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Reimbursements for purchases made as a Reliant Employee during your time at a summer program or event
- For employee event reimbursement (to be paid out of the account the employee is responsible for) please follow the instructions below for what is allowed to be reimbursed.
- If those purchases are being paid for by the event fund see Reimbursements for the Event Fund.
- For meals during the event see Per Diem During Events and for international event meals see Event Participant Allowance Paid Directly to Participant (See also Event Meals Reimbursements)
- To reimburse your event program fee see Conferences, Retreats, and Events. If you need to pay your event program fee see Event Fee Payments Made by Reliant Employee
What can be Reimbursed During My Time at a summer program?
Employees can reimburse through the MTD account they are responsible for (on a normal reimbursement form) travel to and from the Reliant summer program (
PER DIEM:
Per Diem is the required method to be used for reimbursing meals for anyone serving in a ministry role at a GCM summer program for 10 days or more. (If you participate in a meal plan in which you do not pay for meals during the summer program, please refrain from using Per Diem or only request Per Diem for meals you will be paying for out of pocket). Although requesting Per Diem is optional it can be helpful to offset higher grocery and meal costs staff may incur while serving in a ministry location that is not your home, and therefore doesn’t have the same conveniences’ you are accustomed to for cooking etc.
*Note: Meals during which you actively minister to someone or MTD meals with donors that occur during the summer program can be reimbursed even if you are receiving Per Diem, as long as they are kept to a reasonable frequency and amount.
Please have your GCM staff members download the most recent Per Diem forms from GCM staffnet that explain Per Diem. Make sure they fill out the appropriate Per Diem form (Directors, there is a separate Per Diem form for you to fill out) and send to GCM after obtaining supervisor approval.
We suggest dividing the Per Diem request into monthly installments to reimburse rather than one lump sum for the summer. Staff may submit multiple months of Per Diem forms at one time. Dividing it up into months will help staff avoid having one large reimbursement sitting in the GCM account they are responsible for waiting for enough money to be raised to cover it. Even if staff believe they will not have adequate funds in their account to reimburse Per Diem, staff should still consider filing it out and submitting the form in case they receive an unexpected special gift, etc.
GCM REIMBURSEMENTS FOR GCM STAFF DURING THE SUMMER PROGRAM:
- AFTER arriving at a GCM summer program, staff CAN NOT reimburse staff (this includes interns) meals, mileage around town (less than 100 miles each way), etc. with GCM, as a normal receipt reimbursement through GCM…these expenses are covered by Per Diem and/or ME bonus, which means you will not be able to reimburse these expenses like normal reimbursement.
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as long as the location of the program is over 100 miles from where you live
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). These travel expenses could include a flight out to LT, mileage to LT that is over 100 miles one-way, travel meals along the way, tolls, etc.
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The event fund is not used to reimburse travel to or from the event for employees or event directors attending the program. Employees may choose to reimburse travel from the account from which they are responsible for when it is a ministry-related expense. See Travel for more details. (See also LT Subsidies.) Speaker travel is reimbursable using an event fund, but typically a speaker is given honorarium to then use the account for which they are responsible for to reimburse event travel. See Speaker And Church/Ministry Honorariums for Events for more details. |
Also reimbursable during the employees' time at the event are typical MTD ministry purchases… Stamps, envelopes, prayer letter printing, donor meals, etc. Some examples with ministry purposes are listed below.
Items that can not be reimbursed to employees after arriving at the Reliant Summer Program include:
- Meals throughout the day (remember, those are covered by Per Diem see Per Diem During Events
- Also see Event Meals Reimbursements
- Mileage around town that is less than 100 miles one-way (remember, that is covered by your Ministry Expense Bonus!) (The exception to this would be if for example an employee is driving to the airport to pick up a speaker for an event, the event fund is allowed to reimburse you for that expense, but it can not be reimbursed by a employee fund).
