Reimbursement policies
Supply reimbursements
The UC Santa Cruz CruzBuy system offers many vendors to choose from for purchasing lab equipment and supplies, therefore paying out-of-pocket for these types of purchases is discouraged. However, certain circumstances may arise that will require you to apply for reimbursement for your purchase.
Meal reimbursements
To receive reimbursement for any UCSC business-related meals, you must retain your original, itemized receipt and provide a guest list.
Divisional policy mandates that “All expenses must be supported by original itemized receipts” (note: a credit card receipt with the total is not sufficient). Requests received without an itemized receipt will be returned to the requestor.
If you request an itemized receipt and the restaurant is unable to provide one, note on the receipt that you requested one and the restaurant said they could not provide it. The Physical and Biological Sciences Division maintains a list of restaurants that cannot provide itemized receipts and will contact others for verification of their policy as they receive reimbursement forms.
Maximum Rates for Entertainment: The maximum per person expenditures for individuals being entertained and for a University employee who is the official host, or who is a participant at the request of the official host, shall not exceed the following amounts per PBSci Divisional Policy:
§ Breakfast: $27.00
§ Lunch: $47.00
§ Dinner: $81.00
§ *Light Refreshments $19.00
*The Department does not reimburse expenses for alcohol or light refreshments except in the case of faculty recruitments and events that have had PRIOR approval from the Chair and the Dean of Physical & Biological Sciences.
Travel reimbursements
To receive reimbursement for any UCSC business-related travel expenses, you must retain your original, itemized receipts for most expenses.
Reimbursement guidelines/questions
UCSC has strict guidelines for reimbursing purchases. Please check with your research accountant prior to making purchases to ensure reimbursement or if you are unsure how to get reimbursed for a particular purchase.
For department-related expenses, such as hosting a seminar speaker or faculty recruitment candidate, please contact the department assistant (physicsasst@ucsc.edu).
All reimbursement types require that you have submitted a Payee 204 form to UCSC’s Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) department. Many of you have probably submitted this form before, and it only needs to be done once*.
To have your reimbursement directly deposited into your bank account — fill out and submit page 2 along with a Voided Check to the FAR department. You can send this via campus mail, using the mailcode: FAR.
*If you change your name, address, or banking information, you will need to re-submit the form.
Please note the following: PBSci Divisional policy states “No meal reimbursement when seminar or colloquium speaker is faculty local to UCSC Campus (from host department or other department)”.