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Request a Reimbursement (RFP)
You can access Atlas at https://atlas.mit.edu/
On this page:
Overview
Use this online form to request a non-taxable reimbursement for yourself (or for others) for an MIT purchase that you have made out of your own pocket. Non-taxable means that the reimbursement is not considered income and therefore not subject to income taxes.Taxable payments to non-MIT payees or MIT students such as MIT awards or honoraria that are subject to income taxes should be made via an RFP Payment.
You have choices for the method MIT uses to reimburse you. You can set your reimbursement preferences using Atlas.
Note: If you do not set your reimbursement preferences, you will be reimbursed via direct deposit to your payroll direct deposit bank account. If you do not have a payroll direct deposit account on file, you will be reimbursed via a check mailed to the home address in your HR/Payroll file.
If you submit RFPs for other MIT community members, you may wish to ask if they have chosen their reimbursement preferences. If not, their reimbursements will be directly deposited to their payroll bank account, if they have one, or mailed to their home address, if they do not have a bank account on file with HR/Payroll.
The business rules and policies for RFPs are set by Accounts Payable in the Office of the Vice President for Finance.
Completing the online RFP
The four steps in this process are listed below. Step 4 is critically important because this is where you send your RFP to another person to review or approve. Until you complete Step 4, your RFP remains in your own RPF inbox and cannot be approved.
- Enter information in the following sections on the form:
- Reimbursement details
- Mailing instructions (if necessary)
- Line items
- Note to Central Office (Accounts Payable or OSP) - optional
- Click Save and Continue to create the RFP record.
- Attach a Receipt file to the RFP
- Click Send to, choose a reviewer or approver as the recipient, and send the RFP.
Step 1: Reimbursement details
In this step, you may leave G/L Account and Cost Object blank for your RFP approver to fill in, if that is your department's process. At a minimum, you will need to enter the Date of Service, Amount, and an Explanation of the expense. You may also need to enter mailing instructions if the payee is non-MIT and therefore has no reimbursement preferences on file.**
| Payee | Payees may be MIT or non-MIT. The name you searched for is displayed. If the payee name is not correct, click Change Payee and search again. |
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| Charge to | This field will default to MIT. Change this if necessary to another Charge to area e.g., Tech Review. |
| Name this RFP | (Optional) Enter a name to help you group and search for RFPs. |
Mailing Instructions
Mailing instructions only appear if the payee is non-MIT. For non-MIT payees, select how the check is to be sent: Mail check to payee or Deliver check to MIT address.
The reimbursement method for MIT community members is determined by their reimbursement preferences, and is no longer specified within the Request a Reimbursement form. MIT community members may choose their reimbursement preferences via Atlas Self-Service and they will apply to all future reimbursements. Reimbursement preferences can be changed at any time. Changes are effective the next business day.
Mail check to payee
| Country | Select country where check is to be sent from the drop down list. |
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| Address | Enter the payee's mailing street address. |
| City | Enter the payee's mailing city. |
| State/Region | Enter the payee's mailing state or region. This will only appear if MIT maintains regions for the selected country. |
| Postal Code | Enter the payee's mailing zip or postal code. This is required if the country is the United States or Canada. |
Deliver check to MIT address
| Hold Check | Check this box to hold the check at Accounts Payable in NE-49. Note: the "Hold Check" option is only available for payments to non-MIT payees. |
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| Name | Enter the name of the MIT person to whom the check should be delivered. |
| Building-Room or Phone | Enter building and room number at MIT where check is to be delivered |
Line Items
| Date of Service | Date of Service is the date on which the service was rendered or the product was purchased. If this request covers a range of dates, enter the last date in the range. Most US date formats are accepted - mm/dd/yyyy will definitely work. This may be the current date or any date in the past but may not be a future date. |
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| G/L Account | Only select a G/L Account from the drop down list if you know what it should be. Otherwise leave it for the Approver or Reviewer to enter later. |
| Cost Object | If you aren't familiar with Cost Objects, leave this field for the Approver or Reviewer to enter later. |
| Amount | Enter the amount for the goods received. This may be the total of several receipts for the same type of purchase. |
| Explanation | Enter a brief description of the goods or services received and the rate of payment. For meeting-related expenses, please enter additional information. To see what information is required, temporarily select the first G/L on the drop down list, 421000, and press tab. The list of required information will appear below. You may copy and paste it into the text box as an aid to entry. |
Add Line
| Add Line | The Add Line button will create a complete new row with Date of Service, G/L Account, Cost Object, Amount and Explanation fields.
