Non-travel expense reimbursement later than 60 days

[Jerian Lind]

I feel like this has been discussed numerous times, but I'm having trouble locating documentation/policy on late non-travel reimbursements.  Assuming the CFM approves the reason for lateness and all other requirements are in order, are non-travel expenses over 60 days allowed on sponsored (postage, in this situation)?  The project is still open and the expense is budgeted and justified.  I was able to find the restrictions on travel over 60 days in the travel in the travel policy, but was unable to find anything on non-travel in the business expense policy.

[Nicole Pilman]

The information you're looking for can be found in the  Business Expenses policy (https://policy.umn.edu/finance/expenses).  Specifically, it states:

Business expense reimbursement requests which are not adequately documented in accordance with Administrative Policy: Documenting Financial/Accounting Transactions, or are not submitted within 60 days, should be denied. In rare circumstances, there may be reimbursements which cannot meet the requirements for adequate documentation or submission within 60 days, due to legitimate extenuating circumstances which impaired the employee from meeting the requirements. In those situations, after consultation between the employee's unit and the Chief Financial Manager for the campus, college, or vice presidential unit, the reimbursement may be approved, and the rationale for determining that the circumstances warranted approving the request must be documented.

When reimbursement requests do not meet the requirements for documentation or timely submission, and there are no extenuating circumstances, but denial of the request would impose a financial hardship to the employee, the reimbursement request may be approved as a taxable reimbursement to the employee. The amount of the taxable reimbursement must be reported to Payroll, for inclusion in the employee's calendar year taxable compensation. Taxable reimbursements should be rare and should be approved only after consultation between financial management in the employee’s unit and the Chief Financial Manager for the campus, college, or vice presidential unit.

[Jerian Lind]

Thanks, Nicole.  Yes, I did find that portion of the policy, but I know in the travel policy, if a late reimbursement is approved by the CFM, it cannot be charged to sponsored.  My question is whether that same guideline applies to non-travel reimbursements.  If the CFM approves the expense reimbursement due to extenuating circumstances or financial hardship, can it be charged to sponsored if it is non-travel?

The second paragraph for business expenses over 60 days does not include the same language as the travel policy: "Additionally, these reimbursements may not be charged to sponsored projects, because they do not meet the University's policy requirements for documentation and timely submission." It may be inferred that non-travel would have the same affect; however, I wasn't 1000% sure if that piece was left out of the Business Expense policy on purpose.

Side note - in this particular case, I did not approve it.  But this question has come up in other scenarios, so I thought it would still be beneficial to discuss how an over 60 day non-travel reimbursement is treated in regards to charging sponsored projects.