Faculty Entertainment Memo

From:  The Research Support Office
Office of Research and Graduate Studies
College of Liberal Arts

Re: CoLA Entertainment Expense Assistance

To: CoLA Faculty Members, Principal Investigators and Researchers

The Research Support Office and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies are here to support your research efforts at the university. We're providing this additional clarification on CoLA entertainment expenses to ensure that requests for reimbursement are successful. We are committed to making sure our researchers are properly reimbursed for expenses incurred during the pursuit of their research interests.

Toward that end, please make sure that any meal/entertainment expenses you incur or plan to incur -specifically in reference to research-related business meetings often held during lunch and dinner times, meet the following requirements:

• Meetings that involve two or more people, must include a university employee, are agenda driven, and directly concern university business
   
• Business meeting expenses may be reimbursed if the meal or light refreshment is an integral part of the meeting (integral in this case means essential due to circumstances), not a matter of personal convenience, the meeting time encompasses a regular meal time and could not otherwise be scheduled during regular working hours
   
• University funds cannot be used for social lunches between two or more university employees

To ensure the above information is clear:

1. The Business Reason must be the lead-in as to why you are having a meeting
   Put plainly: It is not characterized as a lunch or dinner; it is a business meeting that involves secondarily a meal
    
   • In addition to supplying required components such as itemized receipts, proof of individual payment, the business purpose and complete list of attendees, names, titles and affiliations, please also be prepared to put required details in writing to assist unit personnel with reimbursement
      
     • If you visit with your unit staff in person to discuss reimbursement of entertainment expenses that will occur or already have occurred, please either send a message to the admin to confirm details discussed, or respond in writing to any message you receive from your admin in connection with the reimbursement request
        
       • These items and details are essential to processing reimbursement on university funds
          
       • Written communication helps with compliance in the event of internal and external audits
          
2. The schedule of attendees must be the reason to land on a meal time for the meeting
    
   • All attendees seeking reimbursement must be in an official status and have a clearly related business reason to be at the meeting in order to cover the cost of their meals
      
     • Spouse meals specifically during university business meetings cannot be reimbursed unless the spouse is also a Faculty Member, Principal Investigator and/or Researcher, or vetted Official Guest with demonstrable professional affiliation and research-specific interests clearly related to and involved in the specific business reason for the meeting
        
       • In such cases it is strongly recommended (due to risk of non-allowance) to seek guidance from the LA Finance and Research teams in advance of such instances, and that at least one other attendee besides the researcher spouse should be in attendance (and have a legitimate reason to be in attendance) to safeguard against even the appearance of impropriety, conflict of interest and/or nepotism concerns
          
     • As a matter of best practice, if students are attending business meetings for official reasons, please either plan to pay for their expenses to be included in your reimbursement request, or in cases of separate receipts, direct the student to seek reimbursement in connection to your reimbursement
        
       • Reimbursement of only the faculty member meals and not the students' may call into question the legitimacy of the purpose of the meeting/meal and may not reflect well on us as mentors of students and stewards of university funds - legitimate business meetings should cover reimbursement of all legitimate attendees unless there is a specific, compelling reason not to

If you would like to consult university policy on entertainment expenses, you can find it in the Handbook of Business Procedures, Chapter 9.1.1.

Please note that the College of Liberal Arts entertainment policy provides additional guidelines that differ from overarching university policy and must be adhered to. The CoLA entertainment policy is set by the Dean of Liberal Arts, and is overseen and enforced by the LA Finance team in CoLA Business Affairs. The Finance Team has done an excellent job of providing clarifying details about entertainment expenses. 

• Please consult CoLA Entertainment Policy for more information
   
  • CoLA's entertainment policy page contains significant detail for unit admins who process reimbursement 
      
    • To see allowable maximum limits per person, head to the Attendees section
       
    • For more information about alcohol as part of entertainment expenses, visit the section on Alcohol expenses
       
    • Taxes on entertainment expenses require addtional guidance -visit the Taxes section to ensure compliance

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to either the Finance team or LA Research and we'll be happy to help.

Sincerely,

Research Support Office Management
Office of Research and Graduate Studies
College of Liberal Arts