Petty Cash Reimbursements

Petty cash funds reimburse employees or students for minor, out-of-pocket expenses incurred on behalf of Tufts. Instructions for submitting petty cash reimbursement requests for students and faculty/staff members are included below, as well as instructions to approve student reimbursement requests for department administrators. All reimbursements must follow the Travel and Business Expense Guidelines. As of April, 2026 these reimbursement requests are processed by Tufts Support Services (TSS).

Students seeking reimbursement for approved expenses must:

1. Create or obtain an electronic PDF receipt for qualified expenses. 
2. Contact the department administrator for the department on whose behalf you incurred the expense and present your receipt and any other required documentation. Remember to provide your student ID number and name with the request.
3. Once a department has approved your request, your request for reimbursement will be sent to TSS electronically for processing.
4. TSS will review the information and, upon approval, they will send your refund to BankMobile.
5. You do not have to submit an additional refund request for this credit. TSS will actively process these reimbursement submissions once a week and will refund you via eRefund through our partner BankMobile. Please make sure you set up your refund profile if you haven't already by logging into your SIS account, going to the "Bills & Balances" tab and clicking on "Manage eRefund." You will need your personal bank account information (account number and routing number) to complete your refund profile. Find additional details about the refund process.

The department administrator(s) approving the requests for student reimbursements are expected to review and pre-approve the student's requests and provide TSS with the accounting information these expenses should be charged to. Access to the student reimbursement form is restricted to users with Check Voucher access in Peoplesoft Finance. You may request access through TSS.

1. An authorized Tufts University Administrator must complete the electronic reimbursement form that will require:
   1. A full description of the expense
   2. A four-digit Account number and seven-digit Department ID (where the expense is being charged to), as well as the grant number if applicable. For more information refer to the Chart of Accounts.
   3. The name and ID number of the student seeking reimbursement
   4. PDF copy of receipt
2. Once the form is submitted and approved, TSS will issue the refund electronically to the student through our partner BankMobile.

Instructions on how to fill out the reimbursement form are available online. 

All reimbursement requests for any amount will be submitted through e-Expense (Apptricity).

1. All employees should complete the application to be an e-Expense User and send it to tss@tufts.edu to request access to e-Expense, if they have not done so already.
2. Once given access to e-Expense, users can log into Apptricity to submit and/or approve expenses.

Per University business expense/travel policy, users of this system will be able to submit and/or approve travel and business expense reimbursements. Additional approvers may be required at the department's discretion based on your school's or division's "ad hoc" approval rules.

Please visit the Apptricity User Guide for step-by-step instructions. Training for e-Expense is available through the Tufts Learning Center. Please contact Tufts Support Services (tss@tufts.edu or 617-627-7000) for any questions related to faculty and staff expense reimbursements.