Making Purchases - Directing Thesis

As much as possible, please allow the Production Staff to make purchases on your behalf. It is faster and significantly less complicated than requesting reimbursements.

Nearly all productions will require items to be purchased. There are three ways these purchases can be made:

  1. The Production Staff makes the purchases directly. This is the best way to make purchases, as it avoids reimbursement paperwork, easily integrates Columbia's tax exempt status, makes returns as seamless as possible, and ensures all purchases are visible to the production staff for budgetary purposes.
  2. For online orders (always preferred), send links with description of quantity, color, size, delivery preference, etc. directly to the Production Manager.
  3. Petty Cash: For purchases that need to be made locally, like consumables or costumes from a thrift store, the Student Producer may receive petty cash for the production. All petty cash purchases must be paid for in cash. Details are below in the Petty Cash Section.
  4. Reimbursements: If an individual purchases something for the production on a credit or debit card, the Student Producer may request that they be reimbursed for those expenses. Details are below in the Reimbursement section.

General Rules for Purchases:

  • All items purchased by Columbia are owned by Columbia, not the production or any of its members. This includes items that are reimbursed.
  • Columbia is a tax-exempt organization. The tax exempt forms can be found in the Purchasing and Reimbursement Google Drive.
  • If items are being ordered and sent to Columbia, please confirm the correct shipping address with Brendan O'Brien, Thesis Production Manager, before placing the order.  
  • There are no deliveries of purchased goods available on the weekends.
  • Items shipped to Columbia may not be immediately accessible, as they must be distributed through Columbia’s internal delivery system. For items that are very time sensitive, it is recommended that they be shipped to a personal address instead.
  • Due to restrictions put in place by the university, the Production Staff may not order from the following sites: Ebay and Alibaba. 

Six weeks prior to opening, the Student Producer may receive up to $1000 petty cash for the production. The Student Producer is personally responsible and liable for the money received from Columbia University. 

All original receipts must be turned in by the approved deadline and all cash returned to Columbia University for any excess funds not spent. To receive petty cash, a document must be signed indicating that the Student Producer accepts this responsibility.

This up-fronted money can be used for purchases for the production, using the petty cash rules below.

  • All petty cash purchases must be paid for in cash.
  • Columbia University is tax exempted and will not pay sales tax.  Production Management will provide a copy of Columbia's tax exempt form to provide vendors when making petty cash purchases.  Tax exemption must be used on all purchases made with petty cash.  Any tax paid on purchases with petty cash are the responsibility of the individual making the purchase or the production.    
  • All receipts must include:
    • Vendor Name
    • Date of Purchase
    • Itemized Details of what was purchased
    • Proof of Payment
  • If making a purchase via Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or another marketplace where you are directly paying a person rather than a company, please both save a screenshot of the original online listing and ask the person selling you the item to sign a simple receipt confirming the item, price, and date purchased.

Once the production is complete all original receipts must be provided to Production Management. Please organize the receipts in chronological order.

All receipts must be submitted to the Production Manager within 10 days after your strike.

The following is a list of expenses that petty cash cannot be used for:

  • Honoraria
  • Services
  • Salary advances
  • Personal loans
  • Prescription medication
  • Subscriptions
  • Consultant fees and any other type of service payments
  • Expenses older than 120 days
  • Personal Banking Fees

Please note that while we are happy to deliver the petty cash to the Student Producer via digital platforms like Venmo or Zelle if desired, all petty cash purchases must be paid for in cash.

Any purchases made with a personal credit or debit card will need to go through the reimbursement process. Reimbursements may take 6 weeks to be issued. As such, we strongly recommend that you allow the Production Staff to make purchases on your behalf to avoid this delay.

There are a select few instances where reimbursement is the best way to go. The most notable one is audition postings on websites such as Backstage and Playbill.

The requirements for reimbursement are as follows:

  1. Make sure the purchase is approved by the Student Producer before making the purchase.
  2. Use Columbia’s tax-exempt form (if you are purchasing items on behalf of your production budget, sales tax will not be reimbursed).
  3. Keep and submit the original receipt (receipt requirement details below).
  4. Submit the Reimbursement Request Form (detailed instructions below).

If the reimbursement is for an international citizen, please submit a copy of their passport with entry stamp and visa with the request.

Purchases made with a gift card cannot be reimbursed.

All reimbursement requests must be submitted within 21 days of the production closing.

Receipts must be provided for all reimbursements and petty cash purchases. 

Each receipt must have the following easily legible:

  • Vendor Name
  • Date of Purchase
  • Itemized Details of what was purchased
  • Proof of Payment (evidence of a credit or debit card charge, credit or debit statement, zero balance, or marked as paid) 

If making a purchase via Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or another marketplace where you are directly paying a person rather than a company, please both save a screenshot of the original online listing and ask the person selling you the item to sign a simple receipt confirming the item, price, and date purchased.