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| Total | When you add a 2nd line, an automatically generated total based on the amounts you enter for each line item appears below. You cannot change this total except by changing the individual line item amounts. A reimbursement may not exceed $4,999.99. |
Remove Line
To remove a line, empty all fields on that line. The next time you Save or Send To that line will be removed unless it is the only line on the page.
Note to Central Office
| Note | Use this space for additional explanation to either Accounts Payable or the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), or to add a request to Accounts Payable. Please contact Accounts Payable at 617-253-2750 or efrp@mit.edu if you have a special request. |
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Step 2: Save and Continue
| Save & Continue | Click the Save & Continue button when you finish entering information. This will create the reimbursement request in SAP and assign an RFP number. The Attach Receipts dialog box will appear above the page. |
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If any required information is missing, you will see an error message near that field or in a red box at the top of the page indicating that it is required. Enter the required information and click *Save & Continue *again.
After you click Save & Continue, you will see the following message confirming that your RFP was created.
Important Note: "Parked" means that your RFP has been created by the system but is being held until you complete the final step: Step 4 - Send to. This gives you the opportunity to review your RFP before you send it for review or approval. However, you must send the RFP on to be reviewed or approved. If you do not send the RFP to the next person in the process, your RFP cannot be approved.
Step 3: Attach or View Receipt
Before you can attach a receipt to your reimbursement request, you will need a scanned copy of the receipt as a pdf or image file. The following types of image files are supported - jpg, txt, gif, pdf, png, tiff, or bmp. The file size must be less than 2MB.
| Attach Receipt | Click this button to begin the process of attaching receipt documents to this RFP. Use the Browse button (or in Safari the Choose File button) to navigate to the receipt file on your computer. Then click Attach. You are returned to the RFP with several new options available. |
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| View Receipt | Click this button to view the receipt documents attached to this RFP. |
Step 4: Send to
When you have completed the RFP, click the Send to button to route it to the person in your department who reviews or approves your RFPs. This step is essential to getting your RFP paid.
Search for Recipient
| Recipient's Name* | Enter the exact last name of an MIT person. Use either upper or lower case. If you are not sure of the spelling of a name, enter at least 3 characters of both the first and last name. Click on Search and a list of matching recipients will be displayed. |
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| Select Recipient | Select a recipient from the list. If there was only one result, you don't need to select anyone. This person will automatically become the recipient when you click Send. People without email addresses on file appear with an n/a next to their name and you cannot select them. |
| Note to Recipient | This text box allows you to enter an optional message to the recipient. The recipient has the option whether to pass this message on to Accounts Payable or the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). If you received this RFP with a note attached, it will appear here as the default message. |
| Send | Click the Send button and this RFP will be forwarded to the recipient. |
Save
If you are interrupted while entering information or if you change information, you can save your work by clicking Save. Save prevents you from losing your changes if you close your browser or your session times out.
See other Help pages - Track My Reimbursements and My Reimbursements Inbox - to learn how to retrieve your saved RFPs.
RFP Confirmation
After you click Send to, you will see a non-editable version of your RFP with the words RFP Confirmation at the top. This confirms that your RFP has been routed to the person you selected in the Send to step above and that your RFP is on its way to being reviewed and approved.
You can view the RFP History at the bottom of the screen.
