This article explains the methods to spend the funding from tracking of endowment funds and the relevant documentation needed, depending on the policy + the claiming process of each endowment fund.

Midnight Sun (MS) received receives endowment funding from the Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF), Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund (WEEF), and Engineering Society (EngSoc).

*Finance Administrator Paula Petrie ppetrie@uwaterloo.ca

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MEF

*MEF requires us to accumulate all the eligible purchases (team purchases + Individual purchases) and submit them as a one big claim when one funding can be utilized before it expires (one year since the grant term)

Purchase

• Team Purchase

  • 1. MS makes wants to make a purchase that’s eligible for using a MEF funding based on MEF allocation

    • 1.1 the purchase is made through SSDC operating account

    • 1.2 the purchase is made by a team member for the team

  • 2. After the purchase is made, contact MEF to ask for approval of the reimbursement

    • 2.1 if it’s through team purchase, finance/ PM will contact MEF to process the reimbursement

    • 2.2. if it’s through the individual reimbursement path, finance will reach out to the claimant and help prepare and submit the Expense Claim Form Spring 2020 SSDC Expense Claim Form (Excel) to MEF for approval. The form should be filled out appropriately so it is able to show MEF: what is purchased, who purchased it and how, the purchase is used as required.

  • 3. Once the approval is received, MEF would reimburse the amount of the purchase

    • 2.1 if it’s through team purchase, the money would be deposited to team SSDC operating account

    • 2.2 if it’s through individual reimbursement path, the money would be deposited to the claimant’s bank account per his/her Quest info, or sent through a cheque.

WEEF

• Timeline for Team Purchase

  • 1. Before making a purchase, MS should inform WEEF first about the purchase needs to be made and ask for an approval

  • 2. After the approval is received, WEEF pays for the purchase??? No transaction going through SSDC operating account???

• Timeline for Individual Reimbursement

  • 1. An MS team member purchases an item requested in WEEF funding, for the team

  • 2. The MS team member submits the MS Individual Reimbursement Google Form, finance will reach out to the member, help prepare and submit the Expense Claim Form Spring 2020 SSDC Expense Claim Form (Excel) to WEEF for approval. In the email with the form attached, finance will identify the term when the fund going to be used was granted.

  • 3. Once WEEF approves the reimbursement, the member would expect a deposit to his/her bank account or a cheque.2. PM/ Operations Manager share the shopping cart (includes all the item names and prices) from the supplier website with Paula; Paula will help place the order and deduct money from our SSDC operating account

  • 3. Finance team should obtain the order confirmation/invoice/receipt of the team purchases (better to save them as pdf in google drive)

• Individual Purchase

  • 1. A MS member made a purchase eligible for a MEF funding upon the approval of team leads

  • 2. Finance team goes through the SSDC reimbursement process and submit the individual reimbursement to SSDC, specifying with Paula that this purchase will be claimed by MEF later

  • 3. Finance team should keep the reimbursement submission pdf for future claim purpose

Track

• IMPORTANT: finance team should update the amounts in the Endowment Fund Tab periodically to ensure an accurate tracking of the use of fundings. Below are 3 timepoints when the amounts should be fixed

  • Timepoint 1: Finance team is told by PM/ Team leads that a purchase eligible for a certain MEF funding is going to be made for sure >>> include the estimate purchase price of the item

    • Record the eligible purchases (either team or individual) to Internal Book - Endowment Fund tab as early as possible, regardless of whether SSDC has processed the order/the reimbursement yet.

      • Thus, PM and team leads can plan out the future purchases based on the up to date available funding balance

  • Timepoint 2: Finance team is copied on the email where the shopping cart is shared with Paula OR MS member has submitted the reimbursement request via Google Form>>> update the amount in Internal Book with the amount in the email/ member’s request after tax rebate calculation

    • 💡 All the universities get a tax kick back in supply purchases, which means the amounts actually charged on team’s operating account are lower than the purchase price after tax. What MEF would reimburse us will be based on how much was taken from our account. Hence, we should record the purchase amount after the tax rebate in Internal Book to track how much MEF would reimburse us on this purchase ( how much of this funding has been used)

      • Please see the attached Excel for UW Faculty of Engineering Tax Rebate Calculator

  • Timepoint 3: Ask Paula for a transaction report after being informed by Paula that the order has been placed OR the individual reimbursement is processed >>> Update the amount in Internal Book with the transaction amount in the report (this is the most accurate and reliable amount we should update our Internal Book data to)

    • Even after considering the tax rebate calculation, the calculated amount might still be different from the final charged amount due to shipping costs and other miscellaneous costs, which is why we should always check the transaction report

Submission

• When the funding is utilized or expiring very soon, it’s time to send the big claim to Paula who helps proceed and manage a deposit to the operating account from MEF.

