Expenses

Members of the Stanford community are required to act with honesty and integrity and comply with applicable laws at all times when transacting University business. This guide memo clarifies that all forms of bribery and corruption are absolutely prohibited, provides guidance regarding what constitutes bribery and corruption, and requires reporting of actual or suspected incidents of bribery and corruption.

This Guide Memo serves as an introduction to Chapter 5. It covers general policies for the purchase of major and minor construction, equipment, supplies and services by Stanford. The policies in this chapter do not apply to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).

This Guide Memo contains policies on use of Purchasing Cards to purchase goods or services made directly by departments. Purchasing Cards are a tool for individuals making purchases on behalf of the University for which Stanford is financially liable. There are two types of Purchasing Cards: an individual Purchasing Card and a Department Purchasing Card. The individual Purchasing Card is issued to a specific person. The Department Purchasing Card is issued to a department and assigned to a custodian.

This Guide Memo describes policies that apply to equipment leases. Capital and operating lease liabilities utilize the University's debt capacity. All uses of debt must comply with the University's debt policy and require prior approval. The only parties authorized to execute documents that commit Stanford to an equipment lease obligation are the Director of Procurement, the CFO, or their designees. For relevant policies, see section 1 in Administrative Guide Memo 5.1.1: Procurement Policies.

This Guide Memo contains policies on Blanket Purchase Orders.

This Guide Memo provides an overview of the procurement process. University departments are encouraged to contact Procurement early in the acquisition process. Procurement buyers and Contracts Specialists can help develop technical specifications and provide product descriptions, estimates of cost or price and lists of suppliers.

This Guide Memo describes the organization of the Procurement Department and its relationships with other administrative departments, both within and external to Stanford.

This Guide Memo sets out policies and procedures for expense allocations and salary distribution offsets, which are a form of cost transfer.

The university pays directly or reimburses individuals for expenses that are necessary and appropriate to conduct University business. This policy outlines the guiding principles, reimbursement and travel policies and examples of business-related expenses at Stanford University. This policy applies to all fund types and business expenses, including travel undertaken for university business and purchases of items to be owned by Stanford.

The University's Oracle Financial system has two core accounting applications: Grants Accounting (GA) and General Ledger (GL). The GA subledger records all detailed expenditure transactions and then summarizes them in the GL. The GA module has five segments: Project (P), Task (T), Award (A), Expenditure types (E) and Organization. A Project (P) is an activity or event with a single purpose. A Task (T) is a further breakdown of the project; every project has at least one task. An Award (A) is a funding source for a particular project or task.