For examples of receipts that have been accepted and denied, please see this document: SOA Requirements for Reimbursement Receipts.

Purchasing should be done with the tax-exempt form - Columbia will not reimburse sales tax.

Please do not combine Columbia purchases and personal purchases - if you are picking up something for yourself at the same time as buying something for a show, do it as two separate transactions.

There are very specific rules for reimbursing meals. The most important of these are:

  • Columbia will not reimburse alcohol. If possible, request separate receipts from the vendor if alcohol is purchased as part of a meal.
  • The names, number, and affiliation (Both to Columbia and the show) of everyone attending the meal must be documented. Please include a list of this information in the same pdf as the original scanned receipt. The number of guests should also be included on the SOA Reimbursement Excel spreadsheet submitted with the receipts. For groups larger than 10 people, names are not required, but number and affiliation still is. An example of this list can be found in this document: SOA Requirements for Reimbursement Receipts.
  • If you have questions about the additional rules around reimbursement for meals, please reach out to Production Management before purchasing the meal. 

Reimbursement receipts should be scanned, one per page, and numbered to correspond with the SOA Reimbursement Excel spreadsheet. If there are multiple receipts for a single purchase, such as including a credit card statement as a proof of payment, or a receipt for a partial return, these should be grouped together in one file and numbered with the same number.

Once all receipts have been gathered, please upload them to a Google Drive folder as individual files with the naming convention Show_Your Name_Reimbursement Receipt #. You will need the link to this folder when you fill out the Reimbursement Request Form.

In the event you need to notate that a specific item or items on a receipt should not be reimbursed, please strike out that line item(s), and include a note on the page with the new total. An example of this can be found in this document: SOA Requirements for Reimbursement Receipts.
 

Frequently Asked Questions:

I don’t have a receipt! Can I use my bank or credit card statement instead?
Sometimes, but very rarely. Bank and credit card statements are usually missing the itemization portion of the requirement. Some simple charges, such as an MTA charge for $3.00, are self-explanatory and may be accepted. Meal purchases will never be accepted in this way. If you need to submit a bank or credit card statement in order to meet the proof of payment requirement, please submit the entire statement covering the period during which the expense was incurred. You may redact the non-relevant charges if you so choose.

The receipt I was given from the local bodega/hardware store/etc. isn’t itemized. What do I do?
Include the original scanned receipt and notate what was purchased on the page next to it and on the Excel spreadsheet. Ideally purchases like this should be done with petty cash, not through reimbursement (though we still need a receipt for petty cash too!). 

Someone else bought an item for me because they were near the store and then I paid them back. Can I use their receipt to be reimbursed?
If a name appears on a receipt as the payor, then only that person can be reimbursed for that expense. 
 


For examples of receipts that have been accepted and denied, please see this document: SOA Requirements for Reimbursement Receipts.

The Reimbursement Request Form must be completed for all reimbursements. 

Most of this form is straightforward. There are 3 steps to pay specific attention to:

  1. The SOA Reimbursement Spreadsheet: This spreadsheet must be completed with description of each of the payee's expenses/purchases that needs reimbursement. Steps to complete this sheet:
    • Download the sheet. You will not be able to edit it until you do. If you do not have access to excel, you also copy the sheet to your personal Google Drive and then edit it with Google Sheets.
    • Under Detailed Business Purpose please include the category of items purchased and the show code / name (e.g. Props for DT5 [The Crucible])
    • Under What was Purchased please include a brief summary of the purchases (e.g. consumable props eaten during the performance, or baby blanket for rehearsals)
    • Under Why please include the category of the item(s) and the show code / name. This line will often, but not always, be the same as Detailed Business Purpose.
    • Under How is this purchase affiliated with the University please identify the show as a thesis production for the specific student (e.g. DT5 [The Crucible] is the MFA Directing Thesis for Directing Student Paul Revere)
    • For the list of the purchases under the Description of expense, please identify what the purchase was used for, rather than just the category of the expense. For example: “Hospitality” would be insufficient, but “Rehearsal snacks for rehearsal on 4/11-4/13” is good.
    • When uploading the sheet to the Reimbursement Request Form, please do so in .xlsx format. There are cells in the sheet Production Management needs to be able to edit in order to submit it to the Finance Office.
  2. All receipts should be uploaded to a google drive. Please verify that the receipts meet the requirements listed in the receipts section of this page before submission.
  3. If the reimbursement is for an international citizen, please submit a copy of their passport with entry stamp and visa with the request.