SGF permissions
- All Committee members have the ability to raise requests
- The President and Treasurer roles have the ability to approve or reject requests. (level 1 approval)
- All SGF requests are raised to your coordinator, please let them know via teams if you have raised requests. (level 2 approval)
Types of requests
You can raise two types of SGF requests.
The first is a Reimbursement request in which one of the committee is reimbursed for payments they have made on the society’s behalf. These can be used for purchases under £40.
Pro: You’ve got confirmation immediately of purchase
Con: You’re out of pocket for a period of time
- Step 1: Once the committee member has made the payment for resources you should take a photo of the receipt (It’s better to do this in the moment in case you lose the receipt)
- Step 2: Log into the SU website and submit a student group finance request online
- To do this you need to log into the SU website, go to your admin tools and into finances.
- Select the option for "New Payment Request" and complete the information in the description, attach the copy of the receipt you’ve taken.
- Step 3: Your President or Treasurer should log into the SGF platform (again through admin tools) and confirm they're happy to approve the purchase. Please note that they cannot approve their own payment requests another committee member can raise these or they can approve one another’s
- Step 4: This will then come through to your coordinator who will process the payment to the finance department.
The second is to raise a Purchase Request which tells us as a team that we will be paying a supplier invoice or making a credit card payment on your behalf. This is the preferred method and should be used by default for anything above £40.
Pro: SU staff will process the payments and no one is out of pocket
Con: You don’t get immediate confirmation, we raise this in our operations and finance teams to make the payment so it can take a little longer than reimbursement.
- Step 1: Confirm the total amount and service with your supplier/payee
- Step 2: Gather their contact information and one of your committee must raise a student group finance request online
- To do this you need to log into the SU website, go to your admin tools and into finances.
- Select the option for "New Purchase Request" and complete the information in the description, attach the invoice and quote you've received.
- Select the Payment method as Purchase order (This tells our finance team we're paying it on the society's behalf and tells your coordinator to send finance a copy of any invoices or to raise a credit card request).
- Step 3: Your President or Treasurer should log into the SGF platform (again through admin tools) and confirm they're happy to approve the purchase.
- Step 4: This will then come through to your coordinator who will process the payment to the finance department. We may get in touch with any suppliers you raise to confirm they are set up as a supplier on our finance system if we've never paid them before.
Do’s and Don’ts
Do:
- Spend money appropriately on resources, events and equipment that benefit members collectively
- Submit your SGF requests in a timely manner, There is usually a payment run each month
- Budget for your events and resources – knowing what needs replacing on your inventory list helps you monitor your expenses
- Complete your budget tracker – a useful tool to track income and expenses
- Make your coordinator aware of upcoming purchases via teams.
- Submit purchase requests over reimbursement requests, we want to avoid you paying out of pocket as much as possible
Don't:
- Spend money on individual benefits e.g. committee only dinner
- Spend money on alcohol
- Wait until the last moment to submit finance requests (deadlines are set for a reason)
- Spend more than £40 on reimbursement requests