UMass Chan academic departments may hold petty cash to compensate their human research subjects. Petty cash may be disbursed as prepaid cards or cash. Please contact UMass Chan Grant Accounting to inquire about the prepaid card option. The Bursar's Office is where departments replenish Petty Cash in cash, after such Petty Cash Account is approved and established.

Steps to establish, manage and audit cash-based Petty Cash accounts:

• New department requests, please reach out to the Bursar's Office for additional information.
• Department submits Petty Cash request package to the following group for approval (based on funding source):
  • Grant & Restricted must be approved by Grant Accounting
  • Unrestricted & Non-grant must be approved by the Controller
  • ForHealth Consulting must be approved by the ForHealth Consulting Controller
• Petty Cash is reviewed and approved by Grant Accounting, the Controller, or the CWM Controller.  The approved package with original signatures is sent to the Bursar's Office.
• Bursar's Office reviews the Petty Cash package and determines the replenishment limit.
• Bursar's Office notifies the department to pick up the initial cash funds and trains the department about how to replenish the funds and about department’s responsibilities of managing the Petty Cash.
  The department is audited on site by the Bursar's Office at least once a year on their cash at hand, receipts, records, and procedures. Petty Cash account in violation of its original intent and/or account management guidelines is subject to suspension or account closure.

In addition to replenishing cash-based Petty Cash accounts, the Bursar's Office can also reimburse a UMass Chan employee $5-$20 a day for emergency expenditures paid by the employee for his/her department.

To receive a reimbursement, the documents listed below should be submitted to the Bursar's Office:

• Petty Cash Voucher form - completed and signed by the department administrator or department personnel with authority to expense from the account requested for reimbursement. 
  
  • An individual cannot authorize his/her own reimbursement request.
    
• Original sales receipt showing the date, location, description and amount of the items purchased.
  
  • All requests for food purchases made from a grant must include pre-approval from the grant accountant.  The Petty Cash Voucher form must include the grant staff signature as approval.
    
• Employee presents badge which must match the payee named on the Petty Cash Voucher form.
  
• An employee cannot be reimbursed from a state account or reimbursed for the following expenses: travel, phone, magazine subscriptions or membership dues.