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Employee Non-Travel Expense Reimbursements

Policy
Purpose: 

To outline the requirements for reimbursing employees who use personal payment forms for official University of Kansas business.

Applies to: 

All University employees

Campus: 
Edwards
Lawrence
Leavenworth
Juniper Gardens
Parsons
Pittsburg
Salina
Topeka
Policy Statement: 

Non-Travel Reimbursements

Goods and services directly purchased for official University business must follow the Procurement Procedures and How to Buy Matrix. Except for travel expenses, reimbursement to employees for goods and services should be infrequent and not as a course of routine business. Employee non-travel expense reimbursements are expected to be infrequent because they are the least cost-efficient form of procurement to process and, depending upon items purchased, may be out of compliance with procurement policies and procedures. Non-travel reimbursement requests that continuously do not follow established procurement policies and procedures may not be reimbursed.

Employees may be reimbursed for incidental purchases as required and authorized by their units. Itemized receipts are required for all non-travel expense reimbursement items. Summarized credit card receipts, credit card statements, and canceled checks cannot be used to claim reimbursements.

The University reimburses employees under an IRS accountable plan. This means all non-travel expenses must have an official University business connection or purpose and must be submitted on a timely basis. KU expects non-travel reimbursement requests to be submitted within 15 days of the transaction. Per IRS guidelines, non-travel expense reimbursement reports submitted more than 60 days from the transaction date will be processed as a taxable reimbursement to the employee. Required federal and state tax withholdings related to the reimbursement (e.g., federal and state income tax withholdings Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)) will be deducted from a future paycheck.

Payments for Goods or Services Rendered

Upon prior University approval, University of Kansas employees may provide additional goods or services outside the scope of their normal full-time duties and receive compensation. Employees providing a good or service, which is unrelated to one’s daily job duties and is evaluated as a service/good meeting the IRS definition of an Independent Contractor, must have a designated Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) recognizing the entity as a separate business with a contract agreed to and conflict of interest disclosed before the work begins. Payments will be made in accordance with the Procurement Procedures and all other University policies, as applicable.

Full-time employees actively engaging in additional work activities related to but beyond the assigned daily job duties, must have advanced approval by the appropriate budgetary authority and the Office of the Provost prior to initiating any work activity and meet all qualifying requirements of the Additional Payment for Employees policy guidelines.

Contact: 
Financial Services - Accounts Payable
payables@ku.edu
 
University of Kansas Center for Research
Approved by: 
Controller
Approved on: 
Monday, December 8, 2008
Effective on: 
Monday, December 8, 2008
Review Cycle: 
Annual (As Needed)
Keywords: 
Employee reimbursement, Employee payment, FEIN
Change History: 

06/04/2024: Updated reimbursement requirements and timeframe to align with best practice.
02/17/2023: Updated contact section.
07/26/2021: Updated form and invoicing practices.
04/15/2021: Updated Contact, Approver, and owning unit sections from Comptroller to Financial Services.
07/05/2016: Updated to remove gendered pronouns.
11/30/2015: Deleted duplicated paragraphs and technical edits to clean up links.
10/03/2013: Updated.

Academic Categories: 
Academic Work & Evaluations
Financial Categories: 
Accounting
Disbursements
Financial Oversight
Payroll
Personnel: Affiliates/Volunteers Categories: 
Compensation
Personnel: Faculty/Academic Staff Categories: 
Compensation
Personnel: Staff Categories: 
Compensation
Personnel: Student Employees Categories: 
Compensation

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