Helpful Information

 Appendices
Glossary
Group Meals
Imaging
ListServs for Staff Assistants
Meeting Expenses
Tips for Processing Expenditure Documents

Group Meals: When two or more people (one a University employee or representative) have a meal that replaces breakfast, lunch or dinner during conduct of University business - object code is 332.

• Paper group meal form is required. Fill and print version available from GURU https://guru.psu.edu/forms/GroupMealandMeeting.pdf
• PSU employees cannot be reimbursed for group meals from restricted research grants, unless they are in travel status. Employees on travel status are not permitted to conduct group meals for the purpose of circumventing the daily maximum meal allowance. In rare cases when an employee-only group meal is conducted while on travel status, the group meal amount related to each employee should be deducted from the amount available to each employee under the daily maximum meal allowance.
• No alcohol on general funds or federal grants.
• Must use group meal form even when using a purchasing card.
• Group meals may be reimbursed by SRFC, petty cash or paid with a purchasing card. In all of these instances, a completed, signed group meal form and original receipt(s) must be attached.
• An itemized receipt must be attached. If no itemized receipt is available, a memo of explanation, signed by the budget administrator, must be attached to the group meal form. A copy or fax of the itemized receipt is acceptable provided that there is an original receipt showing the total paid and the itemized receipt amount agrees with the total on the original receipt.
• Group meals with University employees only must be marked unallowable on the FANS window (see x coding -general funds).
• Foreign national visitor's meals are not allowable on any funds unless they are on an approved VISA. Departments that pay for foreign national visitor meals not on an approved VISA must accept responsibility for any fines or penalties imposed by the INS.
• Per person group meal expenses are limited to $44 (per diem rate of location) on general funds.
• Amounts over $44 per person must be charged to unrestricted donor funds. Amounts of total bil over $80 per person (includes meal, tax, tip, alcohol) must be reimbursed to PSU.
• Research Office requires copy of SRFC, original group meal form, plus a copy of the group meal form; original receipts plus one copy of receipts.
• Financial Office requires a copy of the SRFC, the original group meal form and the original receipts.
• Costs of entertainment, amusement, diversion and social activities and any costs directly associated with such costs (such as tickets to shows or sporting events, meals, lodging, rentals, transportation and gratuities) are not allowable on federal grants or general funds. In unusual circumstances, they may be reimbursed from miscellaneous funds with approval from the Dean. {top}

Imaging

• Accounting Operations is now imaging accounts payable.
• Receipts smaller than 3 inches by 4 inches: Receipts smaller than 3"x4" will not auto-scan in their existing equipment. They jam up the scanner and cause serious delays in operations. All receipts smaller than 3"x4" on petty cash, travel, SRFC's, and purchasing card reimbursements should be taped on 8 ½"x11" sheets. The small receipts should be taped on all four (4) sides and should not overlap each other. Be sure tape does not cover any information on the receipt because some tape reacts with the ink and makes it unreadable. This will permit auto-scanning of the receipts.
• Shaded Areas and Colored Forms: Shaded areas on forms, colored paper and highlighting often cause degradation in the quality of the images to the point of being unreadable. The shaded areas often come out on the image too black to read any text that might be in the shaded area. Colored paper often has the same effect as shading. To the extent possible, all in-house forms that are involved in accounts payable transactions need to be on white paper using black ink with no shaded areas. Most of the forms are University forms and Accounting Operations will be contacting specific offices to make the changes. In redesigning forms, a space should be left on the upper right corner of the forms covering an area about 1 ½" from the top and about 4" from the right edge of the paper. This space will be used for central indexing numbers . {top}

ListServs for Staff Assistants

All people in your business offices should be subscribed to the following listservs :

Meeting Expenses