Accountable Professional Expense Funds (APEF)

Authorization: Board of Governors
Approval Date: Mar 30, 2001
Amended: Jun 1, 2009

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that only allowable and approved expenditure categories are charged to an individual's Accountable Professional Expense Fund (APEF).

The University of Saskatchewan is committed to promoting the professional development activities of its faculty and staff.  In support of these activities, an annual accountable professional expense fund allocation is provided to each eligible employee as a result of membership in a collective bargaining unit or because of their employment contract.

The university must ensure that the guidelines associated with these funds are strictly adhered to, that the expenditures are appropriate, reasonable and legitimate university expenses, and that any personal benefit associated with the expenditures must be incidental in order to retain the non-taxable status of APEF funds.

This policy applies to all individuals who receive an APEF allocation.

This policy also applies to those individuals who approve expenditures charged to an APEF fund.

Within this policy, the use of terminology such as department head, dean and college is considered to also refer to director, head of administrative unit and administrative unit/division.  

Expenditures may be charged against the Accountable Professional Expense Fund if the following general conditions are met:

• Expenditures must be incurred in the performance of professional, teaching or research activities at the University of Saskatchewan.
• Expenditures must be for valid university business purposes and are to benefit the University of Saskatchewan.
• Title of ownership to any goods purchased remains with the University of Saskatchewan and the goods will be identified as such.
• Any personal benefit must be incidental. If some personal benefit is deemed to accrue to the employee, generally the whole expenditure will be viewed as a personal benefit and may not be claimed.
• Expenditures must be approved by the appropriate department head, dean or vice-president.

If an individual terminates their employment with the university, any unspent balance is returned to the original funding source, unless the applicable collective agreement states otherwise.

Employees are responsible for ensuring that the expenditures incurred are in accordance with this policy and the related guidelines and that the expenditures being claimed are limited to the balance available in their APEF fund.

Approvers are responsible for ensuring that the expenditures are appropriate and reasonable.

As part of their financial management responsibilities, department heads, deans and vice-presidents should meet with their employees annually to discuss the employee’s spending plans regarding the balance in the employee’s fund.

Financial Services is responsible to the Vice-President (Finance & Resources) for the administration of this policy and related procedures/guidelines.

Non-compliance with this policy will result in:

• adjusting the claim, or direct charge, to the approved APEF guideline amounts, or
• not processing the claim/direct charge if it does not have the required supporting documentation attached, or it has not been properly approved.

If, during a subsequent review, it is determined that the claim/direct charge, or a portion of the claim/direct charge, is not an acceptable charge against the APEF, then the declined amount will become the responsibility of the college to resolve.  Resolution may include recovering, from the employee, the amount inappropriately charged to the APEF fund.

Following due process, the university may take one or more of the following actions if it is determined that the claim/charge, or a portion of the claim/charge, is fraudulent: 

• disciplinary action up to, and including, termination.
• legal action that could result in criminal or civil proceedings.  

APEF Guidelines - A comprehensive list of allowable and non-allowable expenditures and explanations can be found in the knowledge base.