When creating claims there are three levels of “errors” you may come across:
Inline errors
These happen when you forget to fill out a mandatory field (those with a red asterisk) and an error message will appear as soon as you click out of a field or when you attempt to submit the claim.
Soft stop errors
These errors happen after you have submitted a claim.
IPSA Online will check your form when it is submitted and will send an alert that something is not quite right (for example, you may have forgotten to add a receipt) – but you can still force through the claim (you may have already sent an invoice for the year).
Soft stops you may encounter include:
"Selected budget exceeded"
"Lease for a selected address has expired"
"Hotel and subsistence limits exceeded"
"No receipt attached"
"Costs older than 90 days"
Hard stop errors
Like soft stops, these happen when you have submitted a claim.
These errors must be corrected before you can resubmit the claim (for example, travelling on the wrong journey type).
Hard stops you may encounter include:
"Not valid – train fare limit exceeded" – this means you are trying to claim more than the anytime standard fare. You must reduce the amount claimed to the anytime standard fare to submit your claim.
"Budget type – person-type correction" – this means you are attempting to claim from a budget you aren't allowed to claim from (for example, a staff member who is attempting to claim a cost allocated to the Accommodation budget). You must amend this to submit your claim.
"Budget type – address-type correction" – this means you have added the wrong address associated with that budget (for example, choosing the office address for an Accommodation cost). This must be amended before submitting your claim.
"Person – travel reason correction" – this means you have selected an incorrect journey type for your travel. You must amend this to submit your claim.