Purchasing

Unacceptable Public Purpose: To have a good time while learning about leadership

Acceptable Public Purpose: In order to promote professional development, one staff member and ten students attended the National Association of Leadership conference. Over the course of one weekend, the attendees learned valuable leadership strategies that will help them run our organization more effectively. In addition, they attended interactive workshops that taught them how to plan campus-wide events that will promote leadership to all students on campus.

Unacceptable Purpose: This plaque is going to be a gift for a speaker at our club meeting.

Acceptable Public Purpose: Lady Gaga attended our weekly general meeting to inform our members about her recent efforts to go green and ways that our organization can improve our current endeavors to increase sustainability. In order to show appreciation, our president presented Lady Gaga with an honorary plaque.

Unacceptable Public Purpose: Since our meeting is at dinner time and the members get hungry, we ordered pizza for our general meeting.

Acceptable Public Purpose: In order to promote attendance and attract new members, our organization ordered two pizzas. After eating, our members were significantly more enthused as we planned our spring event, Make a Difference, to promote civic engagement and fun.

Purchasing cards (P-cards) are the ASU corporate liability card. EOSS guidelines are to use the P-cards only as needed. Additionally, software is prohibited by EOSS policy on the P-card without consultation with the EOSS Senior VP Business office. Additional restrictions on use of the P-card from the ASU Purchasing team can be found here. Please refer to this link often as the list is updated frequently.

General information regarding P-card applications, users guides and trainings are located here.

With the exception of small desktop printer/copiers, all office copier must be ordered through Canon.

Any technology (computers, monitors, camera, etc.) must go through EOSS Fiscal and Business Services Team-HR Information Technology unit to request what is needed first

When engaging speakers, artists or performers for an ASU event, you must complete one of the following before the event.

Steps:

• For non-paid speakers, in-kind and expense reimbursement only, complete a Volunteer form (contact financial services or the EOSS VP Business Team for any questions.
• For paid speakers, including honorariums, complete the updated SPEAKER/ARTIST/PERFORMER AGREEMENT

All departments and schools must assure the appropriate terms and conditions are in place at the time of the event to protect ASU in the event of an incident or dispute. Failure to have proper agreements in place before the start of an event will delay payment after the event and increases the risk for the university.

Additional information and detailed steps are available in the Engaging speakers, artists and performers how-to guide.

The following is allowable on a P-Card using local funds:

Purchasing event tickets and reselling them for the same amount.

Purchasing event tickets and giving them to students at reduced or no cost for an event as part of a program. The program, its objectives and public purpose must be clearly defined in the documentation supporting the purchase. Faculty and staff may receive these tickets if they are sponsoring, supervising or otherwise required to participate in the event.

Note: The following is NOT allowed: You may not purchase and freely distribute tickets to an event or sell them at a discount if the tickets are not part of a program with a clearly stated public purpose. In this instance, the discounted portion of the ticket (the ticket cost minus the resale price) becomes a gift, and would have to be purchased with Foundation Funds.

Any unused event tickets remaining before the event may be sold at cost to faculty, staff or students. The disposition of any tickets that were not distributed must be documented. 

Regardless of how tickets are purchased, the following documentation must be included with the expenditure form:

• Public purpose for the event
• Recipient’s full name
• Recipient’s affiliation with the university
• Recipient’s ten-digit ID from the Sun Card
• Recipient’s signature

Charging for an event

Charging an event fee is allowable. Checks must be made payable to Arizona State University. Numbered receipts should be provided to participant and copies retained in accordance with university cash handling policy. An event may consist of several components that are combined into a single fee; i.e., a baseball game, lunch and t-shirt. Although each program is strongly encouraged to be entrepreneurial and, at a minimum, to cover its costs, the fee can be less than the total actual cost of the event components.

A public purpose must be served by making the award (FIN 420-04): You must follow the normal procedures when making a purchase using payment vouchers or employee reimbursements

*Please note: Any monetary gift, gift card or other award given to a student/staff will be reported to the Student Financial Assistance office and the Financial Services Tax offices as appropriate. These awards may be considered income and may have an impact on personal income taxes, and for those students who receive financial aid, their award packages.

Purchasing gift cards and/or gift certificates: You must follow the normal procedures when making a purchase using payment vouchers or employee reimbursements. In addition, you must also include a thorough explanation of why the gift cards are needed to fulfill the goals of the program(s) and the public purpose served. Also, indicate how the gift cards will be secured prior to distribution. Gift cards are prohibited from being purchased with a P-Card (see P-Card Restricted Purchases list) or with a cash advance (see FIN421-05.)

Handling the gift cards and/or gift certificates: Special care must be taken to insure proper control over these "cash-equivalent" instruments at all times. Since these are considered "cash equivalents," they have the same strict handling guidelines as cash. Specifically, place cash equivalents in a safe and secure, lockable cash box inside a locking desk or cabinet, with access restricted to a business 'need-to¬ know' basis. Keep a log of anyone issued a key or given knowledge of the combination. Keep the number of people with this access to the minimum possible, in almost all cases to a maximum of five.

Distributing the gift cards and/or gift certificates: Additional information and documentation is needed to properly support the disbursement of the gift cards, as follows:

1. Indicate how, when and to whom the gift cards were distributed.
2. Maintain a signed log/receipt for each gift card showing when it is was distributed- see below for what should be included on the log/receipt.
3. Indicate the disposition of unused, excess gift cards, if any.

A log/receipt that the recipient signs should contain at least the following information:

1. Recipient's name
2. Date
3. Description/purpose of gift card
4. Amount/value
5. How value was determined, (i.e.: retail value).
6. Recipient's signature acknowledging receipt of the gift card
7. Indicate whether recipient is a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or a nonresident alien**
8. Indicate whether recipient is an ASU employee or student**

**For an ASU employee, affiliate ID must be provided if gift card is over $25.

**For an ASU student, affiliate ID must be provided if gift cards cumulative value is $600 or over.

**For other US citizens, IRS W-9 must be provided if gift cards cumulative value is $600 or over.

**Gift cards to nonresident aliens will be subject to the tax withholding and reporting rules described in FIN 425, "Payments to Nonresident Aliens."

For the above** items, you must provide a copy of the log/receipt and applicable form(s) to Tax Services for proper income tax reporting to the recipients.

Sample gift card log

A contract is a voluntary, deliberate and legally enforceable agreement between two or more competent parties. A contractual relationship is evidenced by an offer, acceptance of the offer and a valid (legal and valuable) consideration. A contract is made when the parties agree to do certain things in exchange for something of value. Contracts can be written or verbal, formal or informal.

Students and most staff may not enter into contracts or purchase agreements committing university funds. Anyone who enters into a contract may become personally liable for the financial obligation. The university president has designated contract signature authority for a limited number of university employees. Employees cannot sign contracts on behalf of ASU. Signing contracts on behalf of the University may result in personal liability and loss of insurance coverage for the employee . The only exception/event where an employee can sign a contract is banquet event orders or catering agreements under $5,000 that are for food only and can be processed with a Business Meals form. All contracts should be reviewed by your unit leadership and send to your fiscal lead, so that they can work with Purchasing for approval. Some templates for contracts can be found on the OGC site: https://ogc.asu.edu/forms/contracts-forms

For a list and description of signature authority levels within EOSS, please see https://ogc.asu.edu/contracts-authority/eoss