Background
In May 2019, Financial Management Services (FMS) completed an effort to update the university's Business and Travel Expense policies. The goal of this project was to provide clearer guidance and streamline the reimbursement process, while remaining steadfastly committed to sound financial stewardship of university resources.
One of the biggest sources of administrative burden was the requirement to itemize a meal into four parts: food, alcohol, tip and tax by using "52325: MEALS/FOOD TAX & TIP UNALLOW." This itemization is no longer required and was removed from the Expense Request System as of April 29, 2019.
While there are not many transactions using this expenditure type now that it is no longer required (only about 10% the rate of previous years), the next step is to completely retire the expenditure type from the financial systems to allow for cleaner reporting and reduced confusion.
What's Changing?
While the ability to use expenditure type 52325 has been removed from the Expense Request System as of April 29, 2019, it will now be retired from all financial systems, including POs, invoices, PCard, and iJournals effective August 31, 2020.
What Should I Do?
For all existing and new transactions, use the alternative methods to ensure that any cost that includes alcohol is categorized as unallowable, which means it is ineligible for federal reimbursement. To appropriately account for allowable and unallowable expenses, the user must choose the appropriate expense type and expenditure type depending if there is any alcohol included in the cost.
- Expenses containing alcoholic beverages should be charged with all tax and tip on the meal or food to an appropriate UNALLOWABLE Expenditure Type, such as:
- 52310 – ALCOHOL,
- 52415 – DOMESTIC TRAVEL UNALW,
- 52425 – FOREIGN TRAVEL UNALW, or
- 52356 – FOOD/WORKING MEALS W/ALC UNALW.
- Expenses for meals without alcohol may be charged to an appropriate ALLOWABLE Expenditure Type, such as:
- 52410 – DOMESTIC TRAVEL ALLOW,
- 52420 – FOREIGN TRAVEL ALLOW,
- 52355 – FOOD, or
- 52240 – EMPLOYEE MORALE.
What Happens Next?
Leading up to the retirement of 52325, FMS will be reaching out to preparers of transactions currently using the ET to provide them with guidance and resources to help them transition to a different ET. Resources will be posted here on this news bulletin and within the appropriate Fingate pages to support financial management staff as the date approaches.
For More Information
- Review the Meal Types Resource on Fingate to select an alternative ET to use on an impacted transaction.
- If you have questions about the retirement of this ET, please contact a Financial Support Specialist by submitting a Support Request.
