Moving fringe off a project

[Kieran Dhital]

Hi all,

I have a colleague that is trying to move fringe off a project to a non-sponsored string. I thought it would be fairly straightforward, but I came up with a couple possible issues/concerns:

1. In the Journal Entry manual, under the "GLE" AN Type, it states that it's for items "related to non-salary/fringe expenses." The "PAY" AN Type is listed as obsolete.
2. Would this need to be put on a cost share string, or can it go on an unaffiliated non-sponsored string?

For the first item, I'm wondering if solely moving fringe is an exception to that language. 

For the second item, I'm wondering if because the fringe is tied to salary on a project, it should still have some connection to the project.

Many thanks,

Kieran

[Erin Flathmann]

Hi Kieran,

I saw this often in your college.  For instance, the grant/funds from another institution would explicitly be for faculty salary and wouldn't cover fringe.  I think you can set that up in the distribution entry to operate properly as it's occurring, but after the fact, can only be moved as a journal entry.

1. I would likely ignore the JE manual comment and use whatever AN Type makes the JE happy.  Others may have better advice if they've done this type of JE recently!  I don't expect most UMN training guides to be 100% informed on grant-related situations, and sometimes this sentence could be very old and not updated recently.

2. I typically did cost share the fringe, to continue showing it's related to that project, even though the project doesn't allow it as a direct cost.  

Curious if other CAs have seen this and will chime in.  I haven't seen this situation recently (maybe it's been since the HRMS upgrade!)

-- Erin

[Andrea Johnson]

I've also had projects that don't allow fringe.

As Erin said, the easiest way to do it going forward is to use the "Redirect combo code" in HRMS:

I've used GLE on JEs to move any existing fringe off of the project. I did *not* use cost-share. To be honest, it didn't even occur to me to do so. Since fringe doesn't factor into effort, at least it won't change anything in ECRT. David Hagen can weigh in on the importance of it being cost-shared for non-effort purposes.

~ Andrea

[Sheila Lem]

The grants I had allowed fringe in general for graduate students, but not tuition.  I always processed a manual JE and it was became a lot easier once tuition was separated out into a separate budget line.  I could easily back out of reports and process the manual entries after effort had been certified or before a financial report was due.  I never used cost-sharing.  I thought there was language somewhere that cost-sharing should only be used for expenses that would otherwise be allowable on a grant or needed to be reported.  I always put it on a non-sponsored chartfield string.  It was usually the faculty member's non-sponsored discretionary funding, but I know not all departments provide funding to their faculty or the amount they provide would be too small to cover things like this.

I had heard about the redirection of fringe and can say that I don't know exactly how it works, but I'd be careful when you use it.  My understanding was that it causes issues when you need to do retros.  If you have a graduate student paid on that funding source where you know their distribution won't change, I think it's fine to use that option.  I would not recommend it in situations where the funding source might change or be adjusted. 

[Nicole Pilman]

Hi Everyone!  

Here are responses to Kieran's questions:

1. In the Journal Entry manual, under the "GLE" AN Type, it states that it's for items "related to non-salary/fringe expenses." The "PAY" AN Type is listed as obsolete.

1. SFR instructions indicate that you should use "PAY" for removing old payroll.  However, in the end, either of these AN Types will work and we have a mix out there of what people use.
   

1. Would this need to be put on a cost share string, or can it go on an unaffiliated non-sponsored string?

1. I agree with Sheila that if it's not an allowable expense on the project then it shouldn't be moved to a cost share string.  I also echo her comments about given extra care to the fact that any retros will reek havoc because fringe that is no longer there will be adjusted.

Thanks,

 Nicole