Section 7.4 - Cash Purchases

Date: May 2004
Approved: Senior Associate Vice President for Business and Finance

The University encourages the use of the procurement card (P-Card) for purchases up to $4,999.00, unless the item(s) is prohibited from purchase with a P-Card. However, under certain circumstances, cash purchases that do not exceed $499 may be made if the head of the department determines that the best interests of the department and the University are served. No single transaction may exceed $499.

Limitations

Cash purchases must conform to the restrictions placed on purchases from University and State employees. (See Section 7.2, Purchase of Goods and Services.) They must conform to the same prohibitions and restrictions placed on certain commodities and services procured with the P-Card, such as alcoholic beverages, firearms and ammunition, furniture, animals and radio chemicals. (See Section 7.6, P-Card .)

Stringing - "Stringing" or making successive small purchases or payments to bypass the $499 limitation or any other purchasing policy is not permitted whether with one or several vendors.

Payment of Sales Tax

Since the University is an exempt organization that was formed and is operating exclusively for educational purposes, the University qualifies as an organization and, therefore, is exempt from paying sales tax in certain states. See Section 18.6, Sales and Use Tax, for additional information, including sales and use tax assessed by other states. Individuals making authorized cash purchases for approved University business purposes should present a copy of the State of IL Sales Tax Exempt Letter to merchants and request that sales tax not be charged. The University reserves the right to deduct the amount of sales tax paid when reimbursing individuals for cash purchases.

Reimbursement by Voucher to Individuals

Voucher to an individual - An Employee Reimbursement form is used to reimburse staff members or authorized individuals for purchases made using personal funds. These reimbursements are subject to the $499 limit and must be accompanied by supporting documentation (such as an original receipt).

Departmental Petty Cash Fund (Chicago and Urbana-Champaign campuses only) - Individuals using personal funds for purchases of $100 or less may be reimbursed from an authorized departmental petty cash fund. The reimbursement is subject to the policies and procedures in Section 10, Cash Handling.

Payment to Vendor

If an individual makes an authorized purchase (subject to the $499 limit) directly from a vendor and receives an invoice for the purchase, the invoice is used as supporting documentation to pay the vendor. The vendor invoice is submitted with an invoice voucher that includes all documentation required for processing vendor payments. (See Section 8, Payments and Reimbursements.)

Non-Compliance

For any invoice voucher received in excess of the above guidelines, the department will be contacted to undertake corrective action unless special exception to the guidelines has been previously authorized. Additional purchases, which circumvent the above guidelines, may be deemed the responsibility of the individual.

Please send questions regarding this policy manual to OBFSPolicies@uillinois.edu.

Last Updated: July 12, 2012