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Entertainment Policy and General Reminders. Manager’s Toolkit Training – January 2007 Jenny Murphy, Director of Accounting & Purchasing Services. AGENDA. Entertainment Policy Why was the policy developed? What is entertainment? Overview of the Entertainment Policy
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Entertainment Policy and General Reminders Manager’s Toolkit Training – January 2007 Jenny Murphy, Director of Accounting & Purchasing Services
AGENDA Entertainment Policy • Why was the policy developed? • What is entertainment? • Overview of the Entertainment Policy • Examples of Guidance Provided over the Last Year • Business Expense Form Certification • Noticeable Changes General Reminders
Why Developed & Overview • Entertainment Policy • January 1, 2006 • Vice Chancellor for Administration officially interprets this policy and addresses exceptions to the policy.
Guidance Examples • Meetings with only U. T. System Administration employees • There should not be entertainment expenditures unless approved by Vice Chancellor Brown (6.1.1). • Examples include, but are not limited to: department staff meetings, departmental retreats, manager’s toolkit training, safety liaison meetings, record retention coordinators meetings, and OSS-APS Customer Advisory Group meetings.
Guidance Examples 2. continued… • We recommend obtaining pre-approval from Vice Chancellor Brown before incurring an entertainment expense for this type of meeting. • OSS-APS verifies that the department head and VC Brown sign off on the Business Expense form before processing the reimbursement.
Guidance Examples • Regularly scheduled business meetings that include U.T. System institution representatives • may have entertainment expenditures (6.1.1c). • Examples include, but are not limited to: BMC, System Council, System Audit Directors, Strategic Leadership Council, System-wide Insurance Advisory Council, Employee Advisory Council, System Compliance Officers, OFPC Physical Plant Directors, Police Chiefs, and Chief Development Officers.
Guidance Examples 3. continued… • OSS-APS verifies that the department head or delegated departmental signer signs off on the Business Expense form and that the payment is to a vendor before processing the reimbursement. • Vice Chancellor Brown does not need to sign off on these entertainment expenses. • When ordering for these meetings consider the start time, be conscientious. • 8:00a.m. or earlier a breakfast platter may be appropriate; • if later than 8:00a.m. consider skipping the breakfast platter.
Guidance Examples • The only gifts addressed in this policy are: • Retirement gifts (6.1.7.1) • Before purchasing a retirement gift for a retiree your department should obtain an opinion from Cecilia Gonzalez, OGC, on whether the gift will be taxable to the retiree. If it will be taxable U.T. funds should not be used to purchase the gift. • Retirement Party limits are $20 per each year of retiree’s service to the U.T. System.
Guidance Examples 4. continued… • Gifts to employees for personal reasons (6.2.2) • These gifts are not allowed to be purchased with U.T. funds. Examples include, but are not limited to, gifts for: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and farewells. • Barry Burgdorf, VC & General Counsel, is leading a group that is addressing gifts (i.e., to speakers and donors).
Guidance Examples • Multiple U. T. System Administration employees traveling together • Meal expenditures should be processed through each employee’s individual travel voucher. These are not entertainment expenditures. • Entertainment expenditures are paid with Official Occasions’ funds while travel meal expenditures can be paid with appropriated funds or non-official occasions local funds.
Business Expense Form Certification Business Expense Form Certification • By signing the form you are verifying that you have read the entertainment policy and that the expenditure on the form complies, or that VC Brown has approved an exception to the policy. • Trend – Preparers are marking that the Entertainment Policy is “n/a” for the expenditure when it is applicable.
Noticeable Changes Reimbursement Requests
11 General Reminders • Date stamp your department mail when received. • Itemized receipts and completed forms are required for reimbursements. • Provide OSS-APS with changes to your department’s delegated signature authority. • Safeguard information: • Mark out procard numbers on supporting documentation before sending to OSS-APS. • Shred the Personal Identification Form (PIF) after a vendor is established in DEFINE.
11 General Reminders • If payment documentation is in Filenet you do not need to keep the documentation in your department. • Use your department procards for small dollar purchases ($4,500 per purchase maximum): i.e., printing, duplicating, repairs, books and conference registration fees. • Do not buy computers or other computer related items that are not on OTIS’ Computer Product Pre-Approval List. • Do not use for entertainment expenditures. • If you are purchasing something >$5,000, contact Kyle Hayes, Buyer, before proceeding.
11 General Reminders • Employees may not use U. T. phones or faxes for personal long distance and they may not use the contracted rates we have with express mail carriers (i.e. DHL, Fedex, UPS) for personal shipments. • An OSS-APS Customer Advisory Group member from your department receives information from OSS-APS via e-mail and through meetings to communicate to your department. • Your department should be using the eShipGlobal web-based system for express mail and the web-based Office Depot system for office supplies. • Be conscientious of low dollar reimbursements.
Travel Voucher Reminder Travel Vouchers must be prepared timely. • Receipts older than 60 days from the day the expense was incurred or paid could either be denied or added to the traveler’s W-2 and taxed as income, according to IRS Rules (Publication 463). • A written explanation as to the reasons for the lateness and additional levels of approval are needed to process these documents. Contact Jenny Murphy, Director of APS, for guidance.
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