New Project - Cost Transfer Policy

[Penny Harris]

Hi, 

I can't seem to find the language about:  

                     You can't just charge it to a non sponsored string and move it later

We have a signed award from MnDOT for the FHWA (Federal $) LTAP, however it most likely won't be set up for a few weeks.  (Our NOGAs have been slow lately)

We have a training planned for those funds on Oct 19th and 27th.  They are trying to purchase the lunches and materials,  however we have no string.

One option thrown out:  Why don't we just charge it to a NS string and move it?  I swear you can't, but I can't seem to find it in the cost transfer policy.  Am I looking in the wrong place?  Is it somewhere in the advance account/preaward policy?

Thanks!  I appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction!

Penny

[Jeff Zytkovicz]

Hi Penny, one thing I'd suggest is requesting an advance account (even though the award is fully-executed). We do that sometimes to alleviate the wait for NOGAs. 

I also had trouble finding language about why cost transfers should be minimized in the Cost Transfer policies but I do know that UG expects that we maintain adequate financial management practices and policies so that costs are appropriately charged at the time incurred and significant adjustments are not required. Intentionally charging the wrong account increases audit risk. In the Processing Accounting Transactions policy, it does say, "Inaccurate, unauthorized, or undocumented transactions may result in audit disallowances, especially for sponsored project funding." That's the closest thing I could find about why we avoid charging non-sponsored accounts and then moving costs to sponsored.

-Jeff

[Nicole Pilman]

Hi Penny,

I took a quick look through the Adjusting/Correcting Non-Payroll Transactions on Sponsored Projects procedure under the   Processing Accounting Transactions policy and found this bullet:

• Sponsored projects cannot be used as a "holding" or "clearing" account for redistribution of expenses to other Chartfield Strings.

I also looked through the Charging Sponsored Costs Outside the Award Period policy and don't see anything there.

In the end, if you don't request an advance or preaward account, you should put expenses on a nonsponsored string and move them to the project when it's been established.

Thanks,

 Nicole

[Sandra Schleter]

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