New Funding of Cost Sharing Procedures for Fiscal Year 2004

Transcription

1 Introduction When the cost sharing of direct costs is one of the conditions of an award for sponsored research, additional procedures are required to track and charge expenditures. It is important for the person who bears fiscal responsibility for a sponsored project, usually the Principal Investigator, to understand the GW procedures relating to the management of these expenditures. Cost Sharing - Overview Cost Sharing occurs when the University agrees to incur expenses in conjunction with a sponsored project. The cost sharing expenses that the University incurs may be either direct or indirect. Direct cost sharing expenses are accumulated in a separate award. The procedures described below apply to direct cost sharing. Indirect cost sharing is not accumulated on an individual award basis, and is described below for information purposes only. Direct OMB Circular A-21: Cost Principals for Educational Institutions defines direct costs as those that can be specifically identified with a particular sponsored project or that can be directly assigned to such activities relatively easily with a high degree of accuracy. Typically, expenses such as salaries, equipment, travel, etc. are direct expenses. Direct cost sharing occurs when the University funds a portion of the direct costs incurred under a sponsored project. Direct cost sharing is categorized as Mandatory, Voluntary, or Both. The term Mandatory refers to cost sharing that is dictated by the solicitation or sponsor guidelines. Mandatory cost sharing must be included in all financial reporting to the sponsor. The term Voluntary refers to cost sharing that the University proposes to strengthen its proposal, and which, once the award is made, needs to be verifiable and reportable if required. Voluntary cost sharing can also represent additional costs incurred by the University beyond the funding provided in the award. Usually cost sharing is agreed upon at the time of proposal submission. The cost center(s) that will fund the direct cost sharing is identified on the proposal routing sheet. The department chair or dean responsible for that cost center signs the routing sheet, agreeing to the proposed amount of cost sharing. Page 1 of 20

2 Indirect Indirect expenses are common or joint costs that cannot be directly attributed to a specific sponsored award (i.e., overhead ). The indirect cost rate negotiated with the federal government is the standard indirect rate for all sponsored awards. All requests to provide indirect cost sharing must be approved by the Associate VP for Research and Graduate Studies (University side) or the Associate VP for Health Research, Compliance, and Technology Transfer (Medical side). For further information on indirect cost sharing, consult your Research Service Coordinator in the Office of Research Services. Page 2 of 20

3 Accounting for Cost Sharing. GW s Grants System Each source of funding for a sponsored project, including cost sharing funds, is identified as a separate award. Cost sharing award numbers begins with the four characters: IXXS. The cost sharing award is usually assigned a separate task number under the same project as the main award. In most cases, the IXXS award and its assigned task are given the organization code of the Principal Investigator s home department. Departments routinely monitor and analyze their research activity on cost sharing awards using any of the following budget performance reports: Award/Project Performance Report - Detail [GM-139] Secured; Award/Project Performance Report - Summary [GM-140] Secured; Award/Project Performance Report - Detail [CSV] [GM-139] Secured; Award/Project Performance Report - Summary [CSV] [GM-140] Secured. The choice between the CSV or PDF versions of these reports depends on whether the managing department desires to use spreadsheet functionality with the data, as allowed with the CSV version. Mapping to the General Ledger Most Principal Investigators are concerned only that the cost sharing award books correctly in their award. For those with fiscal responsibility for the funding source of the cost sharing award, the following describes how to track the cost sharing. Questions about the general ledger aspects should be addressed by completing a help desk ticket for a Request for Information, which is forwarded to Financial System Support. While most sponsored projects activity in the grants system maps to the General Ledger (GL) using a funding source beginning with an A, cost sharing activity maps to the general ledger using a funding source of C Interface Mapping Table The Interface Mapping Table is used to identify the GL account code combination to which the Project/Task/Award (PTA) for a cost sharing award maps. For sponsored projects activity other than the cost sharing awards, the GL account code combination to which a sponsored projects PTA maps is not shown in the table. However, this information is displayed for cost sharing PTAs to aid University personnel in determining where the cost sharing amounts are charged in the GL and what GL cost center is funding these expenditures. Page 3 of 20

4 To view the mapping for cost sharing awards (PTAs) to the GL and the banner index for the related cost sharing journal (described in the Funding Cost Share section), navigate to the Interface Mapping table (NAVIGATE > CHART OF ACCOUNTS MAPPING > BANNER-ORACLE INTERFACE MAP) as shown below. Page 4 of 20

