UW–Madison is committed to the highest standards of financial stewardship and encourages the detection and prevention of acts that would be detrimental to this responsibility. These acts carry legal implications for the university employee, both as an employee and as a citizen, and increase the risk to the operations and reputation of the UW System.
Fiscal misconduct is a deliberate act or failure to act that is contrary to established laws, regulations or policies and which results or was intended to result in either loss or other damage to the University of Wisconsin-Madison or the UW System or improper personal gain. Instances of fiscal misconduct to be reported and reviewed include, but are not limited to:
theft or embezzlement of any UW-Madison or UW System funds or resources
bribery, kickbacks, and bid-rigging
misappropriation, misapplication, destruction, removal, or concealment of funds or resources
improper handling or reporting of financial transactions
credit card and travel expense fraud
forgery, falsification, or unauthorized alteration of financial documents or records
When managing or using the university’s fiscal resources, employees, and agents of the University are expected to:
act in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and policies with respect to the handling of UW–Madison funds or resources
aid in the detection and prevention of fiscal misconduct
be familiar with the types of fiscal misconduct that could occur in their area
be attentive for suspected instances where fiscal misconduct might exist in their unit
promptly report any known or suspected fiscal misconduct.
UW–Madison employees who report an actual or suspected instance of fiscal misconduct in good faith shall not be subject to any adverse employment action including separation, demotion, suspension, or loss of benefits because of the report.
Reports and investigations will be kept confidential to the extent possible, consistent with University policies, applicable laws, and the need for an investigation.
Instructions for Divisional Business Office employees on how to review a policy exception for a noncompliant expense report. Applies to UW–Madison expense reports.
When a new Policy Exception Approval Request form has been submitted by a claimant/cardholder, both the primary and backup exception approvers for a cost center hierarchy will receive an email from Microsoft Power Automate (flow-noreply@microsoft.com) and a Microsoft Teams Activity notification that the request is pending withing the Microsoft Teams Approvals application. The exception request may be reviewed and acted upon in either Microsoft Outlook or in Microsoft Teams Approvals. Directions for each process follow below.
Reviewing a Policy Exception Approval Request Form in Microsoft Outlook
Click on image to enlarge – How a Policy Exemption Approval Request appears in Microsoft Outlook
Every Policy Exception Approval Request form will show at the top of the request as “Created by DEXTER FIERRO.” This only indicates that Dexter Fierro, Division of Business Services Business Analyst, created the Power Automate workflow as a whole. He did not create the specific request that is being submitted.
The second line, “Requested for Rebecca Lin” indicates that this Policy Exception Approval Request has been submitted by claimant/cardholder Rebecca Lin (or on behalf of claimant/cardholder Rebecca Lin), followed by a date and time stamp for unique identifiers of the request.
In the following section, a summary of form field answers is displayed. Here is where exception approvers will find the cost center hierarchy as well as the dollar amount and relevant expense report number. The exception request notes exactly which policies were violated and contains claimant/cardholder responses regarding the circumstances of the exception request and the steps taken to prevent future exception requests of a similar nature.
The hyperlinked text Here is a link to the item you are approving contains a link to the Microsoft SharePoint item record for the specific policy exception approval request form being reviewed. This link is utilized to access attachments added to the Policy Exception Approval Request form, which can be found at the bottom of the SharePoint item page. This link should be used to access attachments, to request additional information from the claimant or submitter via the Comments functionality in SharePoint, or to grant access to another ad-hoc reviewer of the form via the Comments functionality in SharePoint. A comment may be directed to any individual with an Outlook account via @mentions. This functionality may be leveraged to ask the claimant, cardholder or submitter for more information or to ask other individuals to review the request and comment on it, such as a Cost Center Manager. It is envisioned that this @mention functionality would be used most often to request more information from the claimant, cardholder or submitter. The @mention functionality triggers an email to the mentioned individual, which grants them access to the SharePoint item to provide further information via comments. See below for an example of where to find attachments and to see a comment added triggering the claimant to provide more information.
