New Cost Transfer Policy and Justification Form (02/29/2008)

Sponsored Research Services (SRS) has published on its website a Cost Transfer Policy and Cost Transfer Justification Form. This Policy takes effect on April 1, 2008, and applies only to cost transfers between or to sponsored projects. It addresses proper and improper cost transfers, payroll and non-payroll transfers, split funded expenses, late transfers and other important issues.

In accordance with the Policy, the Cost Transfer Justification Form must be submitted with all RDF’s (Retroactive Distribution of Funding for payroll). For non-payroll related transfers, the Justification Form must be submitted with the Expenditure Transfer Journal Entry Form and supporting documentation

Cost transfers associated with sponsored projects will be evaluated based on this Policy effective April 1, 2008. It is strongly recommended that you make sure all of your accounts are in order.

The Cost Transfer Policy can be found at http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/policypro.html. The Cost Transfer Justification Form can be found at http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/forms.html. Please contact Sponsored Research Services at srs@mailer.fsu.edu should you have questions.

Advance Request Form Revised 12/12/2007

Sponsored Research Services and the FSU Research Foundation (SRS/FSURF) are responsible for authorizing advance funding in compliance with sound management practices and appropriate financial considerations of the University. Recent experience has shown that departments are overextending their commitments for advance backing.

The previous Request for Advance form required identification of the source of funds backing the direct cost amount of the advance. The revised form still requires identification of the account backing the advance, but now the department is also required to state the current available balance of the backing account. SRS/FSURF may choose to limit FSU’s risk by approving a shorter advance period or lesser advance amount. The revised Request for Advance form has been posted on our Forms website.

Please submit questions or comments to srs@mailer.fsu.edu.

New Budgeting/Rebudgeting Procedures and Forms (11/13/07)

Sponsored Research Services (SRS) has published on its website new procedures for budgeting and rebudgeting sponsored project budgets. The procedures take effect on November 13, 2007 along with revised Budget Summary and Budget Amendment Forms.

The revised forms are based on delivered OMNI (Oracle/PeopleSoft) proposal budget categories and Grants.gov budget categories for a variety of reasons:

• A detailed budget and justification should have already been provided by the department with the proposal; therefore, there is no reason to re-enter that detail on an internal form. Only summary information is needed on the form.
• It is SRS’s hope that before the end of fiscal year 2008, electronic proposal approval workflow will be back in place and departments will enter proposal data (including budget information) in OMNI. By transitioning to the new budget categories now on the internal paper budget forms, department users will become somewhat familiar with the use of the OMNI categories before having to select them on an OMNI proposal budget.
• OMNI Grants Proposal budget development is based on unchangeable budget categories that are configured to work with future e-submissions to Grants.gov from within OMNI. The electronic interface with Grants.gov is expected to be included when we upgrade to PeopleSoft Financials version 9.0.
• SRS will create a process where the Budget Summary Form can be printed using OMNI data, thereby relieving the departments from having to submit another piece of paper. Budget Amendments will continue to be a paper process—at least for the foreseeable future.

The new Budgeting and Rebudgeting Procedures can be found at http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/policypro.html. The revised Budget Summary and Budget Amendment Forms can be found at http://www.research.fsu.edu/contractsgrants/forms.html. We have archived the 6/15/06 version of the Budget Amendment form for transition purposes as noted in the Procedures.

Please contact Sponsored Research Services at srs@mailer.fsu.edu should you have questions.