5 The Interface Mapping table will appear as shown below. Note that a column named Cost Share Banner Index has been added to this table. To view the mapping for cost sharing PTA combinations, enter query mode on this form. You can do this by pressing the <F11> key or by selecting Enter under Query on the menu. Type IXXS% in the Award column (since all cost sharing awards begin with IXXS). Page 5 of 20

6 To run your query, press the <F11> key while holding down the <Ctrl> key, or select Run under Query on the menu. The following query results will appear. The Cost Share Banner Index field on the Interface Mapping table reflects the banner index for the cost center that funds the cost sharing award. The GL section of the table shows where the cost sharing grants expenditures are mapping in the general ledger. A monthly journal entry is created to charge the account string associated with the Cost Share Banner Index field for cost sharing expenses pertaining to the award. Contact your Research Service Coordinator in the Office of Research Services if the Cost Share Banner Index information needs to be changed. Viewing the Interface Mapping table history file To view the historical changes to the record (such as changes to the Cost Share Banner Index associated with a Grants Management PTA or any other changes to the record) query the Interface Mapping table and select the record (line). Select the record by clicking your cursor on the line. Next, click the Record History button on the form to view the history. Page 6 of 20

7 For this example, the Banner Index record of has been selected. The Interface Mapping History table results are shown below. Note that the Interface Mapping Update History table shows the initial record (bottom line) with INS for Insert in the D/U/I column. Other values for this column will be UPD for Update and DEL for Delete. For this example, reading from bottom to top, you see the original record created by the Application Specialist in the Office of Research Services followed by an update to the record by the Application Specialist (this second update being an extension of the Award End Date) and from there forward you are seeing updates to the record where the form is being tested. When viewing actual records, you will not see the testing-related changes to the record, but in this example these changes help to explain how the form works. Like most forms in EAS, you can query this Interface Mapping Update History table. To perform a query from within the table, enter query mode by pressing the <F11> key, or select Enter under Query on the menu. Next, enter your query selection criteria. Then, run your query by pressing the <F11> key while holding down the <Ctrl> key, or select Run under Query on the menu. Funding Cost Share Description of Journal Historically, direct cost sharing has mapped to the funding source C for the home department of the Principal Investigator of the sponsoring award. This C-fund, not to be confused with the funding source C that is used to record the C-fund operating budget, was balanced institutionally at fiscal year end with operations but was not monitored and analyzed routinely. To alleviate this concern, the Comptroller s Office will record a monthly journal entry to fund expenditures that have been charged to the cost sharing award as recorded in the grants system. The monthly journal is automatically recorded after the grants system has closed for an accounting period. It will generally be recorded on the 3 rd working day after the calendar month end and can be viewed in the GL. The journal entry charges the cost center responsible for funding the cost sharing and credits the funding source Page 7 of 20

8 C The effect of this journal will be to make the total expenditures in C equal to zero. Account DIRECT COST SHARING is used to record the cost sharing funding journal. The cost center that funded the cost sharing can be viewed on the Interface Mapping table in the column Cost Share Banner Index. The GL code combination for the C fund can be identified in the Interface Mapping table in the GL section next to the PTA for the cost sharing award. (See the previous section: Interface Mapping Table). Viewing the funding cost share journal in EAS via Journals Inquiry The monthly journal will use the following convention to enable users to search the GL system for this journal (Navigate > Inquiry > Inquire on Journal Entries): Enter your search criteria using the Category GW Cost Sharing. If you re looking for a specific accounting period s funding cost share journal, enter the period. Page 8 of 20

9 The journals matching your find criteria are displayed, one on each line. Select the journal line that you want to view and click the Review Journal button. On the example shown below, all journal lines appear. While the journal will include funding for all cost share account combinations, you will only see journal lines on account code combinations to which you are authorized. Page 9 of 20

10 Viewing the funding cost share journal in EAS via Account Inquiry Navigate to the Account Inquiry form (Navigate > Inquiry > Inquiry on Account Balances). Enter the account for cost sharing, 59211, and all GL account combinations to which you are authorized will return. Page 10 of 20

11 For this example, select Organization and click the Show Journal Details button. All journals posting to this account code combination appear on the resulting Journals form. Page 11 of 20

12 If you want to see all journal lines on the cost sharing journal to which you are authorized, click the Show Full Journal button. Shown below is the journal displaying only those journal lines that you are authorized to view. Note that on the journal you can tell that cost share funding was charged to the department s C operating budget and credited (funded) to the C fund where the grants expenditures map. Viewing the GL BPR for C with the funding cost share journal and the grants expenditures. Navigate to the Run Standard Requests form (Navigate >Reports> Requests > Run Standard Requests). Page 12 of 20

