Business Services
BUSINESS SERVICES POLICY AND PROCEDURE DOCUMENT (BSPPD) # 19
Financial Incentive Payments
(Created June 30, 2003)
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PURPOSE
To ensure that all payments of cash, checks, and nonmonetary items such as gift certificates used as incentives for the completion of surveys, participation in focus groups or other forms of research activities, are properly disbursed, accounted for, and reported, and that procedures for solicitation of survey, acceptance and acknowledgment of financial incentives by the recipients are clear.
POLICY
It is the policy of the UW-Extension to provide, in some cases, a financial incentive to encourage participants to complete a survey form, participate in a focus group, attend a function or perform some type of activity that furthers the programs administered by the Institution. The UW-Extension Business Services Office is the only department authorized to disburse funds established for these purposes. Therefore UW-Extension department/units, with the exception of Business Services, are prohibited from setting up bank accounts. Business Services will make incentive payments upon appropriate approval by the department. Checks processed through the accounts payable system are the recommended way of processing incentive payments. However upon implementation of adequate control procedures and with preapproval from Business Services, noncash items such as gift certificates may be purchased and used for incentive purposes. Similarly in select situations, with preapproval from Business Services and based on adequate control procedures currency may be used as incentives to encourage the completion of survey forms. Noncash incentive items are not to be purchased with the UW-Extension purchasing card.
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PROCEDURES
- The department administering the program that requires financial incentives should contact Business Services to establish a process that responds to the requirements of the program while maintaining sound financial control. Business Services and the department will establish a methodology to process the incentive payments. The methodology will vary depending on volume and form of the incentive payment.
- If the incentive is a cash payment made to encourage the completion of a survey, the initiating department personnel should request that the survey participant complete the Payment Request form (Attachment 1). The initiating department/unit personnel should certify and approve the Payment Request form and return it to the Business Office for payment processing. The initiating department should retain the completed survey form along with a copy of Payment Request form, in an orderly manner, for a period of at least five years plus current year.
- If the incentive payment takes the form of a gift certificate the initiating department must submit a request to Business Services documenting the control procedures that will be used to account for and safeguard the certificates. Business Services will evaluate the request and determine if controls are adequate. A methodology must be established to finance the purchase of the certificates and the subsequent accounting for their use.