If a student in your college goes to Texas for a sports competition or flies all the way to China to conduct research for their dissertation – who pays for all the expenses, and how?
In most cases, it is not possible for schools or colleges to pay for every expense in advance. That’s why most educational institutes use a Check Request Form that allows students to be reimbursed for what they paid for on behalf of their institutes or as part of any academic activities or organizational events they took part in.
At WordLayout, we specialize in creating versatile templates that can help you run an organization. In this Student Check Request form template, we offer a customizable document a university’s finance or accounts department can use to accept requests for a check payment from students and other staff members.
What Is a Student Check Request Form?
A special document used by students to put in a formal request for being paid back for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred during academic or extracurricular activities, such as travel costs for conferences, materials for class projects, or expenses incurred during club events.
Now, let’s discuss each section of our form in more detail:
Payee Details
In this section, the payee provides personal information such as their name and contact details (including E-mail ID, phone numbers and a postal address). In most cases, the school or university might already be in possession of this information (especially in case of full-time local students who are living on campus).
However, re-submitting these contact details will make sure that any latest changes are reflected in the Form. Without all the necessary information about the identity of the student payable, a check request form is deemed invalid.
Student ID
A Student ID is a unique identification number assigned to students by an educational institution at the time of enrolment. Adding this ensures that the payment is correctly tied to the University’s internal system without using Social Security Numbers (SSNs), hence ensuring the student’s privacy and security.
Reason for Request
This section is the heart of your Check Request Form as it helps an institution identify and justify what they are paying for. Put simply, this is where a student describes the reason for why the cost was incurred in the first place.
Here are a few examples of why students generate check request forms:
- Travel costs for conferences
- Registration fees for student competitions and conferences
- Lodging costs when traveling for academic or extracurricular activities
- Promotional flyers for events
- Supplies for a class project
- Booking a venue or performer for an event organized by a registered Student club or society.
Naturally, for each and every expense mentioned, the students are also required to attach necessary documents of proof such as original invoices, tickets, bills, receipts or e-records of online transactions. Failure to attach these can result in a form being deemed invalid, and not being approved by the University administration for further processing.
Amount Details
In this section, the student is instructed to provide an itemized list of each expense.
For each expense, the Form requires a student to provide a brief description of the expense (see list above for examples) as well as the amount requested (in Dollars).
Do note that the description must also include the date of the expense, and any other relevant details (such as the number of days for which a hotel was booked by the payee).
The use of multiple rows allows students to create a list of expense items in one place instead of filling multiple check request forms for each. This makes the process of requesting refunds a lot less tedious and time-consuming. Thanks to our editable format, the number of rows may be increased or decreased depending on your institution’s requirements.
Mode of Check Delivery
In this part, we provide three check boxes for a student’s preferred option when it comes to the mode of check delivery.
This could either be via regular postal service (the USPS) in which case a complete mailing address must be provided. In most cases, this is usually the student’s home address or the address of their parents.
For students who want to receive their check within the campus premises, there are two separate options they can choose from i.e., campus mail, which is a free on-campus mail service usually provided by most colleges/universities to handle the collection and delivery of all official University correspondence.
Alternatively, we have added a separate box for students who prefer to pick up their mail in person by visiting a specific Post Office.
Right below these check boxes, we have added another option where the requesting party specifies if they would like the check to be returned to them personally or another individual (for example, a spouse or family member).
Giving your students this flexibility in terms of mode of check delivery and who the check should be returned to allows them to accommodate situations where they might be studying remotely, traveling or sick.
Affirming Checkbox
We have also inserted an ‘I affirm’ checkbox at the end of this section to ensure that students are aware of the institution’s policies and agree to be bound by them.
This prevents any potential mismanagement of University funds or any fraudulent effort by students to duplicate or otherwise inflate the expenses for which they are requesting payment. It can also act as proof of the payee’s knowledge and acceptance of the policies of their university with regards to reimbursement in a disciplinary hearing in the future where a student may be accused of misusing the process.
Approval
In this section of the form, an authorized employee of the University gives their final approval to the request. This is usually the department head, dean or any authorized faculty member who allowed the student to incur the expenses in the first place.
As mentioned above, approval ultimately depends on whether you provide original supporting documentation, as well as whether your Check Form Request aligns with your institute’s reimbursement policies.
This is generally the most crucial stage of the Check Request as it allows faculty advisors, department heads, or financial aid offices to review the contents of the request before a payment is issued.
Accounts Payable Use Only
Once a Check Request Form has been filled out by a student, and approved by the relevant University official, it’s time for the final section of the Form.
Here, we include sections for payment details such as the account number in which the money must be transferred as well as the Check Number through which the deposit is made. These details are usually filled out by an official working in the Financial Services department or office of the university.
Tips for Completing a Check Request Form
- Make sure you complete the entire form, and fill out all required fields.
- Don’t forget to attach supporting documentation, such as invoices or receipts for each expense (for example, if the reimbursement is travel related, the original ticket or a copy of the conference/event schedule must be included).
- Type the information on the form to make sure there are no errors as a result of illegible handwriting.
- If there is not enough space on the form to explain the reason for the request or an expense, you can always include a separate document.
For schools & colleges, the use of this form ensures that all financial transactions are properly documented and processed according to institutional policies. Using a standard Check Request Form also helps maintain transparency and accountability in handling student funds.
Use this form template to process and approve check requests as you easily streamline your institution’s workflow.
Lucky for you, our editable Check Request Form can be instantly downloaded in Microsoft Word as well as on Google Docs!
Feel free to check out our other Check Forms customized for use by employees and vendors!