13 Allow the radio button for Single Request to remain selected. Click the OK button. The following Submit Request form opens. Click the List of Values (LOV) icon on the Submit Request form. Select the version of the BPR that you would like to run. Click the OK button. Page 13 of 20

14 Provide the parameters for the report that you need. Click the OK button. The following Submit Request form returns with your parameters selected. Click the Submit Request button for the report to run. The Requests form will open showing that your job has been submitted. Page 14 of 20

15 Click the Refresh Data button every few seconds to see your job change from a Pending phase to a Running phase. Continue to click the Refresh Data button every few seconds to see it change from Running to Completed. Page 15 of 20

16 Once your job is completed, click the View Output button to view your BPR. Your BPR will display an amount in the account, DIRECT COST SHARING, that equates to the monthly expenditures feeding from the grants system for cost sharing. If you ran your BPR for the previous month after the funding cost share journal has been posted, the YTD total expenses amount should be zero. Also, the amount posted to DIRECT COST SHARING should offset the total of other expenses mapped to C from the Grants system. If the total YTD expenses is not zero, contact your Research Service Coordinator in the Office of Research Services. S/he will correct the problem. Using the Grants Direct Costs on Cost Sharing Awards CSV [GM-382] Secured report to view GM detail expenditures mapping to the general ledger cost sharing account, C The report, Grants Direct Costs on Cost Sharing Awards CSV [GM-382] Secured, allows users to retrieve 'detail' Grants direct cost expenditures for a range of GL periods and for a single organization that have fed to the GL cost sharing account. This report reads the Grants system and retrieves transactions charged to Cost Sharing Awards that the user is authorized to see and provides this information in a CSV file for use in Excel. This report recognizes Grants security. Therefore, even though the report may be run from a general ledger responsibility, if the user is restricted from seeing detailed payroll information in the Grants system, payroll-related expenditures will not display on this report. Likewise, if multiple awards map to a single GL cost sharing fund, and the user is only named on some of the awards in the Grants system, only those awards for which the user is authorized will display on this report. Page 16 of 20

17 To run the report, navigate to the Run Standard Requests form (Navigate >Reports > Request> Run Standard Request). Allow the radio button for Single Request to remain selected. Click the OK button. The following Submit Request form opens. Page 17 of 20

18 Click the List of Values (LOV) icon on the Submit Request form. Select the report from the LOV. Click the OK button. The parameter page for this report opens with the Date From and Date To defaulted to the last day of the current period. Change as desired. On this parameter page, you must select the following: * Date From (enter the last date of the 'From' GL Period in the format DD-Mon-YYYY) * Date To (enter the last date of the 'To' GL Period in the format DD-Mon-YYYY) * Organization (select the desired organization value from the LOV to retrieve expenditures on cost sharing awards assigned to that organization or leave blank to retrieve all expenditures on cost sharing awards on which you are authorized) Page 18 of 20

19 The following Submit Request form returns with your parameters selected. Click the Submit Request button for the report to run. For this example, enter the Organization value of The Requests form will open showing that your job has been submitted. Depending on the status of the Concurrent Manager, the process that runs reports, and whether there are other reports ahead of you, you may or may not see a Phase of Pending. Page 19 of 20

20 Continue to click the Refresh Data button every few seconds to see it change from Running to Completed. Once your job is completed, click the View Output button to open the report in Netscape. The file will display output ready to be saved and re-opened in Excel. This output file is not displayed for this example to protect the data. Continue with these steps to prepare the output file for use in Excel. 1. Select "Save As" from the File pull down menu within Netscape. 2. Select a "Save In" location on your PC to save the file. 3. Enter a File Name with an extension of "csv" and click the Save button. 4. Using your desktop explorer, open your saved file. It will automatically open in Excel as a parsed (separated into columns) file. Your report is now ready for normal Excel functionality such as the sizing of columns, centering of the report headings, addition of page numbering (if desired), formatting of the output page, or any other desired Excel functionality. As these are basic Excel functions, consult an Excel manual for additional instructions. The report displays the following expenditure information on the cost share awards selected: * Project Number * Task Number * Award Number * Expenditure Item Date * Expenditure Type * Expenditure Comment * Employee Name * Burden Cost * CDL Line Number * PA Date * GL Date (General Ledger Accounting Flexfield information, as follows:) * Entity * Account * Organization * Funding Source * NAC * Function * Location * Activity * Future If you have questions regarding the expenditures shown on the report, contact your Research Service Coordinator in the Office of Research Services. Page 20 of 20