Hospitality Approval Form Best Practices

Download this information as a PDF here.

Form Overview

General Notes

• Hospitality Approval Forms must be completed prior to the expenditures and event.
• Expenditures under $50 do not need a Hospitality Approval Form, but do need a business purpose
• The event host cannot approve the form (e.g. a Department Head cannot be listed as host because their signature is required)

Event Details

• Function/Event Title: Should include a business purpose that can be easily understood and aligns with MSU/COA/MAES missions.
  • E.g. Student Study Session snacks (with flyer included) is appropriate vs. Lab Meeting (with no agenda) is not appropriate
•  Request: Indicate how many days of lunches, dinners, snacks, etc. will be needed
• Amount Requested:
  • Suggested maximum per person, per meal: Breakfast: $25/Lunch: $25/Dinner: $35
  • If you are planning to exceed the above amounts in your request, a justification must be provided as an attachment. Note: faculty recruitment and use of catering are justifications.
  • Any expenses that exceed your requested amount are not approved, and should only be made in extreme circumstances. A new form must be approved prior to submitting expenses.
  • This should also include tip, which cannot exceed 20% of the meal costs
    • Review receipts for auto-gratuity
  •  Alcohol cannot be on a P-card; purchase on a personal card and submit for reimbursement on a pre-approved Foundation account
  • Alcohol should not be present at events focused on students 

Hospitality Category

• The category of the expense should be aligned with the core purpose of the meeting/event necessitating sustenance.
• The College of Agriculture and MAES, as an academic and research unit, respectively, will almost never have an event that is categorized as entertainment. Account codes such as Education/Research Training Expenses, Job Candidate Expense, and Program/Education/Training Expense will be the most commonly used.

Participant Details

• Private events/meetings
  • Require a participant list and an agenda.
  • If you do not know who is attending when submitting, list the expected participants and update when submitting expenses.
• Event open to the public
  • Require a flyer or program documentation

Approval Signatures by Index Type

Use of Indexes

Dean Bajwa would prefer all non-essential work-related hospitality expenditures to be on a Foundation index.

• Academic (412 indexes)
  • To be used for events/meetings that are directly student-related and has a clear academic-related purpose
    • Examples: welcome tent, retention-focused event/activity, food insecurity-related snacks
• Research (911 indexes)
  • To be used for events/meetings that are directly research-related and has a clear research-related purpose
    • Examples: field day, public presentations of research with at least 1 non-MSU participant, work that can only be accomplished during the lunch hour (rationale required)
• Designated (43 and 936 indexes)
  • To be used to support work that generates this income
  • Any academic-related expenditure allowed on 412 funds or research-related expenditure allowed on 911 funds
    • Examples: lab/planning meetings held during lunch (rationale required)
  • Food/snacks may not be purchased on course fees
• F&A Funds (436/7/8 indexes)- See Best Practices for F&A Costs from VPRED
  • Education/Research Training hospitalities may be allowed on F&A funds if the event has a clear research related business purpose.
    • The business purpose must be clear; “lab meeting” for example, would not be a complete business purpose.
  • Team building activities and retreats must have an agenda that shows a learning opportunity which benefits MSU’s research mission.
  • While traveling, if a meeting is held during a meal, the cost of the meal may be allowed (in lieu of per diem) if at least one non-MSU employee is present. Meal expenses should be reasonable.
  • If a multi-day event is on one HAF, a spreadsheet logging all hospitality expenses for that event must be processed.

Additional Resources

• Additional MSU information can be found in the Business Procedures Manual
  • https://www.montana.edu/policy/business-procedures-manual/expend-campus-hosp-ent.html
•  RED Best Practices for F&A Costs
  • https://www.montana.edu/research/best-practices.html 
• Information about Land Grant Institutions and their mission
  • https://agriculture.montana.edu/landgrant.html

Updated 1/2025 EW