Business Expense Resource Guide

The Business Expense Form (BEF) is used to record all expenses incurred for events, official occasions, entertainment, hospitality, and employee awards, gifts and prizes, regardless of whether a reimbursement will be processed (e.g. OneCard/IDT expenses). All expenses using an Official Occasions account must have an approved BEF.

Prior to making purchases, the BEF must be completed and approved by departments, then forwarded to the Business Service Center for processing and reconciling the applicable expenditures. This form, along will all supporting documentation, must be retained as they are subject to audit review.

Which events or items can be included on the same form?

• One BEF is required for each event/business purpose, whether there is one payee with multiple receipts or multiple payees.
• Purchases/payments related to the same event (catering, dry cleaning, decorations)
• Multiple meals for the same activity (candidate breakfast/lunch/dinner)

Unrelated events should not be included on the same BEF.

Allowable Expenditures

Expenses for hospitality and entertainment must be directly related to or associated with the active conduct of official university business. As a public institution, authorized officials must exercise prudent business judgment when reviewing proposed expenditures for food, beverage and incidental costs based on:

• Allowability (meets the Directly-Related Test or Associated Test, per IRS regulations)
• Availability of funds
• Benefit to the university
• Appropriateness of funding source
• Reasonableness

For more information, please refer to the Business-Related Hospitality and Entertainment Expenditures financial guideline.

Completing the BEF

The department is responsible for completing the BEF, obtaining signature approvals and submitting it to the Business Service Center.

Payee: Enter the payee’s name, employee ID and payment amount. Up to five additional payees may be added.

Event/Gifts:

• Enter up to three events and/or gifts. If your event occurs on multiple days AND contains different attendees, you must treat each day as a separate Click 'Add' to add another event/gift to this request.
• Enter the event name, begin date, end date, time, total number of attendees and explain the business purpose.
• Check any boxes that apply to the event: Traveling? Alcohol included? Off campus? Employee award/gift/prize?
• Enter gift information, if necessary: employee name, employee ID, purpose, and description, and indicate if you notified Payroll or if there are third-party funds.

Business Purpose: The business purpose justifies the “why” behind the need for the expenses and how it relates to the university. All acronyms must be spelled out. Examples:

• Football game
  • Catering charges for university hosted suites at the UTSA vs. ; football Donors and official university guests are invited to join President Eighmy [or leadership] to cultivate relationships and encourage university patronage.
• Donor cultivation
  • Lunch/dinner with to cultivate relationship and encourage university patronage.
  • Lunch/dinner with to discuss capital campaign and encourage university patronage.
  • Lunch/dinner with to discuss support of [Athletics division].
  • Lunch/dinner with to discuss support of [specific university initiative].
• Business meals (employee only)
  • Lunch/dinner to discuss .
• Employee appreciation
  • Holiday reception to celebrate employee excellence, contribution to university and improve employee relations.
• Event/gift to recognize employee excellence and service to the university.

Funding:

• Select the funding source from the drop-down menu and enter the account number and account title to be charged, up to five.
• Enter the funding source, account, cost center, the related event number (above) and check if you are in need of an additional funding source.

Expenditures:

• Select the expense type from the drop-down menu and enter the amount in the appropriate field. If the expense did not include meals and/or beverages, enter the expense amount in the “other” Click “add” to enter additional expenses related to your event, up to five.
• Other expenses include service fees, tablecloths, non-consumables, flowers, decorations, club memberships, sponsorships, etc.
• Enter the expense type, the amount of refreshments, dinner, and other amount or gift amount.
• Meals Cost Per Person may be computed below this section once amounts are added.

Voucher: Enter up to five PO or Voucher ID numbers.

Attendees: Enter up to 10 attendee names and the related event number. If your request includes multiple events and the total number of attendees is more than 10, you must either use additional sheets or refer to attendees by a representative description of the group. For flowers, indicate recipient's name and affiliation with the university.

Event Host Certifying Payment: Sign the Event Host Certification.

Administrator Approval: Have a designated, authorized approver of entertainment and hospitality expenses who is at lease an Assistant/Associate Dean, Dean, Assistant/Associate VP, VP or President sign the Administrator Approval.

Supporting Documentation: All supporting documentation must be submitted to the Business Service Center with the completed BEF, and includes the following:

• Itemized receipts.
• List of participants with affiliation to the university.
  • Groups of more than 10 individuals may be defined by titles, such as "11 members of the Board of Regents." However, "members of staff" is too general.
  • If there are fewer than 10 participants, they must be listed individually with corresponding titles (if employees of the UT System) or description of business relationship.
• Agenda, if applicable.
• Justification from VP for over-the-person-limit.
• Additional approvals and justifications, as required.
  • Refer to the Business-Related Hospitality and Entertainment Expenditures financial guideline for additional information regarding any additional signatures may be required.