GCFA CONNECTION

Grants & Contracts Financial Administration

OklahomaStateUniversity

Vol. 6, 05/06

State Account Close-Outs

Many state funded awards have an ending date of June 30, the fiscal year end for the state and for the University. Many of these awards do not allow for a full ninety days before a final invoice or final financial report is due. Since the state began using PeopleSoft the problem has been compounded because the state continues to use the same purchase order number (PO#) for multiple year awards.

Grants and Contracts staff have had conversations with financial and program officers from several of the state agencies. The agencies have clarified that the funding for each year stands alone and is swept after forty-five to ninety days depending on the source of the funding. For that reason, at least thirty days before the award end date, when it is known that there will be funds remaining, a request should be made to extend the award date or to carry forward the remaining funds. However, it should not be assumed that this request will be granted.

Grants and Contracts staff recommends establishing a new account number for each year of funding as this is the easiest way to be sure that funding for each year is collected before it is lost. Even though the agency will be issuing another PO using the same PO number from the previous year, a new account should be created so that funding years are not mixed in our accounting system. It is also very important that Grants and Contracts receive the original approved budget that was sent to the state agency. Most state agencies require GCFA to invoice in approved budget categories only. When GCFA invoices outside of these approved categories it can be an audit finding for OSU and for the state agency.

Account Attribute Review

As in previous years, to ensure the accuracy of year end reports, GCFA will be e-mailing to each college/division in May a listing of their grant/contract accounts that had expenses in FY 06. This listing will include various account attributes (i.e. department, principal investigator name, etc.) for you to review. We will be requesting timely feedback, so that if anything needs to be corrected, the change can be processed in FRS prior to year end close.

P-CARD AUDITS

This is just a reminder that GCFA will begin auditing ledger 5 P-card transactions in May. College Research administrators will receive a “notice of P-card transaction audit” form with the transactions highlighted. Transactions chosen will be reviewed by GCFA for A-21 compliance and/or compliance with the agencies approved budget. Please fill out the form as requested and return to GCFA within 15 working days.

EMERGENCY ACCOUNTS FOR BDS

Budget and Asset Management has set a May 31st date for BDS entry. If you will be requesting an emergency account for BDS purposes, please have your requests into Grants and Contracts no later than Monday, May 22nd. This will allow GCFA and Accounting to get your accounts setup and active before the deadline. If you have any questions regarding this please contact Kristi Howey at 744-8234 or by email at .

Time and effort

Time and effort reporting is often misunderstood and, more often, a likely target for contentious federal scrutiny. Regardless of the complexity and bureaucracy of effort reporting, acceptance of federal funds demands principal investigators certify the amount of time dedicated to a particular

sponsored project. OMB circular A-21 and OSU policy and procedure letter 3-0321 reflects the federal position and OklahomaStateUniversity’s commitment to accurately report and confirm the percentage of effort as the basis for salary charged to federal grants and contracts.

The University of North Carolina published the following list of points to consider in time and effort reporting:

  • A 40 hour work week is not the definition of 100% effort from which the percentage of research effort is certified.
  • 100% effort is the employee’s total hours actually spent on work within the scope of their employment regardless of the number of hours worked or percentage of FTE in their appointment. Effort certification must reflect actual work performed and not budget driven.
  • Research effort is not bound to the lab or campus. It may occur at home, off-campus facilities or meetings, and/or conferences. However if the effort is included in research effort it must also be counted in total effort.
  • Auditors are looking for patterns that suggest that effort certification is based upon factors other than actual effort dedicated to the project.
  • Cost transfers should be reasonably justified otherwise an auditor may suspect the transactions to be unwarranted budget adjustments.
  • Auditors may question actual project contribution if a PI has very small effort percentages on several grants/contracts.
  • Does total effort of the researcher realistically reflect the proportion of effort devoted to research, teaching, outreach, and/or administrative duties of the individual?

References: The University of North Carolina Office of Sponsored Research (2006)