Reimbursement Using State Funds

Departments must consider using UB's preferred purchasing methods such as a Procurement Card, eProcurement or purchase order for business transactions. Using these methods ensures contract pricing, liability and tax exemption requirements are met. When requesting reimbursement, you may be asked to explain why one of these preferred methods was not utilized.

Ownership of all items acquired with state, Research Foundation (RF) or UB Foundation (UBF) funds is vested with the respective entity and not the individual faculty or staff member. This includes items purchased:

• by an individual for which the cost was reimbursed.
• using a university procurement method such as a purchase order, Procurement Card (PCard), or any eProcurement method.

Departments must also ensure appropriate asset management requirements are met.

• List the UB business purpose for the expense on the expense report or voucher.
• Attach original receipts to the expense report or voucher.
• Verification of payment. Depending on how the purchase was made, additional information may be requested to substantiate that the purchase of goods or services took place.
• For vouchers, the payee and the authorized individual must sign it. For expense reports, the payee must accept the electronic agreement. For more information, review the UB Approval Authority Policy.

The Allowable Use of Funds policy governs payment and reimbursement for food, beverage and related expenses associated with official university functions. Documentation is required to support and justify the business-related purpose of the expense.

Every effort should be made to obtain New York State sales tax exemption. If the vendor did not accommodate UB's tax exempt status, you may be required to provide an explanation.

Reimbursement is typically requested for food purchases and registration costs for vendors that may not accept credit cards or purchase orders. Registration costs related to travel should be included on the expense report or voucher.

Not all state-funded items can be reimbursed on an expense report or voucher. The following expenses cannot be requested:

• supplier payments
• honoraria
• student tuition and scholarships

Payments can be confirmed by the department using the SIRI State Payments tab. A direct deposit reference is 7 digits, a check number is 8 digits beginning with a zero, (e.g.) 0XXXXXXX.

Reimbursements with state funds for state-funded employees are either direct-deposited into the payroll account or mailed to the address in the payroll file. Employees do not need to be added to the state-wide vendor file in order to be reimbursed. Non-employee reimbursements are mailed to the address provided on the voucher.

If Employee Receives Pay by Paper Check — employees that receive part or all of their pay in a check will continue to receive a check for their travel or expense reimbursements. However, that check will be mailed to the same address as the one that appears on the employee’s paycheck. There is no option to have travel or expense reimbursements sent to a different address.

If Employee Receives Pay by Direct Deposit — employees will not receive any notification that a direct deposit has occurred. Employees that have their full paycheck direct deposited to one bank account will have their travel or expense reimbursements deposited to that same account. Employees that have their direct deposit split across more than one account will have their travel or expense reimbursements deposited into the account where the balance of their pay goes. For example, if you have $300 per paycheck direct deposited to Bank A and the balance to Bank B, your travel or expense reimbursement will go to Bank B. However, if an employee designates a percentage for each account, and does not indicate balance, a check will be issued.