Employee Reimbursements Tutorial

Per the University Policy Manual 10.2(7), the Purchasing Department has the responsibility for handling all procurement transactions. ISU employees have no authority to commit ISU funds, and should obtain a Purchase Order number from the Purchasing Department or use the ISU Purchasing Card whenever possible, rather than requesting reimbursement for items purchased with personal funds. Using a Purchase Order or the ISU Purchasing Card also exempts us from sales tax and saves 7% for local purchases.

The Employee Reimbursement system may not be used as a means of circumventing ISU’s procurement policies.


Allowable Employee Reimbursements through AccessPlus:

Purchases of supplies for $500 or less that are not otherwise restricted by ISU’s procurement policy.
(Ammunition, firearms, laboratory animals, pharmaceuticals, printing, photocopying, purchases from conflict-of-interest vendors, etc. must be pre-approved by the Purchasing Department.)


Cell phone reimbursements – See ISU’s Cell Phone policy at http://policy.iastate.edu/policy/cellphones/


The employee should retain documentation supporting the request for cell phone reimbursement but does NOT need to attach such documentation to requests under $25 per month. (This is an exception to the policy that an attachment is required for all Non-Travel Reimbursements.) Reimbursement requests for more than $25 require either a log which identifies individual calls by # of minutes, area code, and phone number OR a copy of the cell phone bill which identifies the calls for which reimbursement is requested. Iowa State University does not reimburse for the purchase of the phone itself.

Interview expenses paid by ISU employees

Continue to Unallowable Non-Travel Reimbursements through AccessPlus