Who is allowed to order or make purchases for the team?

Any team member, with the consent of a project officer, is allowed to access departmental credit card information and order materials and supplies for consumption by a project. Tools and other equipment purchases that are shared by PAVE as a whole must be approved by the President. With consent from an officer, members are also allowed to make purchases of materials using their own personal money with the understanding that they may be reimbursed for their purchase with team funds. However, the purchase will be officially entered into the team financials only after a receipt has been verified by an officer and submitted to the departement from which the reimbursement will be issued. Receipts that are received after one week of purchase may not be reimbursed, under the discretion of the PAVE officers.

Ordering Procedures

The member who orders materials or items for the project is responsible for ensuring the following procedure is executed properly:

1. Conduct research to find a quality product from a quality retailer at a reasonable price.
2. Order the product, shipping it to the office of the department funding the purchase.*
3. Verify that tax is not charged on the order.
4. Email a copy of the invoice to the departmental contact of the department funding the purchase.*
5. Add a record of the order to the team finances spreadsheet, or provide information to an officer to be added to the team finances spreadsheet
6. Pick up the package within a week of its arrival from the office it was sent to.

*These steps may vary by department. See below for details.

Department Specific Information:
Funds are dispersed amongst different departments due to various policies and historical reasons. It is our policy to structure procedures such that they inconvenience the departmental staff as little as possible. Therefore, we have specific instructions for ordering from each department, as outlined below. Departmental contacts are not listed below but can be obtained from PAVE and project officers

Keller Center
Orders are to be made in person at the Keller Center office. Members should email the office before hand to confirm that the office will be open. Orders can be prepared on a laptop, and credit card information as well as billing/invoicing information will be provided at the office.

MAE Department
Orders are charged to a credit card authorized for student purchases. An invoice should be sent to the office as soon as possible after the purchase is made in order to reconcile credit card bills.

ORFE Department
Orders are charged to a credit card authorized for student purchases. An invoice should be sent to the office as soon as possible after the purchase is made in order to reconcile credit card bills. Any purchases over $1,000 require a temporary authorization, which must be obtained before a purchase is made

Credit Card Information
All members are allowed access to credit card information that allows them to make materials and supplies purchases from team funds. However, all members MUST comply with the following security guidelines regarding credit card information. Misuse of credit card information or failure to follow these guidelines will result in termination of membership.

• The credit card information may not be used to make purchases of food, travel, or other related expenses without the express consent of the PAVE officers and/or the project advisor.
• The credit card information cannot be used to make personal purchases, even you promise to reimburse at a later date.
• The information may only be transmitted electronically through secure connections (such as an SSL connection at an online retailer). Under no circumstances should you send information via email.
• If you choose to retain the information you must store it in a secure location (either a wallet or in an encrypted file).
• You must immediately report the loss or theft of this information to the respective department which owns the card.

Getting Reimbursed for Purchases

When credit card information is unavailable, or when purchases must be made from a brick-and-mortar store, members may make purchases and later be reimbursed by a department. The same general procedures as the previous section apply. The member who made the purchase is responsible for all the paperwork required for being reimbursed by the department. Members are also responsible for ensuring that no tax is charged on the purchase.

NOTE: Even when on official team trips, do not assume that expenses, especially those for food and travel expenses, will be covered through reimbursement.

Tax Information

Since Princeton University is a non-profit, educational institution, all purchases made for the team are tax exempt. Below are some general guidelines pertaining to making tax-exempt purchases:

• The tax-exempt number is listed on a form. copies of which have been provided to the team and are kept in the filing cabinet. Always take a copy of this form with you when making purchases at brick-and-mortar stores.
• Some stores such as Home Depot, will actually allow you to enter a tax-exempt code at the self-checkout system.
• Some stores will demand to see a form, or make you jump through hoops to remove the tax. At some point you should consider whether it’s worth all the effort or if you would rather just pay the tax. You won’t be reimbursed for it though.
• For online purchases, most merchants will not charge you tax, as they do not have warehouses in NJ. However, McMaster-Carr and NewEgg will try to charge you tax. With McMaster, you should add a note that the order is from Princeton University and usually they remove the tax. With NewEgg, you fight them tooth-and-nail until you give up or you get your tax back.

Spreadsheet Information

In order to track spending across multiple sources of funding, we maintain our own records detailing all team orders and expenses. It is the responsibility of the purchaser to fill out the following information or provide it to an officer within 24 hours after the order is complete:
Date order was placed and the order number

• Item description: What is in the order?
• Category: Each project has its own categories. Check with project officers for details.
• Quantity: For orders with multiple items, it is not always necessary to list each individual item and quantities
• Subtotal: Excludes any tax or shipping costs and reflects the cost-per-item (If the quantity is more than 1, it should be the cost of each item.
• Tax: No orders should include tax, except in certain rare circumstances. Tax should be on the total order.
• Shipping: Shipping on the total order.
• Total: There is a formula to calculate the totals in the total column, but if you are not entering the data in yourself you should supply it for verification
• Department where the order was purchased from
• Any additional notes about the order