.kit.edu

Bahncard DB Bahncard 25/50/100 can be reimbursed if you make proof that you save the costs via the savings made on business trips. Either do it afterwards, handing in all receipts of DB tickets, where you used your bahncard on business trips or make a projection of planned trips and KIT will directly pay for a Bahncard. For us the first option might apply if at all.

Only online conference fees

If you have a single invoice, do not do the travel form procedure. Instead go via an invoice, use this form [23] and follow the following procedure (Email of Roswitha from 14.1.2021) (collapsable menu):

   * Before registering, please obtain written permission from the group leadership (please with a separate email that refers only to this process, subject: "Permission to attend virtual conference XY"). The e-mail reply from the group leader should also include information about the project from which the costs are to be paid (for Transregio W2W, please specify the exact subproject).
   * It is neither necessary nor desired to create an order in SAP!
   * For all invoices, the central KIT address (Kaiserstr. 12 or Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz) must be given as the invoice address. Invoices issued to a private address cannot be reimbursed.
   * If invoices are to be paid directly by our financial department, please specify rechnung@fima.kit.edu as the invoice e-mail address and specify the cost center (Kostenstelle) with the prefix "KIT" as the invoice reference (i.e., KIT5250 (CN) KIT??? (CS), without spaces or hyphens!)! If not possible otherwise, the cost center can also be indicated in the address field.
   * After the conference please hand in the following documents to Rosi Gräbner:
       E-mail printout of the approval of the participation including the information from which project the costs are to be paid
       Printout of all invoices
       If abstract fees are billed: Receipt showing active participation (conference program or similar).
       Bank statements as proof of payment (please black out all information about other bookings).

This procedure only applies to virtual conferences. In general, it is seldom necessary and should therefore be avoided to lay out costs privately, especially for the procurement of equipment.

Rosi Gräbner (rosalba.graebner@kit.edu) will be happy to answer any questions in this regard - preferably before payments are made.

Procedure for Attending Online Conferences

Before the conference:

1. Discuss with your supervisor(s) if it is beneficial for you to join that conference online and if you should present (talk or poster) or listen only.

2. Check out the conference’s web page concerning registration fees and deadlines (often, there are cheaper early-bird rates available). If the conference is for free, you don’t need to do anything further.

3. Write an e-mail to your supervisor asking for permission to join the online conference: “Subject: Permission to Attend Conference XY Online

Dear Supervisor, Please confirm the permission for me to attend conference XY online and state, from which project the registration (and abstract) fees should be payed.”

4. Wait for an answer.

5. If you got a positive answer, pay the registration (and abstract) fee with your credit card. Use the following information for the invoice:

When employed at CS:

·Invoice reference: KIT7149

·Shipping e-mail for pdf: rechnung@fima.kit.edu

·Invoice address:

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

DE FIMA Buchhaltung

Kaiserstr. 12

76131 Karlsruhe

When employed at CN:

·Invoice reference: KIT5250

·Shipping e-mail for pdf: rechnung@fima.kit.edu

·Invoice address:

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

DE FIMA Buchhaltung

Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1

76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen

After the conference:

1. Print out the e-mail with the permission to attend the conference and from where the costs should be payed as a pdf-file (no need to print it out physically on paper).

2. Print any invoices you got from the conference showing that you payed the conference fee (sufficient as a pdf-file).

3. Get your bank account statement showing the payment of the conference fee. Put black boxes over all (sensible) information excluding the payment you want to have refunded.

4. Fill out the form “1_ErstattungAuslagen_NEU_U_FIMA_BUHA_KR_08_09-22.docx”. You get this form from Rosi Gräbner (rosalba.graebner@kit.edu). English translation [24]

5. If necessary prepare a short statement why you chose a specific payment option. E.g. when attending the EGU General Assembly, it is usually cheaper to buy a membership+registration fee than only the registration fee.

6. Put all information together and send it to Rosi Gräbner (rosalba.graebner@kit.edu) by e-mail.