Study Abroad Faculty-Led Financial Management Process Overview Academic Affairs Business Services (AABS) 2014

Components in Budget Planning Identify key budget/cost items. Establish program fee with your liaison. Pre-payment of program expenses. Identify all faculty/staff expenses. Itemize on-site expenses that cannot be pre-paid.

Budget Challenges Exchange rates. Emergency funds. Once fees are collected from students, cost cannot be raised. Budget limits must be approved by Student Fee Committee prior to opening accounts or collecting fees. This process can take up to a month.

Pre-paying Program Expenses Your study abroad liaison will assist you in pre-paying as many of the expenses as possible. A written agreement (contract) must be in place before pre-payments can be made. Pre-payments can be made by wire transfer, check, credit card or bank draft. Executing contracts can take several months – it is important to work with you liaison to identify vendors you will be using early. Actual payments can take 2-4 weeks for TAMU to process.

Faculty/Staff Expenses As a general rule, faculty expenses should not exceed student expenses. Faculty receive 2 forms of payment for the program: –A CASH ADVANCE may be issued for faculty meals. A meal log (without receipts) should be kept to document how the cash advance was spent. –If you spend the cash advance on anything except meals, you will need to provide a receipt. –Each faculty/staff receives his/her own cash advance – it is not advised that the meal allowance is shared in case you eat separately. –A WORKING FUND is used for group expenses – entrances to museums, group transportation, group meals in which all the students participate.

Spirit of the Working Fund Once the working fund is issued to the custodian, the custodian is fully responsible for the following: –Recording and clearly documenting disbursements. –Physically safekeeping and transporting funds. –Turning in all required documentation to the AABS Office within 14 days of the end of the program (not when you return to the US). –Clarifying receipts and questions from the AABS office or TAMU Financial Management Operations (FMO) in a timely manner –Ensuring that all working fund disbursements have a clear and direct benefit to the all the students on the program.

How are cash advances and working funds distributed? Faculty have a choice on how they receive their funds: –Check. –Direct deposit to a US or foreign bank account. We recommend you don’t co-mingle personal and program funds –DART card.

TAMU Debit/Credit (DART) Cards A university liability debit/credit (DART) card may be issued to faculty in lieu of a cash disbursement). 1% transaction fee applies to credit charges. $5.00 cash advance fee (minimum of $5/transaction) applies to ATM withdrawals and teller transactions. The local bank may also charge a fee for ATM usage or teller services. A maximum of $500 cash can be withdrawn per day, but preference is that expenses will be paid by MasterCard whenever possible. All receipts must be kept for expenses, currency exchanges, and cash withdrawals. Other rules regarding allowable expenses are the same as working funds.

Challenges with the working fund The working fund must be used equally for all students. If there is an emergency that requires payment, you need to work with the study abroad office. Left over cash needs to be returned to the AABS office in US dollars. Any balance left in the account will be returned to the students.

Fiscal Oversight Student fees have a higher level of scrutiny than other campus related travel funds. Student fees have a higher level of scrutiny than grants or other types of funding. Study abroad processes and forms used will differ from those used in your department or grant agencies.

What to expect at the Pre-departure Meeting Final review of program budget with study abroad staff. Discussion of planned on-site expenses (if any) –Mechanisms for payment & cash handling – credit cards, cash, distribution to students, etc. –Any challenges that need to be addressed. Signing of form for working fund and/or cash advance. –Question/Answers –Tips/Tools

Working Fund Responsibility The cash advance is considered taxable as income by the IRS if not reconciled/paid back within 120 days of the end of the program. –Receipts are due to Academic Affairs Business Services within 14 days of the end of the program. –AABS will follow-up with faculty if there are any questions about the receipts submitted. –Depending on the time of year, reconciliation can take up to 90 days from return of receipts to final fiscal review. Please provide as much information as possible when submitting your receipts – it helps the process go much more quickly! Taxation of outstanding working funds would result in additional costs to the faculty & faculty’s department – so submit your receipts as soon as you can.

Contact Information Donna Lovell Business Associate Academic Affairs Business Services 215 Hotard Hall