Schools and Information Services(IS)
The year-end date of the 31st July 2025 is critical for all non-project announced research related expenditure, (i.e. not externally funded) as although, announced Research and Innovation expenditure is bound by the same financial rules, budgets for research projects are based on the period of the grant/project, and not a financial year.
Spending Deadlines
Therefore if you are intending to continue spending from the codes you have which are affected by the financial year end (i.e. non- announced research project) usually with a job number beginning with 4xxxx or 5xxxx, or 9xxxx and non-external funded income, please be reminded that these costs need to be included in the current financial year, and therefore any goods or services must have been ordered and DELIVERED by 31st of July 2025 (and ideally invoiced too).
To ensure that there is enough time left to process the orders we already have, and for the orders to be delivered by 31/07/2025, please ensure you have forwarded your order requests to your normal request routes by Friday 04th July 2025.
Whilst this is simple for goods with definitely short lead times, if the lead time is not clear, please check with a supplier how long delivery would take at a maximum, to make sure that the required items are on the premises by 31st July 2025. We will have a lot of orders to process at this time too, so as long as the requests are made in time we will process them as soon as possible.
Please remember externally funded Research and Innovation Project orders or services on project numbers generally beginning with 1xxxx, 2xxxx or 3xxxx for research purposes, are unaffected by this timeline, and will still be placed as normal and prioritised, be it as quickly as we can within the current workloads, as we more than appreciate the research must keep going.
Please could you make sure that all outstanding invoices, expenses claim forms (including those related to the research grants/Innovation awards) and timesheets are submitted as soon as possible during July, as we need time to process them.
Foreign suppliers’ invoices, i.e. in non-sterling currencies need to be with finance by the by the 13th July 2025, in order to be paid within the current year.
Colleagues are kindly reminded that the ‘No PO (Purchase Order), No Pay’ policy and process still very much applies, even at year end.
Expenses claims
- FAO of members of staff: to make sure claims to be included in 24/25 financial year, please submit expenses claims via Staff Connect by Sunday 13th July 2025 at the latest, to allow the Finance Shared Services Team time to process them before the Payments Office’s claims deadline.
- We will have many to process……so if for any reason they were rejected simply because they timed out (anything over 14 days)…..simply resubmit them using that option on staff connect.
I must also remind you as normal, these claims should not be over 3 months old either and not include any physical items that FSS should and could have purchased for you.
- FAO of students: if any outstanding, please submit online electronic expenses claims via the online, Student Expenses Claim Form by Sunday 13th July 2025 at the latest.
Any claims after this date, will need to briefly wait, and be submitted on or after the 1st August 2025, and this includes those on announced Research / Innovation related Projects too please, as there will still be time to claim on your project.
Timesheet Staff
Research Assistant / Hourly Paid Staff / PT teachers – Timesheets.
If you have been awarded any form of internal funding, which might have included a budget for research assistants (RA’s) / or hourly paid staff, please can I ask you to remind your RAs / workers to enter their timesheet hours via Staff Connect within 30 days of working the hours.
“All hours (both guaranteed hours and variable hours) must be claimed in this way and must be claimed within 30 days of the work having been undertaken. In exceptional circumstances claims will be accepted up to 90 days after work is undertaken. Failure to do so may result in pay being withheld.”
- FAO supervisors / line managers: please ensure you delegate timesheet approval in Staff Connect if you are not going to be available from the 1st to 8th August.
If an employee no longer has access to Staff Connect or the post in Staff Connect that the hours relate to please contact Finance Shared Services to arrange a submission to payroll.
- FAO staff on timesheet contracts: please enter in Staff Connect the dates and hours worked, to be approved by your supervisor/line manager, no later than Friday 8th Aug 2024.
Timesheets submitted and not approved by the 8th August, for hours worked up to and including the 31/07/24 will not be eligible to be processed for payment in August.
Income Invoices
If you have any outstanding requests for invoicing external organisations, please could you forward relevant information for raising invoices to finaccountsreceivable@kent.ac.uk email address as soon as possible.
Income Journals
If you have any outstanding requests for recharging other departments, please could you forward relevant information for raising these internal recharges by completing the Enquiries Form, as soon as possible.
Estates/Hospitality
The year-end date of the 31st July 2025 is just as critical to Estates and Hospitality, and so please ensure all purchase order requests are submitted as soon as possible, to be included in the current year, and current practices for year-end remain as in previous years.
Expenses claims (estates/hospitality staff)
- FAO of members of staff: to make sure claims included in 24/25 financial year, please submit expenses claims via Staff Connect by Sunday 13th July 2025 at the latest, to allow the Finance Shared Services Team time to process them before the Payments Office’s claims deadline.
- We will have many to process……so if for any reason they were rejected simply because they timed out (anything over 14 days)…..simply resubmit them using that option on staff connect.
I must also remind you as normal, these claims should not be over 3 months old either and not include any physical items that we should and could have purchased for you.
Any claims after that date will need to briefly wait, and be submitted on or after the 1st August 2025.
Thank you in advance for your support and patience with this exercise. Please bear with us at this very busy time, we will get there, as our response times may be slower than we would like, at year end, which reaches all the way into the first weeks in August.
Any problems please do just get in touch with the Enquiries Form and we will see what we can do to help.
Deadline Summary:
| Purchase order Requests – Purchasing | 04th July 2025 |
| Conference Registrations for attendance before the 31st July 2025 – Conference Registration | 04th July 2025 |
| Participant Payments (Cash or E voucher) – Participant Payments | 04th July 2025 |
| Specialist Payments – Specialist Payments | 04th July 2025 |
| Staff Expenses Claims – Staff Expenses | 13th July 2025 |
| Student Expenses Claims – Student Expenses | 13th July 2025 |
| External Expenses (Sterling) – External Claims – Sterling | 13th July 2025 |
| External Expenses (Foreign Currency) – External Claims – Foreign Currency | 13th July 2025 |
| Research Expenses Claims – Research Projects Expenses Claims | N/A |
| HR Interview Expenses Process – HR Interview Expenses | 13th July 2025 |