Training & development

We run regular training sessions to support all MPs and staff to understand IPSA's rules and processes.

The current training sessions are:

An introduction to IPSA Online
Drop-in training for IPSA Online
Managing your business costs: claims and budgeting
Managing your properties: The IPSA Property Lifecycle
Monies Owed
Publication
Reconciling your Payment Card
Returned Claims
Staffing Budget

Further details can be found below.

Introduction to IPSA Online

Our IPSA Online training workshops are designed to give MPs and staff confidence in using our expenses, finance and payroll system. They take place every Thursday at 2pm using a virtual platform.

If you are an experienced proxy or work for a returned MP, please be aware these sessions are designed to help those unfamiliar with the system.

The two-hour workshops include the following:

an introduction to IPSA Online
expenses
payroll
task manager
MP dashboard
getting help

Date and time: Every Thursday at 2pm.

Drop-in IPSA Online Training Sessions

As an alternative to our regular IPSA Online training sessions, we are offering a series of virtual drop-in session for you to access training on areas of the system that you would like more help with.

This session is open to all MPs and staff. You are welcome to come along prepared with questions for the trainer to demonstrate. We recognise that you may have more in-depth queries about IPSA Online that a drop-in session can address, for example, help with analysing reports, checking for outstanding payment card lines or looking at last year’s financial statement.

If you have questions regarding budgets, please email or book a call with your account manager or call 020 7811 6400 for urgent queries.

Date and time: Every Tuesday at 2.30pm.

You can also attend the drop-in session without registering.

Managing your business costs: claims and budgeting

An IPSA Account Manager will talk through some additional features of IPSA Online that are not covered in the ‘Introduction to IPSA Online’ session, and how these features can be used to effectively manage your claims and total spend. It will also include some additional tips to make it easier to manage your budgets.

This will include:

How to run and understand the new ‘Business Costs Breakdown’ report
How to run and understand the ‘Breakdown by Expense type’ report
How to run claim and payments reports
How to use the Analyzer tool
Techniques you can use to budget and manage your claims

This webinar will be around an hour long, with an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Date and time: Thursday 11 November at 2.30pm

Managing your properties: The IPSA Property Lifecycle

Join us for a workshop session with two Account Managers who will take you through managing MPs' offices and accommodation with IPSA. We'll cover things to consider while looking for a property, registering the property with IPSA, making changes throughout the tenancy, and leaving the property.

By the end of the workshop you will be able to make full use of the support IPSA provides before, during, and after your tenancy. You'll also be able to confidently submit Property Registration and Amendment Forms, and provide the correct evidence.

This is an interactive format, and we are able to cover your specific property topics on the day.

The session will last between 45 and 60 minutes and there will be many opportunities to ask questions.

Date and time: These webinars are held monthly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at various times throughout the year.

Monies Owed Webinar

There are many valid reasons why money may be owed and this session will look at how to recognise monies owed on IPSA Online, the methods of repaying money and importantly how to avoid owing money to IPSA. The session will help you understand how debt can arise and the options available to clear it.

Date and time: These webinars are held monthly on Wednesdays at 2.30pm throughout the year.

Publication Webinar

In order to improve upon our offering of support to offices, we're going to be running a Publication webinar both to help specifically with the upcoming review of annual publication data, but also with the intention of providing a greater insight into the publication process more generally.

This webinar will be looking to cover the following:

the reasons why MPs' expenses data is published
an explanation of the ways in which we publish data both in bi-monthly publication and in the annual process
what payroll data is published
dates and deadlines surrounding the 2020-21 annual publication
how to check your data, checking any overspends, and how to action any credit notes resulting from these
some further useful links and resources

Date and time: Tuesday 26 October 2021 from 2.30 to 3.30pm.

Reconciling your Payment Card

An IPSA Account Manager will talk through how to reconcile your payment card.

The session will last between 45 and 60 minutes and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Date and time: These webinars are held monthly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10am throughout the year.

Returned Claims Webinar

When you make a claim in IPSA Online sometimes they can be returned to you as there is an issue with the claim that needs to be corrected. There are many reasons why a claim will be returned to the originator such as no evidence attached, or an incorrect expense code.

This webinar will explain all of the reasons to you and show you how to make corrections and resubmit claims so that they can be approved. It is an interactive session so you will be able to ask questions in a group environment.

Date and time: These webinars are held monthly on Thursdays at 2.30pm throughout the year.

Staffing Budget Webinar

During this session, a member of the Payroll team will talk through the Staffing Budget Report. The session will cover:

how to run and view the Staffing Budget Report
how to understand the Staffing Budget Report
how to make amendments to the Staffing Budget Report
how to view expenses made against the Staffing Budget
year-end forms (included towards the end of the financial year)

This session will not cover the COVID staffing budget. For queries related to the COVID staffing budget, please see our Coronavirus FAQs or book a call with a member of the Payroll team.

Date and time: These webinars are held monthly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10.30am throughout the year.

If you have feedback or suggestions regarding training, please email communications@theipsa.org.uk.