Gift & Gift Card Policy

Types of gifts at Penn

• Gifts to Employees
• Gifts to Non-Employees
• Gifts to Students
• “Gifts” to Human Subjects

Gifts to Employees

The gift policy at Penn states the following:

There are only four events for which University departments can purchase gifts:

• Departure of a long-term employee
• Retirement of an employee
• Illness of an employee requiring hospitalization
• Death of an employee or an employee’s immediate family member

In addition:

• The gift cannot be cash, a cash equivalent, or a gift card.
• The gift maximum is $100 (inclusive of tax, shipping, etc.).
• For the allowable events listed above, gift baskets and boxes, Uber Eats vouchers, and floral arrangements may be purchased directly through Penn-approved suppliers. Purchases may be made using purchasing cards or purchase orders.
• Etsy, Zazzle, Café Press, and eBay are not Penn-approved suppliers and may not be used for business-related purchases. These vendors are not licensed to produce Penn-branded items.

Gifts to Non-Employees

• Providing gifts or gift cards to non-employees is generally prohibited, except for donor appreciation tokens.
• Individuals (and/or Companies [LLCs]) providing a service should go through the onboarding and classification process.
• Individuals participating as guest speakers, musicians or panelists must be paid as Independent Service Providers. Submit questions to your business office liaison in advance to properly classify the individual before the event takes place.
• Prohibited gifts to non-employees include:
  • Cash or gift cards to housekeepers, security, guest speakers, or class visitors.
  • Gifts or gift cards as honorarium.

Gifts to Students

• Gifts (inclusive of gift cards) to students are prohibited.
• Students who are working for your department should be paid through the work-study program, as a temporary worker, GA, etc. through WorkDay.
• Prizes or awards in recognition of educational achievements are not considered gifts and are permissible under Penn policy. Consult your business office liaison for more information.

“Gifts” to Human Subjects

(This refers to payment for participation in research study focus groups, interviews, programs, etc.)

• Gifts and gift cards for human subject participants are not allowed.
• Enrollment in Greenphire/ClinCard is the preferred payment method for human subjects.

What can we do?

The following options for recognition are allowed.

• Penn GSE-branded swag items, using approved vendors
• Meals for business purposes and within meal threshold guidelines
  • Meals to celebrate birthdays, weddings, births, etc., are prohibited.
• Team events, using approved suppliers
  • E.g., team art class, team cooking demo, team bowling
• Flowers for the hospitalization of an employee or death of an employee’s immediate family member
• Books (outside of required reading or textbooks)
  • E.g., School-wide reading initiatives, Board/Advisory Member group readings

Credit Card Responsibility

• Documentation
• Permissible Purchases
• Card Usage Guidelines (P-Card Restrictions)

Travel

Visit the One Penn GSE Travel page

Concur Approval Flows/Hierarchy 

Within Concur, each expense report must have at least 3 approvers. The first approver is typically your Financial Administrator in the Business Office. The second approver is the finance approver who is responsible for your budget (may be a director or another Business Office staff member, and the third approver is generally your manager/supervisor or the PI/Faculty Staff responsible for the work for which you are being reimbursed.

Penn will make the payment to your travel card or reimbursements will be issued when all approvers complete their steps in the system. Please be aware of this due to timing of reconciliation and/or paying your bill.

Qlikview Access and Reconciliation Policy

Penn's policies hold account owners responsible to regularly monitoring account transactions in expense reports to confirm their legitimacy as it relates to Penn’s educational purpose. Regular monitoring of your account assures that your budget dollars are used for their intended purpose.

GSE Financial Account ownership overview

• GSE maintains more than 600 different accounts as part of the financial structure.
• Types of accounts include unrestricted, endowments, and gifts.
• Purpose of accounts
  • To track various sources of revenue and categories of departmental expenses associated with specific purposes, including academic, administrative, and operational activities; technology funds; indirect cost-share accounts; development initiatives; and related functions.
  • Placeholder for current-year funding (budgets), prior year carry-forwards, and approved one-time funding.

Best practices for account management

• Accounts should be reviewed at least once per month for wayward/misallocated transactions.
• Perform consistent review of daily transactions related to your budget.
• Confirm suppliers are paid in a timely manner. If not, contact the Business Office to research for the delay and resolve the problem.
• Account deficits are not permitted.  If your account is in deficit, or you expect your account to have a deficit balance, contact Jason Presley or Greg Tausz to discuss as soon as possible. 

Common Questions to Guide budget Review and Qlikview Analysis

• Who is permitted to charge expenditures against your account?
• What types of charges are being processed against your account?  
• Do you sign off on all expenditures processed by your faculty/staff? 
• How do you track allowable expenditures?
• If you have multiple accounts, are charges being applied against the correct account?
• Do you check for wayward transactions?