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If you need to purchase supplies for the specific summer program, you would typically reimburse those through event advance reimbursement directly the event finance administrator or if the event if not using event advances then you would reimburse it using the event fund. See Event Advance Purchases by Field Staff and Reimbursements for the Event Fund for details. |
Examples with Ministry Purposes:
| Mileage Driving to and from LT: | Driving out to Colorado LT in Estes Park, CO to serve in my role as main worship leader for the summer program. This is my mileage for intially going out to LT. Driving out to Colorado LT in Estes Park, CO, to serve as my role in set-up team. I have to drive back and forth between the LT location and my home three times to help set-up the event including housing logistics and stage/music set-up. |
| Travel Meals driving to and from LT: | Driving from my home to Colorado LT, dinner stop along the way. This lists my cost of food for this dinner. The portion that was for my spouse and kids, is listed in the Taxable section. |
| MTD Meal while at LT location: | Met with John Smith, a current donor, while at my LT location in Colorado. I updated him on my campus ministry, along with how LT is going here in Colorado. I got to update him on what activities we are doing at LT. |
| Supplies for LT (asked to purchase by Director): | Purchased flashlights, as requested by my Colorado LT Director, for part of a team-building and encouraging game we played at night with the participants. |
- Normal MTD purchases… stamps, envelopes, books, etc. made throughout the summer may be submitted as a normal receipt reimbursement through GCM.
- Reimbursements submitted to GCM to be paid from the summer program ministry account must follow normal GCM reimbursement policies. If you need to review the GCM policies go to staffnet and click on REIMBURSMENTS and click on SUMMARY and then on the summaries page you will see FORMS and OTHER and then you can download REIMBURSEMENT HANDBOOK to look at all your reimbursement policies.
GCM STAFF SUMMER PROGRAMS FINANCE INFORMATION
Remind your staff to verify how much money has been allocated in the budget for their specific ministry role before spending any money. Someone on your team will collect receipts and receipts should be attached to the Summer Program reimbursement form. This form is for your petty cash administrator to have a paper trail and understand what is being bought, etc. but this form is not for sending back to GCM.
*We MUST have an itemized receipt of your expense in order to allow the purchase to be submitted to GCM using petty cash funds. GCM will NOT be able to accept a credit card receipt that does not list the items as your receipt.
Receipts (including hand written receipts) must meet specific criteria (see below) to be considered valid.
The receipts must include ALL of the following fiends to be considered valid:
- Name of Receipt Issuing Authority/Service Provider
- Contact Info (Address, Phone # etc.) of the Receipt Issuing Authority/Service Provider
- Date of the transaction
- Description of the item(s)/service(s) being purchased
- Cost of the item(s)/service(s) being purchased
- Total amount paid
- Method of payment
GCM Staff are not allowed to write themselves receipts or to write a receipt for their spouse. In cases in which a GCM Staff member or spouse is issuing receipts for an event or service, another GCM Staff member must sign the receipt as verification of the transaction.
OVERVIEW OF GIFTS POLICY…
In general, gifts purchased by the Summer Program must abide by the gift reimbursement guidelines contained in GCM’s reimbursement handbook (link to GIFT POLICY). That policy is summarized below, but please refer to the full policy with specific questions, or contact the GCM Finance Dept prior to making a purchase if you are unsure if a gift purchase is eligble for reimbursement.
Gifts must be spiritual/religious in nature (ex. Book, bible, etc.) with the exception of Corporate gifts (follow link to policy), speaker gifts (see below) and “token gifts” (see below).
The gift limit for the entire summer is $25 per person.
Gifts cannot be given to other GCM staff members or LT Directors gifts (to be reimbursed). The IRS considers the wonderful summer experience as the staff’s “gift”. Personal gifts may be given as long as no ministry funds are used.
*You can NOT give gift cards to anyone (student or staff) and get reimbursed for it either with the program petty cash or through the GCM account you are responsible for. (The reason for this policy is the IRS considers gift cards to be compensation. To allow gift card gifts GCM would have to track and report the gift cards as “wages” via a W2 or 1099 statement. So, to simplify summer program finances, the rule is “no gift cards.”
“Token” gifts or prizes or gift bags passed out as a gift for the entire group (ex. to an entire LT project or all LT students) can be reimbursed if the gifts are under $5 and were given to everyone. These gifts do not have to be spiritual in nature.
Speaker gifts, such as a welcome basket, can be reimbursed, up to a maximum of $25. These gifts do not have to be spiritual in nature but they cannot include gift cards (see policy above).
Corporate gifts (see policy – link) can be given by the summer program to high ranking employers etc. If the gift is given to an organization, the maximum value that can be reimbursed is $150. For individuals or couples, the maximum value is $60. Gifts can be purchased through petty cash or by contacting the GCM Finance dept. and requesting them to make the purchase using a GCM credit card. These gifts do not have to be spiritual in nature, but they cannot include gift cards (see policy above).
If you would like to give a monetary gift to say thank you to a church or ministry (ex. for the use of their space, etc.) you can request a honorarium be sent from GCM directly (NOT from petty cash) . Please send the name of the church/ministry, their address, the amount, with the electronic approval from the summer programs director.
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