SHORT-TERM STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS

Faculty Handbook Official Guidelines for Financial Accounting Policies and Procedures

Table of Contents

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Establishing an Agency Fund Account…………………………………………………………………..3 Creating the Online Marketplace Store…………………………………………………………………4 Tracking Student Payments…………………………………………………………………………………..4 Vendor Contracts………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Paying Invoices……………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Cash Advances………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 Allowable Items for Purchase………………………………………………………………………………..6 Saving Receipts……………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Closing Out the Account………………………………………………………………………………………..7

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I. Introduction Study Abroad Programs led by faculty follow several of the same policies and procedures as many forms of travel and purchasing for campus business, but there are some deviations and a specific order in which the process must be followed. The information below is meant to inform and guide faculty in the proper policies and procedures for financial accounting practices related to study abroad programs. This manual should be read carefully and in its entirety prior to engaging in any activity related to financial accounting practices for study abroad.

II. Establishing an Agency Fund Account Each study abroad program must have its own Agency Account. Agency Accounts exist outside of general operating accounts and are considered “funds held for others.” In effect Georgia Southern is acting as the agent to collect monies from and make payments for services on behalf of students participating in study abroad programs operated by the institution. Agency Account funds will roll over each Fiscal Year and are not “swept.” Regardless, faculty should take great care to use as many funds as possible once collected, as accumulating large balances over time is not advisable. It is, however, ideal to leave the planned reserve of 5 – 20% of the program operating costs in the account, as it can be accessed as emergency funds in future years. Agency accounts must never show a negative balance. It is the responsibility of the faculty program director to carefully develop their program budget, and maintain care in keeping up-to-date with matters related to their program account. All study abroad agency accounts are housed with the Office of International Programs & Services. The Director of OIPS has final signature authority over all Study Abroad-related Agency Accounts. The faculty program director will act as the principle responsible individual for the account, with the OIPS Study Abroad Advisor and Budgets Analyst providing additional assistance and oversight. For new programs, and Agency Account should be set up very early in the program development process. Opening the account requires submission of the Request to Establish an Agency Fund Account Form, and can take 2-3 weeks to receive final approval. Delaying this process inhibits students from making deposits and fully committing to a program, and can create issues with paying provider invoices in a timely fashion. The OIPS will not make rush requests to Financial Accounting for late faculty submissions. Faculty developing brand new programs are encouraged to include a Request to Establish an Agency Fund Account Form with their initial Request for Program Approval. Once the account is established, the faculty member and OIPS will receive a memo via email to this effect, which contains the details of the account chartstream. Existing programs may continue to use the Agency Account already established for their program’s purposes. The Agency Account may need to be modified, though, to indicate a new faculty program director, or other changes.

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All Study Abroad Agency Accounts are established to remain open for at least 5 fiscal years. If a program does not operate within a time span of 5 years, the Agency Account will be de-actived, and must be reestablished should that program operate again.

III. Creating the Online Marketplace Store To stream-line program operation, students are now required to make all of their program payments through the Touchnet Marketplace. Each program will have its own customized storefront where students can make payments in the amounts specified by the program director. The Office of Student Accounts in Deal Hall will no longer accept payments from students for study abroad programs. The Marketplace store does, however, accept WebCheck, Credit, and Debit card payments. Currently, all stores are approved to accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express cards. The Office of International Programs & Services works with the Bursar’s Office to build each online store. Marketplace stores can be built at any time, but cannot be activated until the Study Abroad program is fully approved, and the Agency Account is established. In order to activate any online Marketplace store, each Agency Account will be assigned a specific detail code. Detail codes must be requested once the Agency Account is established, and can take roughly 10 business days to receive. The OIPS will automatically request a detail code on behalf of the program once notification of the account’s establishment is received. As stated, the Marketplace store is customizable. A typical marketplace store will display a program deposit, first installment payment, second installment payment, and insurance payment for the student to select. Due dates for all payments are also displayed. This can be changed or updated depending on the preference of the program director. Some programs with larger amounts due also choose to provide a customized payments option. This provides two advantages by: a) allowing students to pay in smaller amounts as long as they make the deadlines listed for totals due; b) allows those who are ready to pay larger amounts at once to do so; and c) allows students to divide payments between multiple cards or accounts. Faculty who would like to add this option to their Marketplace store should make this request to the OIPS. All Marketplace stores will also notify students that each payment made includes a 2.2% non-refundable payment processing fee. This fee is pulled directly from the Agency Account to pay charges to BB&T, where the accounts are housed. The 2.2% is required as part of the program budget calculation and its removal should not cause a short-fall in any Agency Account.

