Sponsored Projects Accounting

Contact the Research Administrator in Office of Sponsored Projects Administration (OSPA) who is responsible for your department.

Look up responsibility for grant in SAP use T-Code ZGM_LOOKUP

Key in the grant account number and click the execute button. This will list the FA.

You can also use T-Code GMGRANTD click the responsiblity tab which will list the FA.

Contact the Research Administrator in Office of Sponsored Projects Administration (OSPA) who is responsible for your department.

See Building Rental and Lease Agreements for WBS elements beginning with "3." (PDF)

See Finding your Cost Share Cost Center Balance in SAP. (PDF)

When funding a Cost Share Cost Center, there are several general ledger (g/l) accounts to consider as follows:

• 740510 Transfer from Cost Share – Salary Only
• 750510 Transfer to Cost Share – Salary Only
• 740515 Transfer from Cost Share – Benefits Only
• 750515 Transfer to Cost Share – Benefits Only
• 740520 Transfer from Cost Share – Operating Expenses
• 750520 Transfer to Cost Share – Operating Expenses

The debit entry will be to the Cost Center from which you are moving funds using the 750XXX g/l account, while the credit will be to the Grant/WBS Element with the Cost Share Fund to which the cost share account is linked using the 740XXX g/l account.

After typing in the Grant/WBS Element, also enter in the Fund, do not let it derive the Fund.

Business Procedure Section contains University policies and procedures concerning JVs. (PDF)

Cost allocations - provide copies of invoices or receipts for the original expense and a spreadsheet or other document that shows the basis of allocation (units used, payroll effort, square footage, etc.) and the calculations for the allocations.

Payroll cost transfer - contact the Payroll office to confirm whether or not a JV is necessary. If Payroll confirms the need for a correction via JV, please provide copies of the applicable employee labor distribution sheets and SAP reports showing person and time frame being transferred or STEPS employee invoices. Also, please include any correspondence with Payroll where they confirmed the need for correction via JV.

Travel cost transfers - provide a copy of the Travel Voucher or DAV showing the original travel charges and its supporting receipts or invoices.

Other cost transfers - provide a copy of the DAV, JV, Purchase Order, or Procard screens and its supporting receipts or invoices.

The signatures on the JV are dependent upon the age of the transactions on the documentation that supports the cost transfer. The following signatures are required:

• Original charges between 0 to 90 days - the signature of the billing department or approving official for the department charged is necessary.
• Original charges between 91 and 120 days - the Principal Investigator of the project and Chair/Director of the department in which the grant resides must sign the JV.
• Original charges over 120 days old - the Principal Investigator of the project and the Chair/Director and Dean of the department in which the grant resides must sign the JV.

Corrections of typical errors - explanations should include the answers to the following questions:

• a. What was the error?
• b. When did the error occur?
• c. How did the error occur?
• d. What steps have been put in place to prevent this error from occurring again?
• e. If charging a grant, how does the expense benefit the project?

Note: Please complete the questions above with the JV Explanation Form (PDF) and submit with your JV along with appropriate signatures and backup documentation.)

Corrections being made on original charges that are over 90 days old - provide an explanation of the extenuating circumstances which prevented the errors or charges from posting to the correct account within the first 90 days after the original transaction posting. Be sure to include the answers to the questions found in this section under a typical correction of an error.

Charges from Service Centers, recharges, or allocations of costs - describe the reason for the allocation or charge, the time period covered for the charges, and a brief explanation of how the charges were determined.

Payroll Distributions - describe the reason for the distributions, the payroll periods covered, the names of the employees requiring payroll modifications, and the percentage of effort breakdown for any amounts that are different from the labor distribution sheets. If the calculations are rather complicated, please provide a spreadsheets showing the percentages and distributions for the salary and benefits.

The waste disposal charge is generated automatically on accounts and is based on specific expenditure object codes. Any adjustments to one of these expenditure codes will consequently adjust the waste disposal charge as well. The correction to the waste disposal charge will be seen at the end of the month in which the correction to the expenditure code was posted.

Contact the file room at 257-5438 to request a copy of a JV. Please have the Reference Document Number from SAP available for the clerk.

Recharge Operations are departmental units that have direct costs less than $50,000 in a fiscal year. Service Centers are operational units that have direct costs greater than $50,000 in a fiscal year. Since a recharge operation is a departmental unit their fund balance at the end of the year rolls up with the other department accounts. A service center is unique because its fund balance can be carried forward, if it is less than 10 percent of expenditures for the year - surplus or deficit. A service center can also include indirect costs (depreciation) in their rate, but is not allowed on recharge operation accounts.

No, there is not a fee charged to service centers or recharge operations.

A minor service center has direct costs greater than $50,000, but less than $500,000 and can include equipment depreciation expenses in their rate. A major service center has direct costs greater than $500,000 and can include equipment and building depreciation and maintenance and operations costs in their rate.

The budget family attribute on the Funds Center distinguishes the type of account. A recharge operation has a budget family of 23. The budget family for a minor service center is 22 and a major service center is 21. Also, all service center account numbers begin with the 10438XXXXX series.

No, federal guidelines do not allow the purchase cost of capital assets to be charged to the service center account, but capital assets can be purchased on a renewal and replacement account (14278XXXXX).

Only capital assets (55XXXX - g/l accounts) can be purchased with the money in your renewal and replacement account. Remember, to be considered capital the item must meet the University's policy on capital threshold limits. For more information please see the Business Procedures Manual or contact Plant Assets.

Recharge Operations cannot recover indirect costs for depreciation in their rates, but Service Centers are allowed to recover depreciation costs.

If the service center fund balance (surplus or deficit) is less than or equal to 10 percent of the expenditures, then the fund balance can be carried forward. A prior year carry over is used in the calculation of the fund balance, but it is not considered an expenditure when calculating the 10 percent rule. When a balance is carried forward to the next fiscal year, it must be used in the calculation of rates.

A subsidy will be needed from a general fund account to bring the service center account balance under the 10 percent of expenditures.

The first step is to establish whether a recharge or service center is the appropriate account to be established. Second, rates will need to be developed and a Service Center Rate Request Form, Request for Establishing/Revising Service Center Cost Center and Budget Revision Request will also need completed. Please see the service center policy section 4.7 for more detailed information.