The Undergraduate Student Government
at Michigan Technological University

Purchase Request Guide

Purchase Requests allow your Registered Student Organization to work with Student Activity Fee funding without significant financial liability. All Purchase Requests are handled through Involvement Link and follow a standardized process!


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General Policy and Guidelines

All Registered Student Organization Officers are expected to abide by and understand the policies that the Undergraduate Student Government follows for its Purchase Requests. Why? There are certain rules that pertain to the best usage of the Student Activity Fee that brings benefit to the university, and there are also certain ways that we must document all purchases.

Receipt Policy

These are the general expectations for how receipts should be when submitted to the Undergraduate Student Government. As always, different purchases give different pieces of documentation, and we encourage you to reach out with any questions!

What a Receipt SHOULD Contain

A date of purchase on the receipt

An itemized list (with prices) of what is being purchased

A final total dollar amount

A confirmation of payment (cash, card, check, etc.)

What a Receipt CANNOT Be

A receipt cannot be from a prior fiscal year (before July 1st), and it must have been submitted within 4 months of the date of purchase shown on the receipt.


An invoice without a proof of payment is not a valid form of receipt, although, it can be used as "part of a receipt"

What Can (and Can't) be Funded

Generally, the Student Activity Fee aims to fund experiences, materials, and opportunities that align towards the interests of all Michigan Tech students. Whether that be for cultural enrichment or political activism, all students should have a chance to aspire to be engaged while on campus.

Items Not Permitted

Food, Candy, Drinks, etc.

(except that of which has a cultural significance)

Alcohol or other substances

Items that are given away

(Includes T-Shirts, stickers, or anything that is not kept by the RSO)

Salaries for full-time or part-time staff

Donations or political contributions

(Donations made to "purchase" an item are OK)

Awards or prizes to members

Most of the things that you can't spend on shouldn't be on your budget. However, please be aware of these restrictions when purchasing. We are unable to make exceptions for organizations that purchase these items before seeking reimbursement.

General Timeline of Things

While the timeline for everything is officially determined by the Undergraduate Student Government Treasurer and relayed out to RSO Officers via email, they are generally consistent within a week or two. The big date(s) to remember are the beginning and end of the fiscal year, which are June 30th and July 1st respectively.


The times below are taken from 2024-2025's Fiscal Year

July 1st

The Fiscal Year begins, and all Registered Student Organizations start using their new budgets. Organizations that indicated their intention in advance will be approved to spend.

August 25th

The Ways and Means Committee begins starting to review Purchase Requests that were not approved for summer submission!


The committee also opens up funding hearing slots and votes on budget revisions on a weekly basis.

April 24th

The last normal day to spend out of an RSO's budget unless accommodations were made in advance. This allows the Ways and Means Committee to commit the appropriate resources over the summer. Budget revisions and funding hearings are paused.

June 1st

The last day for Advancement requests for exempt organizations.

June 23rd

The last day for Reimbursement requests for exempt organizations.

Stay By Your RSO's Budget

All Purchase Requests must be made referencing a line item on an RSO's budget. You cannot stray away from your budget without informing us and seeking approval. This is to ensure that RSOs are spending their Student Activity Fee funding in the best interests of the students (e.g. a "LEGO" club should only be spending their funding on things relating to "LEGO" or team-building)


If something changes in the middle of a fiscal year, that's okay! Fill out the Budget Revision Form to request to modify your club's budget!

How to Make a Purchase Request

All Purchase Requests are made through Involvement Link, the university's platform for all Registered Student Organizations!

Reimbursement Requests


To request funding after a qualified purchase has been made

Advancement Requests


To request and receive funding before making a qualified purchase

Request Reimbursement

Registered Student Organizations that have a budget allocated to them by the Undergraduate Student Government can request reimbursement for qualified purchases through Involvement Link. Make sure that you are using the updated version of Involvement Link to submit purchase requests!


Club Officers must be signed in with their Michigan Tech emails to request reimbursement, and all reimbursement requests are subject to approval by the Ways and Means Committee.

How to View Your RSO's Current Budget

Involvement Link keeps track of your organization's current budget so you can keep track of your funds and how much you have left to spend in the fiscal year. To access your RSO's funds, make sure you are signed in with your Michigan Tech account with access to your organization's setting page.

1. Select the gear icon next to your organization's icon on the left-hand menu


2. Under the Organization Tools, select the Finance button, which will redirect you to the proper page


3. You can view all current purchase requests on the page that shows, or click the Accounts button to view the balance of each of your organization's accounts!

Each individual account that you select will have details about the funds available to your organization...


