Buying & Paying Methods

NYU employees have two methods for buying and paying for business related goods and services; Directly making purchases through i-Buy NYU and/or using an NYU issued Credit Card. NYU has discounted prices with various vendors as well as tax exempt status in New York and its surrounding states that can only be obtained by using an NYU method for all of your business needs. Unless there are extreme circumstances that forbid you from using an NYU method of payment, always choose one of the options explained in the sections below.

Note: Another way for NYU Employees to pay for for non-service business expenses indirectly is to request reimbursement via AP Workflow. For more information see, Requesting Advances & Reimbursements.

i-Buy NYU

i-Buy NYU is the University's system for requisitioning, paying suppliers, and procuring goods and services.

Faculty and scholars use i-Buy NYU to place orders for goods from NYU’s preferred vendors, such as Staples, the NYU Computer Store, B&H, etc. For instructions and more information, see the guide, Ordering From the i-Buy NYU Marketplace.

To use i-Buy NYU, log in to NYU Global Home, search for i-Buy NYU in the search bar and click Go on the i-Buy NYU link, or you can log in to i-Buy NYU via this link.

i-Buy NYU Resources

NYU Credit Cards

NYU provides three types of payment cards for different types of payments. Information on NYU's payment cards and payment card policies can be found here.

NYU Credit Cards Information Applicable to Faculty and Scholars:

Corporate Travel Account (CTA)

The Corporate Travel Card (CTA) is a corporate liability MasterCard issued by Bank of America that is used to pay for NYU business travel expenses only. The CTA is a University liability card and does not impact the cardholder's personal credit.

The CTA is used to pay for business travel expenses for:

  • Infrequent travelers in a department.
  • Travelers who do not have a NYU issued American Express Corporate Card.
  • NYU guests/visitors.
  • Group travel of ISAW staff & guests traveling together. Contact  directly for assistance.
  • The CTA resides within the department. The card is not given out to individual travelers.

The CTA can be used only with the following merchant types:

  • Airlines
  • Hotels
  • Rail (Amtrak)
  • Car Rental (Avis & Enterprise only)

American Express Corporate Card (Travel Card)

The Travel Card is an American Express Travel and Entertainment (T&E) personal liability card that is used to pay for business travel and entertainment expenses. It is recommended for frequent travelers. Membership Rewards are available at the traveler’s expense, but there is no annual fee for the card. Due to the individual liability on the card, the cardholder's credit rating may be impacted if payment is delayed.The cardholder is responsible for paying the monthly bill. The AmEx Application can be found on the NYU Financelink website.

  • We encourage the use of the AmEx for travel and hotel expenses for business related travel. We prefer that AmEx be used by AmEx cardholders for travel whenever possible but use of personal cards is also acceptable.
  • Cardholders should expenses only travel related charges for themselves. (Guests travel expenses MUST be provided by the CTA).
  • Group business travel can be arranged via the ISAW CTA. Contact  directly for assistance.
  • Cardholders are personally liable and are directly responsible for all charges made to the card.
  • Cardholders can pay the charges themselves or the University may pay charges on their behalf.
  • The Travel Card is recommended for those who travel at least once a year

Paying NYU Travel Card related charges
There are two ways to pay a corporate AmEx charge:

  • Submit the bill (or a print out of the charges) and receipts, as part of a standard reimbursement or advance request, making sure to note which charges are on the AmEx. The AP Workflow system allows the AmEx charges in a request to be paid directly to American Express, and charges paid with other sources to be reimbursed directly to you. See Requesting Advances and Reimbursements.
  • Pay the AmEx bill directly, and submit documentation of the payment as a reimbursement request.  Note: you will still have to submit the receipts for the charges you paid, in order to document their business purpose. The main difference here is that you will be covering the AmEx charges yourself until the reimbursement can be processed.

Whichever method you use, please make sure to correctly allocate the amount paid to AmEx or to yourself in AP Workflow.

ATM Withdraws from Your AmEx Card 
An alternate to getting a cash advance prior to leaving on a trip and/or not wanting to travel with cash, you can withdraw funds from an ATM. Advantages of withdrawing money from an ATM in a foreign country is having your desired currency without having to exchange money at a bank. This can also eliminate the use of personal funds wherever AmEx may not be accepted. (Note: If you don't have one already, you can call the number on the back of your card to request a pin number be sent to you for ATM withdrawals).

Sales Tax Recovery
In order to optimize the cost of our NYU travel expenses, this e-mail notifies you of the implementation of new University procedures for recovering sales taxes on your American Express card account.

All of your business expense requests submitted to AP Workflow for reimbursement will be reviewed for any sales tax charged.  The University will then work with our third-party vendor to recover any taxes paid in states which recognize our tax exempt status.