Click on image to enlarge – How to access request attachments and add comments to a request (including tagging a claimant/cardholder)
When an approver is ready to Approve or Reject the request, the approver should return to the email in their inbox and click their desired action button. Exception approvers have the opportunity to add a comment, but it is not required. Click “Submit” to complete the action step (this is the same regardless of whether Approve or Reject is selected). An email will be sent to the claimant/cardholder and submitter notifying them of the decision.
For the approver who completed the action step, the Microsoft Power Automate email for the request will dynamically update to reflectthe status of Approved or Rejected (Figure A below). For the other approver who did not complete the action step, their Microsoft Outlook email regarding the request will be updated to note “Others have already completed this request” (Figure B below).
Figure A. What the approving individual sees they complete the approval process: “Approved” status in the email
Figure B. What an approving individual sees when a different approver has completed the approval process: “Others have already completed this request” status in the email
Reviewing a Policy Exception Approval Request Form in Microsoft Teams Approvals
Click on image to enlarge – How to find requests in Teams under the “Approvals” section
Microsoft Teams has an application called Approvals. All Power Automate Policy Exception Approval Request Forms are visible within and actionable within Microsoft Teams Approvals. This application can be added to Microsoft Teams by clicking on the sidebar View More Apps “…”, searching for Approvals, and then pinning to your taskbar by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Pin. An exception approver will receive an Activity notification every time a Power Automate Policy Exception is submitted for their approval.
Navigate to a requested policy exception form in the Approvals Any items with Status “Requested” are still pending action from approvers. Click anywhere on the Request title to view the details of the submitted form.
Click on image to enlarge – You can see request details when a Policy Exception Approval Request is selected in the Teams workflow, including why the request was completed
A summary of form field answers is displayed. Here is where exception approvers will find the cost center hierarchy and cost center hierarchy, as well as the dollar amount and relevant expense report number. The exception request notes exactly which policies were violated and contains claimant/cardholder responses regarding the circumstances of the exception request and the steps taken to prevent future exception requests of a similar nature.
Click on image to enlarge – The details of a Policy Exception Approval Request, including where you can find attachments, the approval workflow, where to add comments, a reassign option, and the ability to reject or approve the request
Continue scrolling on the form to view the SharePoint item link Here is a link to the item you are approving. This link is utilized to access attachments added to the Policy Exception Approval Request form, which can be found at the bottom of the SharePoint item page. This link should be used to access attachments, to request additional information from the claimant, cardholder or submitter via the Comments functionality in SharePoint, or to grant access to another ad-hoc reviewer of the form via the Comments functionality in SharePoint. A comment may be directed to any individual with an Outlook account via @mentions. This functionality may be leveraged to ask the claimant, cardholder or submitter for more information or to ask other individuals to review the request and comment on it, such as a Department Administrator, for instance. It is envisioned that this @mention functionality would be used most often to request more information from the claimant or submitter. The @mention functionality triggers an email to the mentioned individual, which grants them access to the SharePoint item to provide further information via comments.
A diagram of the approval workflow is provided with both the primary approver and backup approver listed.
If an approver would like to add comments, they may do so in the Comments section.
The form approval may be reassigned to another Teams user with a Microsoft account. Note: This is not recommended as a best practice. The primary and backup approvers should be approving all requests. The SharePoint @mention functionality can be used to gain additional feedback from individuals, but the requests themselves should always be approved by the Divisional CFO or delegate (the primary or secondary approver).
When an approver is ready to take action on the form, click Reject to deny the request or Approve to approve of the exception request. An email will be sent to the claimant/cardholder and submitter notifying them of the decision. The Microsoft Teams Approvals log will dynamically update the status of the form once this is completed.
To acquire financing for a lease/purchase transaction, contact the purchasing agent for the commodity you are interested in acquiring. The agent will help you complete a requisition for “lease” of equipment or for the purchase involving financing, and will guide you along in the process.
All lease/purchase financing must be conducted through the Department of Capital Finance on the established bulletin for financing. The only exception would be financing required by a mandatory state bulletin.
How to Sell, Dispose of, or Trade In an Item or Piece of Equipment
Purchasing Services has the sole authority for disposal of surplus and abandoned property at UW–Madison (other than titled and licensed vehicles which are handled by the Department of Administration – refer to Policy UW-3056). When possible all surplus property sales are conducted at the SWAP (Surplus with a Purpose) Warehouse, located at 1061 Thousand Oaks Trail, Verona, Wisconsin.
