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 contains policies on use of Purchasing Cards (PCard) to purchase goods or services directly by departments. This policy establishes the rules and guidelines for appropriate use of the Stanford-issued Purchasing Card. This policy is based on and in alignment with the expectations set forth by AGM 1.1.1: Code of Conduct, specifically with regard to employing sound business practices and exercising prudent financial management in the stewardship of University resources.

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 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 describes responsibilities for the management of funds in University Projects, Tasks and Awards (PTAs).

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.

The Board of Trustees of Stanford University approved a revised infrastructure policy in October 2004. The revised policy, effective September 1, 2005, increases the infrastructure charge (ISC) from 6% to 8% for both new and existing funds. For designated funds, the infrastructure charge will be applied at the time funds are received from all external revenue sources. For restricted funds (expendable gift funds, endowment income funds and sponsored project funds that carry an F&A rate of 0%), the infrastructure charge will be applied at the time funds are expended or transferred.