We anticipate that majority of tax recoveries will be paid directly to the University via a check from the merchant. Any tax recoveries which are not paid directly to the University by the merchant will appear as credits on your card account temporarily for a few days.  You will be notified when this occurs and so you may understand why this credit occurred.  The university will track these credits and request these amounts directly from American Express to be paid to University. 

 We hope you understand that the ‘credit’ for any sales taxes reimbursed to American Express is not due to you, your research account nor to your prospective school or department, but rather, due to New York University.  Therefore, do NOT ask American Express to refund the money to you, as we have already reimbursed you for your Original NYU expense request submission.

This program and all tax recoveries gained will be used for university initiatives set by the Financial Operations team at NYU.   

ISAW employees: Be sure to always use your NYU issued credit cards (CTA,P-Card & Amex) for business expenses; If you choose to use personal credit cards please be advised that you don’t qualify for the NYU tax exempt status and tax recovery doesn’t apply to you. Always be sure to inform the merchant that you are incurring a business expense as an NYU employee and that we are in fact tax exempt; Request tax exempt form for all business related expenses to ensure taxes are removed from receipts prior to expensing, especially repetitive ones like frequently used hotels or restaurants in the NYC area. You can make this request by sending an email to askfinancelink@nyu.edu, requesting the NYU tax exempt form be sent to the merchant in which you’re doing business or reach out to  for assistance. In fact, if you have any merchants in which you frequent in the NYC area please provide us with names so we can provide the tax exempt forms directly to them asap. Good news is once we’ve established our tax exempt status with a merchant, they should keep the form on file for future business.

American Express Corporate Card FAQs

I used my AmEx to pay for a meal that’s being covered by a conference budget. What do I do?
I’m going to be out of town when the AmEx bill is due.  What should I do?
I need to make a non-travel purchase that is business related. Can I use my AmEx?
I purchased a personal item on my AmEx card.  Is that okay?
I need to buy travel for a collaborator on a project.  Can I use my AmEx for that?
I'm traveling with two ISAW employees, three guests and five students and I would prefer we were all booked together on the same flight, can I use my AmEx?

I used my AmEx to pay for a meal that’s being covered by a conference budget. What do I do?
Submit the bill (or print out a record of the charge) and the receipts as you would any other reimbursement, being sure to note the name of the event and use the chartfield corresponding to the budget to which it should be applied.

I’m going to be out of town when the AmEx bill is due. What should I do?
You do not have to wait for the billing period to close in order to pay your account – from your online account, you can print out the charges and submit the receipts at any time.  If you are planning a long vacation or research trip, it is a good idea to submit all current AmEx charges for payment so you do not miss a deadline. Additionally, your AmEx account is now available online (see http://www.nyu.edu/purchasing.services/pdf/AMEXapplication.pdf to register your account). Once you have set up your account online, you can access it and pay the bill from any Internet connection. Note: ISAW administrators do not have direct access to another individual's online account - only the cardholder may access their own account.

AmEx charges a $39 late fee for payments more than 45 days overdue.  Please note that NYU will not reimburse late fees incurred due to cardholder tardiness in submitting receipts.

I need to make a non-travel purchase that is business related. Can I use my AmEx?
Faculty with research accounts should use their AmEx for business expenses whenever possible.  ISAW administrators with AmEx cards should direct purchases of supplies and equipment through the NYU i-Buy system whenever possible.  (If you are an ISAW administrator or staff member and find that your job duties require you to make a number of office supply or equipment purchases that can't be made through i-Buy, contact about the possibility of getting a Purchasing Card, which is intended for that purpose.)

Note that payment for professional services (such as editing or drafting services) should be paid directly by ISAW through Accounts Payable. See Paying Independent Contractors & Businesses. Further NYU guidelines on purchasing goods and services may be found here.

I purchased a personal item on my AmEx card. Is that okay?
Yes. However, if such an expense is incurred, you should pay that amount yourself through your online account. If a spouse or non-business travel companion accompanies you on a trip, please make sure you separate out the portion of their expenses (including meals) and pay that amount directly to AmEx.

I need to buy travel for a collaborator on a project. Can I use my AmEx for that?
The corporate AmEx is  intended for your individual business expenses.  Collaborator travel should be booked via ISAW’s CTA, which is exclusively for guest travel.  For academic related projects within ISAW contact for assistance. For grant, excavation and/or international conferences/meetings, contact for assistance.

If a collaborator can not book their travel through ISAW, reimbursement can be made after the trip by having the collaborator submit an invoice including travel expenses and appropriate documentation.

I'm traveling with two ISAW employees, three guests and five students and I would prefer we were all booked together on the same flight, can I use my AmEx?
No. Only incur expenses for yourself on your AmEx. However, when traveling with a group the CTA can be used to purchase tickets. Email the  for assistance.

If you don’t find the information you need here contact directly for assistance.