2.00b Toy Product Design

Purchasing Guidelines

Purchasing in 2.00b is done by having teammates purchase project materials with their own funds and then getting reimbursed by MIT. This page provides information to help financial officers facilitate team purchasing by managing purchases and properly submitting receipts and requests for reimbursement. Financial training might not be that fun, but spending money sure can be!

• each team has a total budget of $750 to spend on materials not provided in the PDL
• any team member can make purchases as long as they do not pay tax and keep all receipts
• the financial officer is responsible for submitting Requests for Reimbursement for all team members
• financial officers do not reimburse themselves for purchases made by teammates
• financial officers can reimburse themselves if they were the ones to make the original purchase
• if a teammate makes a purchase, the financial officer should submit a request for reimbursement on behalf of the teammate

Here are a few suggestions for staying on top of reimbursements:

• financial officers should keep a spreadsheet that lists purchases, venders, costs, and if a reimbursement has been submitted
• try to submit reimbursements soon after making purchases to prevent delays
• keep all packing slips from shipped items and submit them with the receipts

Making Purchases

MIT is tax exempt so tax will not be included in any reimbursements.

Bring the ST2 and ST5 forms with you to local stores and provide digital copies to online stores (these can be used to create a tax exempt Amazon account for your team, but only use this account for project purchases)

Team budgets can be spent on projected related items only – no food, drinks, or recreational purchases are acceptable. This includes no team clothing.

Staff Contact

Chevalley Duhart, the course administrative assistant, handles the reimbursement process for 2.00b. You may reach Chevalley by email at cduhart@mit.edu. Chevalley works remotely and is not on Slack. All reimbursement questions should be addressed to Chevalley. If you post a question in the #ask-a-financial-question Slack channel, a member of the administrative team will work with Chevalley to answer your question.

Requests for Reimbursement

A Request for Reimbursement (RFP) can be done for a single receipt or a batch of receipts, but each RFP can only be done for one payee. That means that an RFP can cover multiple purchases, but can only cover one person. If you have the need to reimburse multiple people, multiple RFPs need to be submitted. Doing RFPs in batches means less paperwork overall and likely a speedy reimbursement, so try to do that when possible!

Before submitting your RFP into the system, you should collect a few documents together.

• fill out a 2.00b Cover Sheet
• collect all original paper receipts and digitize them
• collect all online receipts
• collect any packing slips (not all packages ship with packing slips) and digitize them. Online orders should be received before being submitted for reimbursement.

Here are some notes for filling out a 2.00b cover sheet:

Submitting an RFP on Atlas

When you are ready to enter your RFP into the online system, sign in to atlas.mit.edu

• DO NOT go to "My Reimbursements" (even if it is your reimbursement!)
• instead, go to FULL MENU

Scroll down to PURCHASING > Manage Reimbursements (RFPs) > Reimbursement

When you enter the reimbursement form, search for the Payee

• if the financial officer is the also the purchaser, search for your own name
• otherwise, find the name of your teammate (search by last name)
• if your teammate can not be found in Atlas, please contact Chevalley

Enter the details of the purchases. Use the Add Line button to submit multiple receipts for the same payee.

• note that the Date of Service is the date listed on the receipt
• name the RFP using the following format: 200b-team_name-payee_first_name
  if your team has two teammates with the same first name, add enough of the last name to distinguish between the two
• proper naming is very important for keeping track of RFPs

Hit Save & Continue, then add scans or photos of your receipts

• note that only certain file formats are accepted
• all images must be under 2MB

Use the buttons on the bottom to manage receipts

• Attach Receipt lets you add another receipt if you have multiple purchases
• View Receipt allows you to view the last uploaded image
• Send to moves on to the next step

In order to find Chevalley, search Duhart-Richburg, and finally submit the receipt!

Remember to keep all of your paper documentation through the end of the term or until you get the reimbursement, whichever is later. Please feel free to email Chevalley with any financial questions.

What happens next?

Once the RPF is submitted, it will be processed in the order received and payments should be received within a week of processing.

If MIT has the payee's direct deposit information on file, the reimbursement will be direct deposited. Otherwise, it will be mailed to the address that MIT has on file for the payee. For students, this is the address in WebSIS. If you want your reimbursement mailed to a different address, you need to update your address in WebSIS.

If the RFP seems delayed, please email Chevalley to inquire about its status.

If you would like a brief Zoom tutorial for creating and submitting an RFP, you may contact Chevalley to request one.