Award Management

Buying and Paying

Best Practices
  • Review transactions for all expenditures in Fiscally regularly
  • Review monthly projections to monitor costs and prevent overruns
  • Establish monthly meetings with PIs, AAs and S/FOs assigned to review accounts, communicate any changes and policy updates
  • Review and certify eDACCAs quarterly (within 60 days)
Expense Reimbursements

See MIT policies on reimbursements on the VPF Reimbursement page.

Travel reimbursements must be submitted through Concur, MIT's travel reporting System. The exception to this are remote conferences purchased with personal funds, where not travel is required. These charges can be reimbursed through RFP.

Request for Payment (RFP) Process

Submitting RFPs that uses an online tool to process requests for:

  • Faculty, staff, and students
  • Payments to suppliers that don’t require a Purchase Order
  • Taxable payments for speaker fees, honoraria or awards

Once approved, the reimbursement or payment will be deposited electronically in the payee’s bank account on file, unless a check is specifically requested by the reimbursee, the payee is a non-MIT employee, or the reimbursement is going to an outside vendor.

Requesting a reimbursement MIT's online tool for reimbursements to yourself or another payee can be reached through Atlas under the menu. Reimbursements

Request or track a reimbursement for yourself at Atlas >My Reimbursements 
Request a reimbursement for another payee at Atlas >Manage Reimbursements (RFPs)

Instructions for use 
The documents below need to be updated, but the instructions are correct once you navigate to "My Reimbursements" or " Manage Reimbursements (RFPs) in Atlas

MIT has provided quick cards for each of these processes to help users navigate the system. For help submitting an RFP payable to yourself:

For help submitting an RFP for a payee other than yourself:

Find more detailed information on RFPs in the MIT Knowledge base.

After you submit RFP forms 
Once the RFP is completed, forward the form to the Financial Assistant who supports you or the payee.

Receipts 
During the process, you will be asked to scan and upload your original receipt or backup documentation into the system.

RFP Status 
If at any time you wish to see the status of an RFP you submitted, or wish to view an RFP on a cost object to which you have access, you can do a search Atlas >Manage Reimbursements (RFPs) >Find RFPs

Server Purchase Guidelines and Procedure

Please review the Server Purchase Guidelines and Procedure before continuing.

Servers bought by CSAIL PIs require space and maintenance from TIG. TIG needs to be made aware of server purchasing plans before a purchase is made.

AA, PI, or fiscal personnel should reach out to TIG to make sure there is enough space, power, and cooling for the machines the PIs and their teams need to purchase.

There are several stages where fiscal personnel is aware of those plans/purchases:

  • Proposal stage - If a PI builds in a proposal budget the purchase of servers/equipment the FO/FC will notify TIG of the nature of the equipment and the quantity budgeted.
    • FO/FC will inform TIG via email to help@csail.mit.edu with the PI coped.
      • Ex: "This is to let you know that PI XXX is budgeting for buying 1-2 servers. If this award is granted we expect that this server will be purchased in year xxxx."
  • Post award stage - If/When the PI asks for FO advisement on whether they can buy servers on a specific award.
    • In this instance, please let the PI know that you will inform TIG of these plans for reasoning described out above and send an email to help@csail.mit.edu with the PI copied. 
      • Ex: "This is to let you know that PI XXX needs to buy 1-2 servers. PI XXX needs to have the servers in 2-3 months."
  • Post award stage - PIasks the AA to place an order for servers.
    • The AA will comunicate to the PI that TIG needs to be informed and will send an email to help@csail.mit.edu with the PI and requisitioner copied.
      • Ex: This is to let you know that PI XXX needs to buy 1-2 servers. Please contact PI XXX and discuss this purchase. Let us know once it is ok to proceed with approval."
Swept Charges

Please review the CSAIL Policy for any questions.