How to Buy/Pay for Stuff

Note: if you are using a UCO FOAPAL, you will need to reach out to their staff for processing. The PBSci Division/Astronomy department can not process reimbursements, fellowships, etc. on behalf of UCO. The faculty/Principal Investigator (PI) will know if their account is housed in UCO or Astro.

Department staff can provide limited support for research-funded purchases or services.  Staff have both a ProCard and a CTE Card which are tied to Department FOAPALS. For occasional (meaning does not happen very often!) purchases, please provide us with your FOAPAL and your Tier 2 approver (your financial analyst) so we can process a Transfer of Expense.  Examples of this would be placing an ad for a Postdoc in AAS. If we receive frequent requests, you will be required to obtain either your own ProCard and/or CTE card.

A FOAPAL is a chart code associated with an account.  It tells accounting which account to move money to or from.  The FOAPAL is the account numbers you will need to use for purchases and reimbursements.  Technical information about FOAPALs may be found here.

The basic parts of a FOAPAL are as follows:

FUND: Source of Funding. 5 digit code, numbers only (always required).

ORGANIZATION: Unit of budgetary responsibility. 6 digit code, numbers only (always required).

ACCOUNT: Type of transaction. 6 digit code, numbers only (always required). Describes "what" you are purchasing.

ACTIVITY: User defined for organization. Helps track/categorize expenses. Not required

"Account" code describes what you are purchasing. For a full list of account codes, refer to the following page.

"P" and "L" of the FOAPAL are Program and Location - we do not use

Department Funds:

Tier 1 = Department Manager

Tier 2 = PBSci Senior Divisional Resources Analyst, Kitty Mooney, camooney@ucsc.edu

Research Funds:

Tier 1 = Faculty /PI

Tier 2 = PBSci Research Resource Analyst, view assignments here.

EEC Department/ Division Funds:

Meg Lehr

Divisional Resources Manager

Physical & Biological Sciences

mlehr@ucsc.edu

EEC Research Funds:

Carrey Odden

Director of Research Accounting

Physical & Biological Sciences

codden@ucsc.edu

Direct Deposit for payroll does NOT verify setup in the payment & reimbursement system.  

The Payee Setup 204 Form is required for reimbursement.

Fill out a university Payee Set-Up 204 form  

1. If you’re having trouble filling out the form, the university has provided extra instructions here

2. If you could not resolve your issue by following the instructions, please reach out to finaff-tech@ucsc.edu

Colloquium Speaker Dinners

Direct Pay Reimbursement

Entertainment

Pro Card and CTE Card (Visa Cards)

Publication Journal Charges

Purchase Orders (CruzBuy)

Travel Policies

Travel Reimbursement