Miscellaneous Expenses

Materials and Supplies

Standard materials and supplies up to $5,000 may be purchased or charged from sponsored project award funds. The Principal Investigator should follow the supply purchasing procedures established by the Principal Investigator's department or administrative area. Generally, the Sponsored Research Manager's do not need to see invoices for materials and supplies under $5,000. However, if the Sponsored Research Manager notice what appears to be an odd expenditure, they may ask the Principal Investigator for information on the expenditure and how it relates to the work on that particular sponsored project award.

As reference, the definition of Supplies is included from the Uniform Guidance for federal grants:  § 200.94 Supplies.  Supplies means all tangible personal property other than those described in § 200.33 Equipment. A computing device is a supply if the acquisition cost is less than the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non-Federal entity for financial statement purposes or $5,000, regardless of the length of its useful life. See also §§ 200.20 Computing devices and 200.33 Equipment.

Charged Expenditures

The Dartmouth College Procurement Card (P-Card) Program is designed to improve efficiency in processing low dollar value purchases ($4,999.00 or less). The Procurement Card is a Visa Card and can be used to make purchases for goods (not services) with any merchant who accepts the Visa Card. Procurement Card transactions for non-restricted commodities cannot exceed the $4,999.00 per transaction limit (including all delivery, shipping and/or special handling charges). Transactions exceeding the $4,999.00 limit will require a Purchase Order. Pyramiding (splitting) transactions to avoid the single transaction limit is not permitted by Dartmouth College. Visa/MasterCard regulations also prohibit vendors from this practice.

As is the case with all other procurement transactions, purchases on sponsored project awards must follow the Dartmouth policies in effect.  These policies can be located on the Finance website.    

Expenditures Incurred as Part of a Subaward

Invoices submitted by subaward recipient institutions must be reviewed and approved by Dartmouth's Principal Investigator or designee for that particular award and OSP.