Expenditure and Disbursement Policy

Responsible Unit: Finance | Executive lead: CFO 
Created: 1/2008 | Reviewed/Revised: 5/2011, 6/2015, 6/2016; 1/27/2023, 6/1/2023 | Effective: 7/1/2023 
Compliance: NWCCU 2.E.1, 2.E.2  
Approving Body: BOT | Classification: Institution-wide 

Policy:  
This policy has two purposes: (1) to define the expenditure and disbursement procedures for PNWU; and (2) define rules for expenditures and disbursements funded by intramural and extramural grants.  

All disbursements will be paid by the PNWU Office of Finance. Recipients must comply with policies and instructions for personnel in the PNWU Office of Finance and Office of Scholarly Activity, OSA, (when disbursements relate to sponsored projects). 

The Office of Finance shall follow generally recognized internal control standards for processing expenditures. 

All Vendors shall be valid providers of goods and services as determined by the Office of Finance. 

Purchasing authorization: Only certain employees as approved by the applicable budget director are authorized to purchase goods and services on behalf of the university. 

Purchase orders: a pre-approved purchase order is required for all purchases greater than $2,500, with the exception of routine expenditures (as approved by Office of Finance) without an underlying contract, lease, or other standard invoice. Administration may determine a list of expenditures that do not require a purchase order (PO). 

Budgeted purchases less than $10,000 shall be authorized by the applicable budget director or Controller. 

Non-budgeted purchases greater than $5,000 shall be authorized by the applicable budget director, their supervisor and the CFO.

All purchases greater than $50,000 require the President’s approval. 

Any expenditure greater than $100,000 that causes the University to be over budget in total by greater than $100,000 will be reviewed by the Finance Committee for validity and/or shall be approved via a budget revision.
 
Authorization Summary 

BOT Finance Committee Expenditures> $100,000 that cause the University to be over budget in total by > $100,000. 
President Expenditures>$50,000 
COO/CFO Budgeted expenditures > $10,000 and non-budgeted expenditures> $5000 
Budget Director Budgeted expenditures < $10,000 and non-budgeted expenditures< $5000 

Check signing denotes secondary approval of an expenditure. 
 
The Budget Director and CFO or COO has the right to deny reimbursement for any expense deemed non-business or not pre-approved. 

PNWU may deny reimbursement for any expenses submitted more than 30 days after occurrence, or beyond the University’s ability to collect from an appropriate secondary source (i.e., grant funds), or if illegal or contrary to PNWU’s nonprofit mission. 

Allowable Travel Expenses: 
The following rules apply to travel, except for grant-funded travel, whose rules are set by the funding agency’s policy.  

  • A meal per diem is awarded at $65 per day of business travel. Meals will not be reimbursed when provided as part of the travel arrangements (e.g., breakfast provided by the hotel, lunch provided by the conference, etc.). For reimbursable meals, the following limits apply (including tip); 
  • $15 for breakfast 
  • $20 for lunch 
  • $30 for dinner 
  • Alcohol purchases will not be paid for by the University with the following exception; under special circumstances, approved in advance by the President, or his or his designee, and with itemized receipt. Meals and alcohol will be reimbursed beyond the $65 per diems for purposes of appropriate business-related expenses such as donor, constituent, or other stakeholder meetings. 
  • Mileage is reimbursed at the IRS rate when using a personal vehicle as calculated on the PNWU Travel & Expense Reimbursement Report form. 
  • Rental cars are approved when necessary and gas will be reimbursed per receipt. 
  • Most lodging accommodations should not exceed $200 per night (excluding taxes and fees). 

  
Federal Regulation Regarding Timeliness of Disbursements 
Federal regulation 45 CFR 75.305(b) requires grantees and pass-through entities to minimize the time elapsing between receipt of federal funds and disbursement of those funds. PNWU will comply with the federal regulation, utilizing the procedures defined in this document. 

Approval of Grant Disbursements: 
Only expenses that are included in the approval budget on file with the Office Scholarly Activity (OSA)  be submitted for disbursement. Any deviations from the approved budget must be approved by the funding agency. Requests to change budgets must be approved by the Chief Research Officer (CRO) and Controller before they are submitted to the funding agency. 

All grant disbursements must be pre-approved by the project director (PD) or principal investigator (PI). The PD/PI must submit payment requests using the appropriate PNWU forms (e.g., expense reimbursement, check request, and the like) to the OSA approval by the CRO. OSA personnel will route the approved (signed and dated by the CRO) disbursement to the Office of Finance. 

Preapproval for Grant-funded Travel: 
Individuals who will travel using funds from a grant must submit a travel preapproval form to the PD/PI who then submits the form with attached documentation to the CRO.  Planned travel costs must be estimated using verifiable sources, such as a quote for the air travel or a statement of conference registration fees. A copy, in PDF or paper format, of all price quotations must be included with the travel preapproval. The PNWU policy for travel stated above will be utilized to determine the amounts for each category (registration, airfare, hotel, ground travel, parking, meals, and incidentals), unless otherwise specified by the funding agency or approved by the CRO when unusual expenses are necessary. 

Sub-award Disbursements to External Entities: 
Disbursements to sub-recipients will be determined by contractual agreement between the sub-award organization and PNWU. Disbursements to sub-awardees will follow requirements of the funding agency as applicable.  Payments to sub-awardees will be conditional upon fulfillment, or adequate progress toward fulfillment, or grant roles and responsibilities articulated in the contract as well as the approved grant application. Sub-awardees shall submit all documents pertaining to disbursements as requested by the PD/PI, OSA, and the Office of Finance. 

Definitions:  
Definitions of the following terms are provided in the policy entitled Definitions and Acronyms Related to Grants: 

  • Extramural 
  • Grant 
  • Grantee 
  • Intramural 
  • Pass-through Entity 
  • Sponsored project 
  • Sub-award 
  • Sub-recipient 

Procedure:  
N/A 
 

Related Documents: 
N/A 

 

Policy Resources

For assistance with policies and procedures contact:

Lori Fulton
lfulton@pnwu.edu