Return to Checklist: Winter / Summer
Finances:
When you receive a cash advance, the University is entrusting you with its funds. It is your responsibility to account for how you spent those funds within University guidelines. This means that your cash advance monies are subject to the usual rules, regulations, and auditing procedures required by the University Treasurer's Office and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Golden Rule of Cash Advances, in short, is: Whenever you spend program money, get a receipt that shows the amount you spent. The only thing for which you don't need a receipt is your per diem.
The corollary to the Golden Rule is: keep up with your financial accounting! Each day, note on the back of each receipt what the expenditure was for and put it in the correct envelope. Keep track of your expenses on a spreadsheet or in whatever way works best for you. If you do this, the task of reconciling your cash advance should be much less daunting when you return.
If you are working with one of our resident directors to make payments for your program, please do not reimburse that person from your cash advance unless you receive authorization from Lisa Huber in CFIS. Do not give the resident director a portion of your cash advance even though they may have paid an expense originally planned to be paid from your cash advance.
You are only responsible for the money that was cash advanced to you. Therefore, faculty directors should not pool cash advance monies. Cash advances are given to individuals, not programs. Procurement Services will not accept written agreements between co-directors as receipts.
In that same vein, do not attempt to mix receipts from your cash advance expenses with receipts from a resident director's expenses on behalf of your program. The resident directors are responsible for reconciling with CFIS the expenditures made from the UD bank accounts they administer, and you are responsible for reconciling your cash advance. Money and receipts from these two sources MUST be kept separate.
If you pay a travel agency/hotel/school/organization from your cash advance for arrangements for excursions, remember to have them itemize the expenses on their invoice. Submit the itemized invoice along with the excursion spreadsheet.
Some other policies: University policy does not allow for reimbursement of alcoholic beverages or for any expenses of family members such as hotel occupancy, admissions to excursions (like museums, theatre tickets), airport shuttles, and meals.
