AP Newsletter

Effective November 1, 2026

In accordance with State of Maryland requirements governing Comptroller Advances, UMBC is updating its petty cash reimbursement procedures effective November 1, 2026.

What is changing?

Petty cash reimbursements will be limited to infrequent, incidental, and urgent expenses of $50 or less that cannot reasonably be processed through standard University purchasing or reimbursement procedures. Requests will be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis by the Manager of Business Services and Accounts Payable.

Example: An employee who must pay for Express Mail to ship specimens for university business over a weekend when Mail Services is closed may qualify for an emergency reimbursement.

• Payment Method Requirement: Eligible petty cash expenses must have been paid in cash or by debit card.

• Ineligible Payment Method: Expenses paid by credit card are not eligible.

What expenses are no longer eligible?

Routine, non-emergency purchases will no longer qualify for petty cash reimbursement. Examples include, but are not limited to:

1. First aid kits, snacks, and beverages for student trips and activities.

2. Routine Express Mail, shipping, and postage expenses.

3. Food and refreshments for meetings, leadership trainings, kick-off events, and similar activities.

4. Office supplies, craft items, candy for students, and other routine departmental purchases.

5. Fuel for UMBC vehicles.

6. Membership dues for Costco, BJ’s, and similar organizations.

7. Laboratory, instructional, and other university supplies and materials.

How should departments handle these expenses?

Departments should plan purchases in advance and use established university procurement methods, including purchasing cards where permitted. Employee expenses that require reimbursement should be submitted through the regular Accounts Payable reimbursement process.

Business Services is available to help departments identify appropriate purchasing and reimbursement methods.

Questions?

For questions, please contact Linda Rothfus at lsrothfus@umbc.edu or 410-455-3288.

Earlier today, Procurement held October's Supplier Spotlight with Enterprise and National rentals.  If you were unable to make it, here are the resources to view at your convenience.

A recording of the session (30 minutes) can be viewed at this link.

Slides from the presentation are attached

Our Supplier Spotlight for November will be with E&I Cooperative Services.  Details will be posted soon on Procurement's event page.

• Attached Presentation for Recording of October 2026 Supplier Spotlight: Enterprise & National Vehicle Rentals

As you have heard through other messages, the way that non-catalog purchases, contract requests, and software/cloud services requests will be changing on Monday, October 5.

To help you and others in your department navigate this new process, Procurement has created the attached resource documents. 

Two of the files - Contract or Software Request Process and Non-Catalog Purchase Process - have step-by-step directions to assist you with this new process.

The Information Needed for Procurement Request Process document lists all of the required information that will be needed to submit the Procurement Request. This will be helpful if staff in your office are sharing purchase requests with you and let's them know the information that you will need to successfully submit the request.

For more information, including a recording of a training about this new process, review the post from September 17.

We thank you for your patience and understanding as we impliment this new process, which should simplify the purchasing process.

• Attached Document for Resource Documents for New Procurement Request Process
• Attached Document for Resource Documents for New Procurement Request Process
• Attached Document for Resource Documents for New Procurement Request Process