Sales and disposal of surplus items
For most items, the process begins by contacting SWAP via the completion of a Surplus Request Form. SWAP collects all reusable, repairable, or salvageable surplus equipment from the UW–Madison campus and state agencies in the Madison area, but will NOT collect items which are unsafe to handle or intended for recycling or disposal by another State department. Please consult the Material Acceptance Guidelines web page for more information. Depending on the value and type of items received, SWAP may choose to list items in their inventory and/or an online auction. Profits from the sales will be returned to departments according to the current SWAP revenue sharing rate (PDF).
For items associated with a formal bidding process, trade-in language can be added to the bid as a part of the package. Alternately, SWAP may provide a better return on your investment by offering the item for sale to a targeted audience. If you are interested in trading in a piece of equipment, please contact the purchasing agent responsible for that commodity area to discuss the trade and determine if it will offer the best value for your items.
University departments are NOT authorized to trade in or dispose of state property to persons or organizations outside UW- Madison without Purchasing Services approval.
How to Trace or Stop Payment for Non-Payroll Checks
Action
Definition
When to Use
Proof of Payment
A proof of payment is to verify if a check has been cashed. If the check has been cashed we will receive a copy of the check (front and back showing the endorsement). This process takes approximately one week.
Check never received
Check stolen or lost
Vendor never received check
Stop Payment Reissue
Is used if it has been over 30 days since check was sent out and vendor never received check. Or check was sent to foreign country with the wrong address.
Stop Payment
A stop payment is used for a check that will be going out of our office that should not be paid. This is something that is caught before the check goes out. For this, please contact Accounting:
21 N Park St., Suite 5301
Phone: (608) 262-9681
This form is used when a department is expecting an Incoming International or Domestic Wire or ACH. All incoming Wire/ACH deposits must be supported by invoices and/or supporting documents describing what the money is for.
Note: If you need our bank deposit information, please contact Cash Management.
Use this form when a department is expecting an Incoming International or Domestic Wire or ACH. All incoming Wire/ACH deposits must be supported by invoices and/or supporting documents describing what the money is for.
Instructions for Filling out the Scholarship Form (Fall/Spring/Summer)
Please follow the instructions below for filling out the scholarship submission spreadsheet provided on this website:
The field lengths provided in the spreadsheet format (see below) are the greatest allowable values. For example, NAME cannot be more than 30 characters.
Fall/Spring item types must begin with 15 or 16. Summer item types must begin with 18. For example: 15010 or 18010.
Please do NOT include more than one Item Type and one Term per Excel file that you upload. Files generated from the Common Scholarship Application (CSA) may allow for more than one Item Type or Term. It is the Department’s responsibility to review the file and as needed split it into multiple files (per Item Type and Term) for upload.
“NAME” must be entered in the spreadsheet format provided below. This will enable searching by last name in WISDM.
Submit the file using the Bursar’s Office Secure Website . Instructions on how to submit the spreadsheet are available here. NOTE: We will not be accepting the file via email.
The “SYS ID” field refers to the ID found in SIS. It typically begins with three zeroes (000). The program will not recognize payroll IDs or campus IDs when uploading scholarships.
The “TERM” field should be filled out using the term code chart on the right of the scholarship form.
The “PROGRAM” field should always be 9 (FINANCIAL AID) and account code should be 5711 (SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS AID). This is because all scholarships are considered Financial Aid.
Before submitting any upload, please verify all information is correct, including:
Verifying citizenship: International students (Non-Resident Alien) must have taxes deducted from their scholarships. Consequently, these scholarships need to be processed through payroll and not by the Bursar’s Office. Please refer to the Accounting Services website for more information: Scholarship Payments to NRAs.
Validating all fundings: Please make sure the combination of fund, account code, program code, department, and project are valid for processing via JET. You can perform this test in WISDM at the path below: Main Menu—>Other—>Funding Validation/Inquiry.
Verifying enrollment: Students must be enrolled in order to receive a scholarship.