Balance - Shows the amount of funds from your RSO's budget (original allocation minus completed transactions)


Encumbered Funds - Shows the amount of funds spent (approved, but not completed)


Available Funds - Shows the amount of funds remaining for you to spend (balance minus encumbered funds)

On the Account detail, the Transactions tab contains details about the completed transactions for the account (which impacts balance). The Requests tab contains details about the pending transactions / requests (which impacts encumbered funds)

Make a Purchase Request for Your RSO

Purchase Requests can be made on behalf of your Registered Student Organization, which request the usage of one of your accounts to pay for a qualified item on your budget. These purchase requests go through the Ways and Means Committee on the Undergraduate Student Government, and must follow a few guidelines to be approved.

In accordance with Undergraduate Student Government Bylaws and Student Leadership and Involvement Policy, there are multiple things that cannot be funded:


- Alcohol

- Giveaways

- Food (unless it serves a cultural purpose) 

- Salaries for full-time or part-time staff

- Contributions to political or other campaigns

- Awards or prizes to members

Reimbursements:

Reimbursement requests are payments to your Registered Student Organization after a purchase has already been made. These purchases must fit within the scope of your budget and organization, and a receipt must be provided with proof of purchase, date purchased, and amount spent.

Advancements:

Advancement requests are for payments made to your Registered Student Organization before a purchase has been made. This is typically for larger-ticket items that need to be funded, and require some sort of invoice showing the price for the item. Receipts for the purchase must be provided in 1 month after the purchase at the latest.

1. While on the Finance page of your organization, click the Create Purchase Request button that appears under the "Create New Request" dropdown


2. Fill out the details of the purchase request in its entirety. You can view a detailed list of descriptions for each field below...


Subject - Basic information about what the purchase request is for


Description - Additional information about the request, such as reasoning, links, context, or anything else that you feel needs to be known about the purchase request (this isn't required)


Requested Amount - The total amount that you are requesting for the purchase request. Please note that the Ways and Means Committee can adjust this amount if your receipt shows a different amount.


Categories - The type of purchase request based off of your submitted budget from the previous budget hearings


Account - The account that the funds should come out of (normally, most RSOs only have one account)

Reimbursement / Advancement / Pay a University Entity - The type of purchase request that you are making. If your purchase request is to pay another department or organization at Michigan Tech (usually using an index), you should select the "Pay a University Entity" option


Line Item - Based on your submitted budget, please provide the line item number that closely corresponds to the purchase request. All purchase requests made must be on an RSO's budget, or they will be subject to denial.


Receipt / Invoices / Estimates - A document detailing the necessary proof for your purchase request. Please note the descriptions shown on Involvement Link for what qualifies as a proper document. You may only submit one document per purchase request, so please combine PDFs, images, and receipts if you are submitting a purchase request for multiple individual (and related) purchases.



Finally, click the Submit Request button at the bottom of the page to submit your purchase request to the Ways and Means Committee!

Responding to Ways and Means Feedback

If anything on your purchase request is invalid or needs additional information, a Ways and Means Committee member will contact the requestor through email to describe the issue. Oftentimes, the committee member will ask for additional materials, clarification, or other resources to be able to approve the purchase request. However, they may deny the request if it does not meet the qualified purchase guidelines that your RSO can spend money on.

Good News! Your Request Was Approved! What Next?

Purchase Requests that have been approved by both the Ways and Means Committee and a review from the USG Treasurer show up as a charge to the organization's budget balance on Involvement Link. In-between the time that it takes from your request approval to when you receive the check, your available funds will decrease by the amount that was approved in the request. 

Reimbursements:

Once the check has been received and is ready, Student Leadership and Involvement (rso@mtu.edu) will contact you directly on instructions on how to pick the check up. Reimbursements do not have to provide any additional detail after receiving the check, as the receipt was submitted with the purchase request!

Advancements:

Once the check has been received and is ready, Student Leadership and Involvement (rso@mtu.edu) will contact you directly on instructions on how to pick the check up.


You MUST send receipts of the purchase directly to advancementreceipt@mtu.edu within 1 month of you receiving the funds. This shows that you have paid the proper amount for the items.

Pay an Entity:

Requests to Pay a University Entity are handled by the RSO Coordinator directly, and they will process the payment to the university department or vendor directly from your account. No further action is required from you!

usg@mtu.edu

(906) 487-2406

The Undergraduate Student Government is a Special Budgetary Group of Michigan Technological University. The Undergraduate Student Government's website is hosted on Michigan Tech property, and any and all logos that contain the Michigan Tech brand are owned by the university itself.