The 2019-2020 Academic Salary Policy provided for continuance of the Professional Development Fund, to be used to reimburse expenses incurred by eligible academic staff for professional development.
With the start of the new Academic Year, the Faculty finance office has been receiving many Professional Development Fund (PDF) claims. As such, we would like to remind you of some of the program and expense eligibility guidelines. The PDF provides an annual $750 allocation to eligible Academic staff members for expenses that contribute to a staff member’s professional development. Examples of eligible expenses include:
- Memberships in scholarly societies, professional orders or associations
- Registrations for scholarly meetings, conferences and seminars, and travel and accommodation expenses to attend these events
- Subscriptions to scholarly journals and purchases of scholarly books
- Computer hardware and software in support of professional development or academic duties
- Purchases of computers or tablets made through the PDF must be made through Le James (McGill Computer Store) or via the Academic Laptop Program
- The PDF is funded through central University operating funds and any purchase done through the PDF must be returned to the University should there be a staff member departure
- Expense reports for purchases made directly through Apple or other vendors should not be submitted to the PDF
- Cell Phones are not eligible on the PDF. Going forward, please do not submit requests for reimbursements for cell phone purchases.
Please direct any questions about the PDF or accessing your PDF allocation to pdf.science [at] mcgill.ca
Further details about the PDF program guidelines can be found here: https://www.mcgill.ca/apo/staff-guides/professional-development-fund
Details about purchasing through Le James can be found here: https://lejames.ca/institutional
Details about the Academic Laptop Program can be found here: https://www.mcgill.ca/apo/staff-guides/academic-laptop-program
Reimbursement of Expenses
Consult the Professional Development Fund page for Eligibility and Eligible expenses.
Questions about submitting an Expense Report related to the Professional Development Fund? Please direct any questions about the PDF or accessing your PDF allocation to pdf.science [at] mcgill.ca.
Available Balances
The balances of individual Professional Development Fund accounts for staff members in the Faculty of Science are maintained at the faculty level. Please contact pdf.science [at] mcgill.ca for the balance.
How to submit your expense for reimbursement
Please Note that the Office of the Provost & Vice-Principle (Academic) no longer reviews the PDF claims from the Faculty of Science. The claims are reviewed at the faculty level. Therefore when submitting an expense report for the Professional Development Fund please select the “Faculty of Science” as the reviewer, not the Provost & Vice-Principal (Academic). Forwarding the expense reports to the wrong reviewer will cause delays in the process. Below are the steps to submit an expense report to PDF.
To submit an expense report to PDF
1. Log in to Minerva
2. Go to the Employee or Finance (Fund) Administration Menu
3. Select the Advances and Expense Reports Menu
4. Select Submit an Expense Report
5. Select Start an Expense Report to be finished by Someone Else
6. Enter the McGill ID of the responsible person
7. Enter the Destination and Start and Return dates
8. In the Purpose field, select Professional Development Fund from the drop down menu
9. Enter a detailed Description for the expense
10. Leave the Default Fund Code field blank
11. In the To be completed by Reviewer field, select Faculty of Science from the drop down menu
12. Click on Continue to proceed to the next screen
13. Enter receipt information - enter each receipt individually
14. Enter the Receipt date
15. Select the Expense Item
16. Enter a detailed Description of the receipt
17. Enter the total amount of the receipt, including taxes
18. If personal expenses are included on the receipt, enter the total amount of the personal expenses, including taxes, to be deducted from the receipt total
19. Select the appropriate Currency and verify the currency exchange rate, modify if needed
20. Select the Purchasing Location
21. Verify the GST/HST and QST amounts, modify if needed
22. Leave the Fund (FOAPAL) information fields blank
23. To enter more receipts, click on Add New Item and repeat Steps 13 to 22
24. Click on Save and View to verify the request
25. Click on Forward to Reviewer
26. Click on Print
27. Ensure the Claimant signature is included (no other signatures are required)
28. Forward a scanned copy of the signed expense report along with a scanned copy of all original receipts and send the expense report to: pdf.science [at] mcgill.ca
The deadline to submit an expense report is 15 April.