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Commonly Used Expenditure Types

The commonly used expenditure type codes are listed in the following table. Use the Expenditure Type Query Tool in Oracle Financials to obtain a more complete definition of the expenditure type.

The descriptions in the following table are condensed and may not be identical to what is listed in Oracle Financials.

Expenditure TypeNameDescription
52210EMPLOYEE GIFTS TAXABLEUse for the taxable portion of tangible gifts to employees or the entire value of any gift cards (except when used for business meals (use 52355 FOOD) or employee morale event meals (use 52240 EMPLOYEE MORALE) as described in Admin Guide 2.2.10.2&3). If a tangible gift is below IRS guidelines, then the entire value of the tangible gift may be charged to 52240 EMPLOYEE MORALE. Alcohol MUST be charged to 52310.
52230EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT ALLOW*Reasonable costs of recruiting, including advertising, aptitude testing programs, travel costs of employees while engaged in recruitment and travel costs of applicants for interviews or prospective employment, etc.
52235EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT UNALW**Charge recruitment costs that do not meet the test of reasonableness or do not conform with established university practices (including advertising that uses color printing or is excessive in size.
52240EMPLOYEE MORALECosts in accordance with established University practice for employee (faculty and staff) morale. For example, costs of employee service and retirement awards, recognition, bereavement flowers, retirement party food, event decorations, and recreational activities. The portion of tangible gifts over IRS guidelines must be charged to 52210 EMPLOYEE GIFTS TAXABLE. When a meal or food includes alcohol, enter the full cost (food, alcohol, tax, and tip) on a single line and allocate that entire amount to an unallowable Expenditure Type. Employee morale cannot be charged to Federal sponsored awards. May be used for gift cards purchased for business meals or employee morale meals. All other gift cards provided to employees are taxable and should be charged to 52210 - EMPLOYEE GIFTS TAXABLE.
52250MEMBERSHIP DUES/FEES ALLOW*Costs of the institution’s membership in business, technical and professional organizations is allowable as an indirect cost, but not as a direct cost on federal sponsored awards. Memberships in civic or community organizations are allowable only when prior approval is obtained by the federal awarding agency. Use 52255 for unallowable memberships and 59497 for dues and fees payable to Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Stanford University will not pay for Stanford Faculty Club dues, social or travel club memberships.
52310ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES UNALW**Alcoholic beverages are unallowable and are charged to 52310. Meals that include alcohol no longer require food, alcohol, tax and tip to be itemized. When a meal or food includes alcohol, enter the full cost (food, alcohol, tax and tip) on a single line and allocate that entire amount to an unallowable expenditure type. Charge allowable meal and food costs to 52410, 52420, 52355 or 52240.
52315ENTERTAINMENT UNALW**Entertainment costs, including amusement, diversion, social activities and associated costs, such as tickets to shows or sporting events, meals, lodging, rentals, transportation and gratuities must be charged here. Use 52240 for employee morale. If the activity is for instructional purposes, use 52440. Use 52320 for fundraising meals or entertainment and 55190 for all lobbying expenses.
52320FUNDRAISING MEAL ENTRTN UNALW**All fundraising meals and entertainment must be coded here. Use 52430 for fundraising travel and 55185 for fundraising expenses other than meals, entertainment and travel.
52355FOODAll working meals without alcohol, including business meals, food purchased for meetings, staff training classes, in-house conferences and other food purchased for work, including bottled water, coffee and tea. Food cannot be charged to federal sponsored awards unless approved by the sponsoring agency. If the working meal includes alcohol, charge the entire cost to 52356. Meals purchased when traveling are charged as travel (524xx). Fundraising and lobbying meals must be charged to 52320 and 55190, respectively.
52356FOOD/WORKING MEALS W/ALC UNALW**All working meals with alcohol, including business meals, food purchased for meetings, staff training classes, in-house conferences and other food purchased for work, including bottled water, coffee and tea. Food with alcohol is not allowed on federal sponsored awards. If the working meal does not include alcohol, charge the entire cost to 52355. Meals purchased when traveling are charged as travel (524xx). Fundraising and lobbying meals must be charged to 52320 and 55190, respectively.
52410DOMESTIC TRAVEL ALLOW*Travel and lodging in the United States and its territories; reasonable expenses for transportation, lodging, subsistence, meals, mileage, car rental, shuttle service and related items incurred by individuals who are on university business. For meals or food that include alcohol, charge alcohol to 52310. Use 52415 for unallowable portions of domestic travel expenses. 
