Buying and Paying
- Best Practices
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- 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
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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
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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 ReimbursementsÂ
Request a reimbursement for another payee at Atlas >Manage Reimbursements (RFPs)Instructions for useÂ
The documents below need to be updated, but the instructions are correct once you navigate to "My Reimbursements" or " Manage Reimbursements (RFPs) in AtlasMIT has provided quick cards for each of these processes to help users navigate the system. For help submitting an RFP payable to yourself:
- RFP Payable to self (PDF)
For help submitting an RFP for a payee other than yourself:
- RFP Payable to others (PDF)
Find more detailed information on RFPs in the MIT Knowledge base.
After you submit RFP formsÂ
Once the RFP is completed, forward the form to the Financial Assistant who supports you or the payee.ReceiptsÂ
During the process, you will be asked to scan and upload your original receipt or backup documentation into the system.RFP StatusÂ
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
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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."
- FO/FC will inform TIG via email to help@csail.mit.edu with the PI coped.
- 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.Â
- 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."
- 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.Â
- 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."
- 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.
- 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.
- Swept Charges
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Please review the CSAIL Policy for any questions.
- A swept charge is an expense that is posted against a secondary cost object when a transaction is not processed within 21 calendar days. The secondary cost object or default account is the back-up account provided by the credit card holder on the pro-card application.
Receipts and back up documentation are required in order to transfer a swept charge off of the backup discretionary account and onto the appropriate cost object.
Please be aware of charges that sweep on weekends, holidays and special closings and plan accordingly
Process of handling and solving credit card charges:
- Charges appear from the bank a few days after a purchase is made.Â
 - Once a transaction appears from the bank, FAIIs and the appropriate AA is able to see the transaction and begin the process of reconciling to the correct account.Â
 - Charges remain in the FAII and AA inbox for 21 days. After 21 days, charges are swept to a default discretionary account.Â
 - Once a swept charge hits the PI discretionary account the fiscal team is doing the research on where the charge needs to be moved.Â
 - When an expense sweeps, the FAII contacts the cardholder and/or Admin to submit the back up receipts for processing. Receipts and back up documentation are still required in order to transfer the expense from a back up account to the appropriate cost object.Â
 - Once the FAII receives the receipt, they submit to the FO for review and approval.Â
 - FOs are now conducting monthly reconciling of all expenses (FRC Review). At this time they flag any swept charges for the FAIIs to follow up with admins to request receipts.Â
 - When the receipt is received, the FAII has to submit a journal voucher to transfer the expense.
The biggest issue we see is that, once the 21-day deadline has passed, there is no longer a timeline for cardholders and AAs to submit receipts. This results in long delays and additional effort from the FAIIs to follow up with AAs and cardholders.Â
Internal policy for swept charges:- Once an expense sweeps (T=0), the cardholder and AA then have an additional 30 days (T+30) to submit the receipt so that the FAII can move the expense to the appropriate cost object
- After 30 days, an email is sent to the PI supervisor by the FAII with a copy to Karen, Carmen, and John
- After 45 days from the swept date (T+45), a final email warning is sent to the PI, cardholder, and Admin, with a copy to lab directors
- After 60 days from the swept date (T+60), the FAII the expense is processed on the PI discretionary account.
A cardholder’s p-card will be suspended after the second occurrence.