IV. Tracking Student Payments The Director of OIPS, Study Abroad Advisor, and Budgets Analyst all have the ability to manage Marketplace store accounts, keep track of student payments, and process approved refunds. Each program will have a table in excel and managed by the OIPS, where student payments and totals can be entered and automatically calculated. Each table will further show a reduction in payment

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processing fees, and indicate the immediately available balance for use by the faculty program director. As invoices are paid these amounts will also be entered as a deduction on the pivot table. These tables are updated weekly on Fridays, and updated tables are sent to program directors for review. Faculty are expected to use these tables to remain informed of the financial status of their accounts, and to follow-up with students; they should also be proactive in sending communication regarding payment deadlines and amount owed by student participants. While the OIPS will send some emails to this effect, the primary responsibility for doing so lies with the program director. Periodically, the OIPS will rectify these totals with journal entry reports. Journal entry reports, however, will not indicate individual student payments, and are slow to update. They will not often show realtime available balances.

V. Vendor Contracts Some vendors, especially those organizing program logistics, do prefer that contracts are signed, rather than sending an invoice. In this case, faculty program directors may under no circumstances sign a contract. This may only be handled by the Procurement Office. Faculty who receive a contract must take the following steps: 1) Ensure the agreed upon price for services is correct, and payment deadlines do not conflict with student deadlines for making program payments; 2) Send the contract to the Director of OIPS. The Director will read through thoroughly and, if necessary, provide assistance to the faculty member with negotiating any terms and conditions of the contract; 3) If no changes need to be made, the Director of OIPS will send the contract to Legal Affairs for review and feedback. If changes are necessary, the Director of OIPS will again help the faculty program director negotiate these issues with the vendor. If no changes are necessary, Legal Affairs will share the contract with Procurement for final signature. After the contract is signed, one original copy will be kept on file in the OIPS and the second original copy will be shared with the vendor. For vendors based in the U.S., additional paperwork may be required. Some vendors will be subject to E-Verify laws. If this is the case, Legal Affairs will notify OIPS. OIPS will work with the faculty program director and vendor to ensure this requirement is met. All vendors in the U.S. will also need to complete a Vendor ID Form in order to supply a FEIN or SSN for tax purposes. This ID will be required before any payments can be made to the vendor. VI. Paying Invoices It is imperative that faculty program directors set firm payment deadlines, and communicate consistently to students about the need to meet these deadlines. In their Request for Program Approval, program directors should have set payment deadlines that provide students ample time to commit to participating, but also ensure all monies are collected prior to invoice payment due dates. Updated 12.21.2016

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No invoices may be paid until ALL monies from participating students have been received. Program directors may not commit student money to a vendor or enter into financial obligations without having the full amount available from participating students. To do so puts the program in financial risk that the institution is not willing to assume. Should payments be made to vendors without the consent of the OIPS, then the faculty program director assumes the risk for any money lost or owed. Invoices may be paid through a variety of means, and as many invoices as possible should be paid prior to the departure date of the program. Depending on the vendor, a check may be cut, wire transfer can be used, or, depending on the purchase type, use of an OIPS departmental P-Card may be possible. Faculty program directors are responsible for collecting their invoices and sharing them with OIPS in a timely manner. It is recommended that faculty determine a mutually agreed upon due date, and share the invoice with the OIPS as soon as it is received. OIPS staff will assist with preparing check request and wire transfer request paperwork for submission to Financial Accounting. Faculty must understand that the release of funds can take up to one week, and should plan, again, to submit invoices to OIPS quickly to ensure payments are received by the vendor in a timely fashion.