52415DOMESTIC TRAVEL UNALW**Airfare costs in excess of the customary standard commercial airfare, travel by institution-owned, leased or chartered aircraft, including the cost of lease, charter, operation (including personnel costs), maintenance, depreciation, insurance and other related costs, including excessive lodging, meals and food are unallowable.
52420FOREIGN TRAVEL ALLOW*Any trip that has a leg that begins or ends outside of the United States and its territories. Air travel on federally-sponsored projects usually requires flying on a U.S. airline (Fly America Act). Review sponsor terms and conditions for additional restrictions. If documentation of the lowest available airfare is not available for a business class trip, the department charges one-third of the cost to allowable foreign travel 52420 and the remaining two-thirds to unallowable foreign travel 52425 and an unrestricted account or activity. Use 52447 for non-Stanford University (SU) allowable foreign travel expenses.
52425FOREIGN TRAVEL UNALW**Any trip that has a leg that begins or ends outside of the United States and its territories, where airfare costs are in excess of the customary standard commercial airfare, travel by institution-owned, leased or chartered aircraft, including the cost of lease, charter, operation (including personnel costs), maintenance, depreciation, insurance and other related costs, including excessive lodging, meals and food are unallowable.
52430FUNDRAISING TRAVEL/LODGE UNALW**All fundraising travel and lodging must be charged here. Use 52320 for fundraising meals and 55185 for charging all other fundraising expenses.
52445NON-SU DOMESTIC TRAVEL ALLOWTravel and lodging in the United States and its territories for individuals who are not Stanford employees or students, such as consultants or guests. Allowable domestic travel payments for human subject volunteers must be charged here. Travel and lodging expenses related to organ donors must be charged to 54620.
52510NON STAP TRAINING/CONF FEESRegistration and course fees for training, conferences, workshops, conventions, event entry or continuing education the primary purpose of which is the dissemination of information and is not paid by staff training assistance program (STAP) funds. Use this code regardless of whether travel is involved. Use 51891 for expenses payable by STAP funds. Use 55130 for materials or books purchased at conferences and educational events. Use 524XX to charge conference travel costs.
52810RE LEASED SPACE >1 YEARUse only for lease of building or office space with a signed lease agreement of greater than one year (or less than or equal to one year with an option and intent to renew beyond one year). Charge service and facility fees and miscellaneous rentals to 52992. No indirect costs.
52830RE LEASED SPACE 1 MO TO 1 YEARLease of space with a term greater than one month but less than or equal to one year with no intent to renew. Charge service and facility fees and miscellaneous rentals to 52992. No indirect costs.
52910LEASED EQUIP > 1 YEAR; <5KLease of equipment with a term greater than one year, with less than $5,000 committed. Use 52992 for rentals that do not qualify as equipment or space. Does not require departmental property administrator tagging and tracking during the life of the rental.
52921LEASE GENRL PURPOSE EQUIP >5KIncludes individual equipment leases for general purposes, such as copiers, vehicles (e.g., vans, buses and golf carts), mail (e.g., postage meters), technology (e.g., PCs, iPads, phones, fax machines) and other general purpose equipment. Leases are a minimum one year commitment (or less than or equal to one year with an option and intent to renew beyond one year) and greater than $5,000. Requires departmental property administrator tagging and tracking during the life of the lease.
52951LEASE SPECIAL PURP EQUIP >5KIncludes leases of laboratory or other technical items related to research, scientific, medical, instructional or other technical activities. Leased cost of special purpose equipment is charged directly to a sponsored project. Leases are a minimum one-year commitment (or less than one year with an option and intent to renew beyond one year) or are non-cancellable contracts and greater than $5,000. Requires departmental property administrator tagging and tracking during the life of the lease.
52981LEASED EQUIP 1 MO TO 1 YEARLease of equipment with a term greater than one month and one year or less with no intent to renew regardless of the dollar amount. Use 52992 for rentals that do not qualify as equipment or space. Does not require departmental property administrator tagging and tracking during the life of the rental.
52992RENT OTHERIncludes short-term (less than one month) rentals that do not otherwise qualify as equipment or space leases, such as facility use fees, document storage fees or miscellaneous rentals (furniture, chairs, etc.). Charge leased space (with a signed lease agreement) to 52810 or 52830 and ground rent to 52820.
53110SU CAP OFFICE FURNITUREStanford-owned capital equipment. Includes items $5,000 and greater, such as desks, safes, conference tables or other furniture. It does not include modular furniture (53135) or art (55195). Generally not chargeable to federal sponsored awards.
