Calculating Cost Share for Salary Cap

[made...@umn.edu]

Hi All,

I am working on my first grant that has a salary cap issue. Is there a document with the correct steps from start to finish.

I'm looking for guidance on:

1. How to calculate what needs to be cost shared
2. How to set that up (do you set it up as a part of their salary distribution or do you do retros after the fact?

Thanks for your help!

Brittany

[David Hagen]

Hi Brittany,

You can find a link to a salary cap job aid either on the effort unit's home page )https://research.umn.edu/units/oca/training-education/effort-reporting-training) or via the FAQ section of the effort policy at https://policy.umn.edu/research/effortcertification-faq (it is under the first question, so that link is probably easier to use).

It is a best practice to set up the amount that is over the cap on a cost share string as part of their salary distribution. Otherwise, the salary that is being charged is out of compliance with federal policies and, depending on the invoicing cycle, the sponsor might be overcharged.  Even if it eventually gets corrected using a retro, it isn't a good idea to overcharge the sponsor up front.

I'll also use my response to make a plug for the two effort reporting classes, SP14 and SP25, that are available as part of the SPECTRUM program. Both classes are online. This topic is briefly covered and there is a simplified example of the calculations in the SP25 "Effort - Special Processes".

David

[David Hagen]

Here is a very simple example:

Sara Smith’s annual Institutional Base Salary is $200,000; her effort committed to an NIH project is 10%

* $189,600 (salary cap) x 10% = $18,960
* $200,000 (actual salary) x 10% = 20,000

* Difference = $1,040. 

* This amount must be cost-shared from non-sponsored funds over the year.