VII. Cash Advances In some unavoidable cases, purchases will need to be made in-country. This is especially the case for purchasing some meals, public transportation passes, museum entrance fees, guest speaker honorariums, etc. In these circumstances, faculty program directors may request a cash advance from the agency account. Requesting a cash advance creates an additional burden of responsibility on the principle faculty member, and is not to be taken lightly. In order to obtain a cash advance, the faculty program director must engage in a consultation with the Director of OIPS. The faculty program director must be able to provide evidence that no further invoices can be paid prior to departure, and justify how a cash advance will be spent while in-country. Large cash advances are not encouraged. If larger cash advances are required, the Director of OIPS may determine the advances are better issued at intervals during the program rather than in a lump sum. Faculty approved by the Director of OIPS for a cash advance will be required to sign a cash advance request form, and adhere strictly to all policies and procedures related to travel. Faculty are not required, but are highly encouraged to open a checking account at a local bank (BB&T and Sea Island Bank in town have both been used by faculty previously) to keep these funds separate from personal funds, and obtain a debit card to use abroad.

VIII. Allowable Items for Purchase As with other forms of travel, certain purchases are restricted when using Agency Account funds. The best rule of thumb is that only items directly related to the logistical and educational needs of the program should be purchased. Group meals, course supplies shared by students, bus fares, museum Updated 12.21.2016

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tickets, gratuities, honorariums, and similar items are typically allowable expenses. Supply items purchased for the program to use continuously – storage boxes, coolers, etc. – are allowable in certain circumstances. These types of items do not belong to the program director or their academic department, but to the program. Upon return to campus, the program director should provide this item to the OIPS for inventory and appropriate storage. Items such as candy, souvenirs, and are generally non-allowable purchases. Under no circumstances should any program funds from the agency account be used to purchase alcohol. There are no exceptions to this policy. Invoices paid in advance should not include any instance of alcohol being served or purchased. Additionally, cash advance funds may not be used to purchase alcohol. Receipts submitted at the end of the program that indicate a non-allowable purchase will have the amount of that item deducted from the total, and the program director will be responsible for returning that amount to the Agency Account. While preparing to pay invoices or while abroad, when in doubt about whether a purchase is allowable, program directors should contact the OIPS Director for clarification before making the purchase.

IX. Saving Receipts Faculty who receive a cash advance must keep track of every single cent utilized on the trip, and ensure the amount spent is the equivalent to amount advanced in cash. Any difference between funds issued and funds spent must be resolved. Faculty who cannot account for this difference will be required to repay this difference. Faculty who spend more than the cash advance issued and can account for these funds as allowable program expenses may be eligible for a re-imbursement based on availability of any remaining funds in the Agency Account. Again, careful budgeting and planning are strongly encouraged and can make it possible to avoid either scenario. It is important that the faculty program director keeps every single receipt for all transactions made during the course of program travel. Prior to departure, each faculty program director will be provided with a pouch to collect receipts in, a small calculator, and an electronic copy of the receipt itemization spreadsheet which should be used to calculate and keep track of all expenses on a daily basis. In some instances (leaving gratuities, etc.) faculty may not receive a receipt, but they can mark the spent amount down on the itemized list. When providing larger amounts – such as a guest speaker Honorarium – it is a good idea to have the recipient sign a brief memo verifying they did receive funds in a certain amount. However, if a receipt is available, it must be obtained, even when in normal circumstances it would be considered unusual, or time-consuming. Many ATMs abroad will also charge small transaction fees. Faculty should also save these receipts to calculate those fees as part of the funds spent for the program.

X. Closing Out the Account Upon the program end date, faculty program directors become subject to the rules guiding all accounting practices for travel.

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Faculty will need to submit a Travel Expense Form. The OIPS will assist with this process, as the travel expense form will be completed differently given the nature of study abroad program operations. Faculty should organize their receipts and the itemized expenses list by date, and be sure they can rectify the account. Faculty who need assistance with the process should visit the OIPS as soon as possible, who can assist with this process and with preparing all documents for submission. The OIPS will also perform its own audit of the paperwork before submission to Financial Accounting takes place, and will alert the Faculty program director to any perceived discrepancies or issues. All travel expense forms, receipts, and itemized expense lists will need to be submitted to Financial Accounting within 30 days after the final day of the program in order to close out the account. Paperwork/funds not submitted within 45 days of the final day of the program will lead to the amount advanced being considered taxable income. Faculty who cannot adhere to this policy will lose the privilege of acting as the principle on Study Abroad Agency Accounts as well as the ability to receive cash advances in the future.

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