Research - paying participant expenses and compensating for time: guidance

9. Compensating participants for their time: bank transfer payment

When you have decided that you will be compensating participants for their time and have identified payment amounts, you should follow one of the processes set out below if you are paying participants via bank transfer.

To make bank transfer payments to participants you will need to use the Scottish Government Finance system (SEAS). At Divisional or Directorate level, teams will arrange, manage and cover the costs of these payments.

9.1 SEAS – the Scottish Government Finance system

There are different ways to make payments on SEAS, depending on:

• whether this is a one-off or repeated payment
• whether a standard payment timeline can be followed (approximately four working days) or if a same-day payment needs to be made

It is recommended that well in advance of making these payments, you discuss this guidance with a Finance colleague that will be involved in payment processing e.g. your ePC (electronic purchasing card) holder, local Finance Lead or BCLO (Budget Centre Liaison Officer). This will help them be aware of the process that needs to be followed for research payments and you can agree how best you can work together to deliver this.

Please note that when the standard timeline is used to make payments, it will take approximately four working days for payment to be made to a participant. This is because Accounts Payable’s processing of payments can take up to approximately 48 hours, after which two working days are required before the issued payment will be in a participant’s bank account. If a participant cannot wait that length of time to receive either a one-off or recurring payment, you should follow the same-day payment option.

9.1.1 One-off payments via SEAS

If a participant is only being paid once, you should complete a One-Off Payment form and send it to accounts.payable@gov.scot. Once this has been processed by the Accounts team, which can take up to approximately 48 hours, the payment will be transferred to the participant’s bank account in two working days.

There is a maximum payment value of £500.

9.1.2 Recurring payments

If a participant is being paid several times for repeat involvements e.g. they are on a panel, they should be set up as a supplier on EASEbuy/PECOS and SEAS. They will need to invoice Scottish Government for each payment.

The participant will first need to complete a New Supplier form – this should be done well in advance of their involvement.

Your ePC (electronic purchasing card) holder, local Finance Lead or BCLO (Budget Centre Liaison Officer) can then create a Purchase Order (PO) and receipt on EASEbuy/PECOS. This PO should be referred to on each invoice for a participant’s payments. You may need to support participants to prepare invoices – an example invoice is provided in Annexe A, which covers the information HMRC requires. As above, participants should be informed in advance of their involvement about the receipts they will need to keep.

Invoices must be submitted to accounts.payable@gov.scot. No payment can be made without an invoice which contains:

• the information set out in the example invoice in Annexe A
• a PO number
• a receipt in PECOS/EASEbuy

Once an invoice has been received from a participant, these will be processed by the Accounts team (which can take up to approximately 48 hours), after which the payment will be transferred to the participant’s bank account in two working days.

Please note that research is VAT recoverable - participants will not need to add VAT to their invoices.

9.1.3 Same-day payments via SEAS

There will be some instances where this has not been possible and where you will want to make same-day payments, for example if a participant’s involvement is dependent on payment being made more promptly than two working days.

There are additional costs associated with same-day payments. You will need to be able to demonstrate to the Treasury and Banking team that a same-day payment is the only available method – they can refuse to make a same-day payment if another method is available.

To make a same-day payment (also termed a CHAPS payment) two forms need to be completed:

• SEAS Sterling Manual Payment Authorisation form
• SEAS Sterling Manual Payment request form

These forms are available under the CHAPS payment heading of the Guidelines for Processing Manual Payments, and need to be signed by different signatories.

These forms should be submitted to sgmanualpayments@gov.scot before midday on the day that the payment is to be made. Full details of the process are set out under the CHAPS payment heading of the Guidelines for Processing Manual Payments.

9.2 Compensating participant time: participants without bank accounts

At present, participants who do not have access to a bank account will need to receive compensation for their time in vouchers – see section 10 of this guidance for further information. We are working to establish a government-wide approach to making use of platforms like I-Movo, which allow individuals without bank accounts to withdraw cash from local retailers.

9.3 Record keeping

You will need to keep a record of payments, for example a spreadsheet or file confirming who payments have been made to, how much was paid and when the transfer took place. You will need to ensure that you have in place appropriate data protection measures to process and securely store any personal data, including participant bank account details, in line with any Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) you have in place.