• The big claim should include the following documents

  • Transactions of the claimed purchases captured directly from the most recent transaction report

  • Expense Form pages of all the eligible individual purchases (no needs to attach receipts)

  • Order Confirmations/ Invoices / Receipts of all the eligible team purchases

• Please see the attached sample submission PDF

Updated Conditions from MEF (as at Nov. 16, 2021)

• Midnight Sun's next project to which these funds apply is similar in purpose and nature compared to the approved MS XIV project

• Midnight Sun's percentage of Math students involved in the project is at least 10% (consistent with the percentage of total involved students from the Winter 2020 proposal) This is subject to confirmation at any point between now and Aug 20th, 2022, and will be verified in any applications for additional funding in upcoming terms (Winter 2022, Spring 2022).

• Original condition of proof of acknowledgment of MEF’s contribution to your organization or initiative provided at the time of reimbursements

• Note that failure to comply with any of the above conditions may result in a loss of carried forward funding to the new project. Please kindly reply to this email to accept the updated terms regarding Midnight Sun's grants and the conditions that come with this funding decision.

WEEF

*WEEF allows reimbursements on purchase basis, which means we don’t have to accumulate the purchases and wait to claim until the funding is utilized

*WEEF cannot under any circumstances transfer money from one university account to another. If a department pays for the entire purchase price up front, they will NOT be reimbursed. We must avoid letting operating account pay for any WEEF eligible purchases

Purchase

• Team Purchase

  • 1. MS wants to make a purchase eligible for a WEEF funding based on WEEF allocation

  • 2. PM/ Operations Manager share the shopping cart (includes all the item names and prices) from the supplier website with Paula, must specify this is a WEEF purchase

• Individual Purchase

  • 1. A MS member made a purchase eligible for a MEF funding upon the approval of team leads

  • 2. Finance team goes through the WEEF reimbursement process and submit the individual reimbursement to WEEF

    • should use WEEF Expense Claim Form

Track

• Timepoints to update Internal Book

  • Timepoint 1: Finance team is told by PM/ Team leads that a purchase eligible for a certain WEEF funding is going to be made for sure >>> include the estimate purchase price of the item

  • Timepoint 2:

    • Team Purchase: Finance team is copied on the email where the shopping cart is shared with Paula >>> update the amount in Internal Book with the amount in the email after tax rebate calculation

    • Individual Purchase: Update the amount in Internal Book based on the WEEF reimbursement submission; if WEEF gets back to us with an amount adjustment (hardly happens), update the amout again

      • This is the most accurate amount we can get for eligible WEEF individual purchases.

      • WEEF will reimburse MS members with whatever MS members paid so no needs to consider the university tax rebate here

  • Timepoint 3:

    • Team Purchase: Ask Paula for a transaction report after being informed by Paula that the order has been placed >>> Update the amount in Internal Book with the transaction amount in the report

Submission

• No cumulative submission is needed as team and individual purchases are reimbursed along the way when the funding is active

EngSoc

*EngSoc allows reimbursements on purchase basis, so no needs to accumulate purchases and claim everything for a funding at once

Purchase

• Team Purchase

  • 1. MS wants to make a purchase eligible for a EngSoc funding based on EngSoc allocation

  • 2. PM/ Operations Manager shares the shopping cart (includes all the item names and prices) from the supplier website with Paula, must specify this is a EngSoc purchase

• Individual Purchase

  • 1. A MS member made a purchase eligible for a MEF funding upon the approval of team leads

  • 2. Finance team goes through the EngSoc reimbursement process and submit the individual reimbursement to EngSoc

    • should use EngSoc Expense Claim Form

Track

• Timepoints to update Internal Book

  • Timepoint 1: Finance team is told by PM/ Team leads that a purchase eligible for a certain EngSoc funding is going to be made for sure >>> include the estimate purchase price of the item

  • Timepoint 2:

    • Team Purchase: Finance team is copied on the email where the shopping cart is shared with Paula >>> update the amount in Internal Book with the amount in the email after tax rebate calculation

    • Individual Purchase: Update the amount in Internal Book based on the EngSoc reimbursement submission; if EngSoc gets back to us with an amount adjustment (hardly happens), update the amout again

      • This is the most accurate amount we can get for eligible EngSoc individual purchases.

      • EngSoc will reimburse MS members with whatever MS members paid so no needs to consider the university tax rebate here

  • Timepoint 3:

    • Team Purchase: Ask Paula for a transaction report after being informed by Paula that the order has been placed >>> Update the amount in Internal Book with the transaction amount in the report

Submission

• No cumulative submission is needed as team and individual purchases are reimbursed along the way when the funding is active