December 1, 2022
Does your department purchase food/beverage for official functions – for example, staff appreciation, recognition, recruitment, donor cultivation, or similar events?
Effective December 1, 2022, the Finance Procedural Statement Official Functions has been revised as follows:
Per-person costs triggering officer review:
In addition to the organizational unit, the official function must be approved by the appropriate officer if, regardless of total cost, the per-person meal/beverage cost exceeds $115. For the past 14 years, the per-person threshold triggering officer review was set at over $85. This amount has been increased due to inflation. It is expected, however, that as stewards of university resources, employees continue to stay well below this threshold.
Remember that the cost of an official function is the cost of university-purchased food/beverage for personal consumption and related taxes/tips/fees.
Documentation of alcohol at CU-hosted conferences:
In response to questions, we’ve clarified the requirement to provide official function form information when alcoholic beverages are being purchased (in any dollar amount) for an official function or a CU-hosted conference.
Minor additional edits in language:
We’ve revised descriptions of types of official functions to better align the information in Official Functions procedures with more recently updated language in Sensitive Expenses procedures.
Questions?
Contact the Office of University Controller’s Financial Services & Solutions unit (FSS@cu.edu).