53115SU CAP SCIENTIFIC TECH EQUIPStanford-owned capital equipment. Includes items $5,000 and greater used only for research, medical, scientific and other technical activities. Examples are microscopes, amplifiers, voltmeters, centrifuges, scanners, refrigerators and freezers (used to store lab specimens).
53120SU CAP COMPUTER EQUIPStanford-owned capital equipment. Includes all items $5,000 and greater used in automatic data processing or computing, such as mainframe computers; workstations; laptop computers; disk, hard and tape drives; disk/drum storage units; printers and any other peripheral or auxiliary equipment. Also includes on-premises software packages purchased separately from an outside vendor costing $1 million or more. Use 55410 for on-premises software purchases costing less than $1 million.
53135SU CAP MODULAR FURNITUREStanford-owned capital equipment. Includes office partition furniture and modular work units $5,000 or greater per individual work unit. Does not include office furniture costing $5,000 (53110). Modular furniture can only be purchased using a Capital Accounting project account. Call Capital Accounting to obtain a project account. Do not enter into Sunflower.
53511EQUIPMENT REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE (replaces 53510,20)Repair, maintenance and modification costs of equipment. Includes manufacturers’ warranties, preventative maintenance contracts, equipment calibration and general repairs. For modifications that may alter the life of the equipment, use 53175.
54220ACCOUNTING FEES ALLOW*Accounting fees other than the costs of accounting services incurred in connection with the defense or prosecution of certain criminal, civil and administrative proceedings, claims, appeals and patent infringements, which are unallowable. Use 54225 for unallowable fees.
54225ACCOUNTING FEES UNALW**Unallowable accounting fees, including costs of accounting services incurred in connection with the defense or prosecution of certain criminal, civil and administrative proceedings, claims, appeals and patent infringements. Use 54220 for allowable fees.
54230PROFESSIONAL SVCS ALLOW*Allowable consulting services, other than legal or accounting, paid to individuals and to outside organizations for professional services. Use 54210 for legal, 54220 for accounting or 54330 for temporary services. Services provided are of an intellectual nature and include identification of problems, analysis of such problems and recommendation of solutions. Allowable honoraria payments made to non-SU individuals must be coded here. Use 54235 for unallowable professional services fees.
54320NON PROFESSIONAL CONTRACT SVCSGeneral services under contract, not professional in nature. Use 54330 and 54360 for non-contract services. Use 53511 for equipment and vehicle maintenance contracts.
54330TEMPORARY SERVICESCosts for external, temporary, non-professional help (e.g., Manpower, etc.). For professional consulting services, use 54230 or 54235.
54385EXTERNALLY HOSTED COMPUTER SVCExternally hosted computer infrastructure services delivered over the internet and accessed via a web browser or desktop/mobile application. Includes the rental of servers (infrastructure) and/or other infrastructure components, such as storage, networking hardware and operating systems where the cost is less than $1 million. Also referred to as cloud-computing infrastructure services.
54510PRINTING PUBLICATIONSCost of printing (includes plate-making, press-work, binding and the end products produced by such processes), distribution, promotion, mailing and general handling, except where separate recording is desired. Also includes page charges in professional journals. Do not use for unallowable costs.
54520PHOTOCOPY NON SUPrinting, photocopying and duplicating not performed by Stanford. Use 58315 for internal photocopy charges. Use 54550 for the costs of sponsor-required reports on sponsored projects. Caution: In most cases, photocopies are considered administrative in nature and may not be charged directly to sponsored projects.
54630HUMAN SUBJ PMTS INCENTIVESPayment of incentives (cash or gift cards) to human subjects and other research project participants in a research project. All participants, including Stanford/SLAC staff, may be paid using the Expense Request system using this expenditure type or through supplement pay through the payroll process.
55110SUPPLIES MTL NON-CAP EQ OFFICEExpenditures for office supplies, materials and non-capital equipment, such as paper, paper clips, post-it notes, staples, writing utensils, toner, filing cabinets, office furniture and equipment with a cost less than $5,000. Use 55195 for unallowable office supplies. In most cases, office supplies are administrative in nature and may not be charged directly to federal sponsored awards. Use 55116 for computing devices and peripherals with a cost less than $5,000.
55116COMPUTERS & COMPUTING DEVICES (replaces 55115,36,41)Computing devices are machines that cost less than $5,000 and are used to acquire, store, analyze, process and publish data and other information electronically, including accessories (or peripherals) for printing, transmitting and receiving or storing electronic information (e.g. desk and laptop computers, tablets, thumb drives, keyboards, monitors, docking stations, internal and external hard drives, memory upgrades, mouse devices, printers, scanners and mobile phones). Devices may be charged to federal sponsored projects if they are essential and allocable to a project (but do not have to be solely dedicated to the performance of the award).
