Financial Managers

Training Checklist

• Find out the purpose/mission of your office and what the institutional goals are for spending of your budget. Discuss with your supervisor as needed.

• Obtain official purchasing authority to sign invoices, make commitments (purchase orders), use funds via PCard or reimbursement.

• Login onto mySwarthmore and understand the features including the reports available in Financial Reporting.

• Review the College’s Purchasing Buyer’s Guide (via the Purchasing Office home page)

• Familiarize yourself with the budgets for your area. Review the activity from prior years (via Financial Reporting), understand any contracts that are in place.

• If applicable, understand any of your departments restricted funds and the associated donor-imposed restrictions.

Business Office policy and procedure:

General Policies 

• Travel and expense reimbursement 
• Purchasing policy
• Prepaid and accrual policies
• PCard policy
• Contract guidelines

Refer to the contact matrix below if you have any questions on the above policies.

General Procedures 

• Accounts Payable- learn how to set up a new vendor including for guest speakers, how to code and submit invoices, what to reviewed in the approval of expense reimbursements of others, how to request travel advances, learn how to utilize the College's 501c3 status for making tax-exempt purchases
• Budgeting- learn about the budget submission process
• Purchasing- review the Buyer's guide for instructions on using the eMarket and obtain PCard training 

How to request purchasing authority:

If you are not sure what authority you have, discuss first with you supervisor, get clarity and then reach out accordingly.

• If purchasing authority is for an operating budget reach out to Ernest Wright
• If purchasing authority is for a restricted fund budget (starts with “2”)  reach out to Denise Risoli

Do not sign for any invoices, contracts, etc prior to having established authorized purchasing authority.