The Grants and Contracts Office wants to help make administrative processes easier for researchers. However, please remember that while the principal investigator may delegate day-to-day administrative activities, the principal investigator remains responsible for the financial management of the grant or project.

Account Code Structure

Complete accounting chartfield is needed for:

  • Check requests
  • Travel reimbursement forms
  • Scholarship forms
  • Appointment forms and all other hiring forms
  • Account transfer requests
  • Other expense forms

Chartfield information is now on "1grant" report.
For grants, the full chartfield remains constant except the account number

Complete Chart Field

Account: 2000
Fund: 26
Organization: 363248
Program: GEN
Sub-Class: GVSPR
Project: NASA12946

  • All fields needed for all grant transactions
    • Account
      • Broad expense categories
      • Occasionally may use an asset or liability account if requested by the accounting office
    • Fund
      • Usually "26" - Sponsored Research Grants.
        Some grants are "27"- Sponsored Training/Other Grants
      • Grants and Contracts Office assigns fund number for DEPTID when documentation from the new award/award increment is received from Office for Sponsored Programs
    • Organization
      • Cost Centers - One for each project
      • First three digits define the department that controls the cost center
      • Fourth digit is 2 for grants and contracts
  • Fields needed for most University Transactions
    • Program
      • Further detail for departmental use (most grants only use GEN except VSL )
    • Sub Class
      • Used for grants to track type of sponsor (i.e. GVSPR = government sponsored research; NGSPR = non-government sponsored research)
    • Project
      • Code used for sponsored or facilities projects
      • Begins with agency identifier

Transfers and Budgets

  • Expense transfers from one DEPTID to another: If one of the DEPTID is a grant, send an email to Director of Grants and Contacts, including:
    • Chartfields for source and destination DEPTIDs
    • Reason for transfer
    • Must be approved by DEPTID PI
  • Cannot go over budget sub-category total (i.e. Z100 = Salaries and Wages; Z401 = supplies and general)
  • Projects will show a deficit within sub-categories in individual account lines - This is OK
  • Can request transfer between budget categories if allowed by sponsor:
    • Send email to Director of Grants and Contracts and request transfer
    • PI must request or approve transfer
  • Proactively managing budget sub-categories saves time in expense processing
  • Transfer impact on F&A and fringe budgets must also be considered

Payroll

  • Exempt payrolls on last business day of each month
  • Non-exempt payroll on 15th and 25th (or business day before) of each month
  • For non-exempt employees - approved time-sheets are due to payroll as soon as the pay period ends
  • For exempt employees - approved leave reports are due on the 3rd business day after the end of each month
  • Time-sheets and hiring paperwork must be turned in by appropriate deadlines or employee will not be paid.
  • Off-cycle payroll checks are only cut when:
    • Involuntary employment termination
    • Administrative Payroll or Human Resources processing errors
    • Direct deposit errors
    • Salary advances
    • Lot or stolen checks

Ways to Facilitate Processing

  • Be familiar with University policies, including:
  • Regular budget monitoring
    • Budget exceptions and transfers delay processing
  • Submit hiring forms and procurement statements as soon as possible
  • Monitor projects end dates
    • Project end dates now on "1grant" report
    • Expenditures can only be made/obligated before projects end date
    • All expenditures must be processes before closeout date
  • Plan ahead - due to limited staffing, the Grants and Contracts Office may need time to find your answer/process your request