55120SUPPLIES MTL NON-OFFIC NON-LABNon-office and non-lab supplies, materials and equipment costing less than $5,000 that are used for activities such as training, kitchen work, cleaning, repairs/maintenance or sponsored project work not conducted in a lab. Use 55116 for non-capital computing devices and peripherals, 55110 for office supplies/materials/non-capital equipment, 55210-55250 for lab/scientific supplies/materials/non-capital equipment, 55165 for tools, 55180-55195 for unallowable supplies.
55130BOOKS PUBS NON LIBRARYPurchase of books, subscriptions, journals, e-content or data for individual university business or departmental use. Such items purchased when away from Stanford should be coded here, not to a travel code. Excludes Stanford University Libraries' catalogued items.
55185FUNDRAISING UNALW**Fundraising costs are always unallowable. Charge fundraising travel and lodging to 52430 and fundraising meals and entertainment to 52320.
55195SUPPLIES MATERIALS UNALW**Unallowable supplies and materials costs not captured elsewhere. Includes art and purchases of all appreciable property, such as violins, harps and pianos, even if cost is greater than $5,000. Also used by the Development Office for donor-funded expenses.
55210SUPPLIES MATERIALS LABORATORYLaboratory supplies and materials. Includes radioactive materials, nucleotides (e.g., RNA- and DNA-containing materials), peptides (e.g., amino acids and proteins), growth media, controlled substances, restriction enzymes or biological organisms. For compressed gas, chemicals and trade name products containing hazardous materials, use 55230.
55215LAB/SCI/TECH NON CAP EQUIPMENTFor purchases of equipment with a costing less than $5,000 that are used for research, scientific, medical and other technical activities, such as meters, microscopes, pumps, etc. Use 55116 for computing devices and peripherals used for these activities. For lab supplies and materials, use 55210.
55230CHEMICALS COMPRESSED GASIncludes all chemicals and trade name products that contain a hazardous material as defined by federal, state or local regulations. All compressed gases must use this expenditure type. Use 55210 when purchasing radioactive materials, nucleotides (e.g., RNA- and DNA-containing materials), peptides (e.g., amino acids and proteins), growth media, controlled substances, restriction enzymes or biological organisms.
55310POSTAGEFee to send mail to destination. Includes stamps, express mail charges and mailing services. Charge sponsored project report costs (including postage) to 54550. Use 58815 for allocations from department postage meters. In most cases, postage is considered administrative in nature and may not be charged directly to sponsored projects, unless specifically budgeted on a major project. Use 55320 for transportation of goods and materials.
55320SHIPPING HANDLINGTransportation of goods and materials such as cartage, drayage and freight services. May include fees such as packaging and wrapping. Can include UPS, FedEx charges, etc., if the nature of the transaction is for shipping. In most cases, shipping and handling is considered administrative in nature and may not be charged directly to sponsored projects, unless specifically budgeted on a major project.
55410COMP SOFTWARE LICENSESOn-premises computer software packages purchased from vendors where the acquisition cost is less than $1 million (including development and implementation). Use 53120 for on-premises software packages purchased separately from an outside vendor costing $1 million or more and meets the capitalization criteria on the Fingate Software Capitalization page.
56010AWARDS PRIZES TO OTHERSNon-student awards and prizes. Includes awards and prizes to faculty, athletes and non-SU personnel. See also 57610, Prizes to Students. Awards relating to employee morale such as service, recognition and retirement are coded to 52240.
58320INTERDEPT SVC CENTER CHGSStanford University service center charges, except where other more specific expenditure types exist in the 58XXX range. Must not be used for expenditures which are otherwise unallowable.
58365INTERDEPT FACILITY USE CHARGEFees for use of facility or meeting rooms.
58380INTERDEPT CATERING*Catering charges. Use 58385 for unallowable activity or an unallowable portion (including alcohol). Food cannot be charged to federal sponsored awards unless approved by the sponsoring agency.
58385INTERDEPT CATERING UNALW**Unallowable catering charges (including alcohol).
58510-58805INTERDEPT CHGS TO FR OTH DPTCharges to or from other departments that are not listed as an ET 58XXX elsewhere.

allowable: eligible for federal government reimbursement
** unallowable: not eligible for federal government reimbursement

Last Updated: Nov 1, 2024

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