Office of Research and Project Administration

SPONSORED PROGRAMS COMPLIANCE

11. Administrative Salaries and Other Clerical Expenses

Administrative Responsibilities/Issues:

Some types of sponsored research projects where administrative or clerical salaries may be an allowable expenditure if fully justified in the proposal budget (and subsequently approved by the sponsoring agency):

• Center Grants
• Community/Clinical Studies
• Conference Grants
• Cooperative Agreements
• Government Contracts
• Program Project Grants
• Training Grants

Why include administrative or clerical salaries on a sponsored research project?

• All grant-related expenditures should be treated and managed in a manner consistent with other institutional accounts, which includes the assignment of effort to sponsored research projects, where allowable and approved by the sponsoring agency.
  
  

  • Administrative and staff salaries should be well justified in the proposal budget, documented appropriately in the project aim (scope of project), dedicated to a specific function or project personnel on the project, and approved by sponsoring agency.
  • A detailed description of the administrative and staff member's role on the project should be retained for future justification of the expenses during, for example, a site visit or grant/contract budget negotiations, and for verification on the planned confirmation report.
    
    
• Administrative and clerical salaries (effort) charged to a sponsored research project reduce the total expenditure to a departmental account, relieving these funds for other personnel or operating expenses.
• Is the administrative or staff salary expense allocable to the project, and how can the departmental administrator ensure compliance?
  
  

  • PI makes determination and ensures that appropriate personnel effort is available to allocate to the project, based on total resources available to the investigator, and the effort is consistent with the approved project scope. (In some departments, PI is required to make this request in writing to his administrative office, to have the effort allocated via the appropriate personnel form).
  • Changes are noted in continuation proposal/progress report.
  • Changes are confirmed on the semi-annual Plan Confirmation System Report submitted to the Office of Research Accounting and Costing Standards (ORACS).
  • PI is accountable for the appropriate distribution of effort to each sponsored research project.
  • PI verifies and signs monthly ledgers (or ledger sheet).

How are administrative or staff salaries allocated to a project?

• Allocation should always be based upon anticipated actual effort to the project over the entire budget period.
  
  

Process/Issues:

• Review of the funded award and in consultation with the Principal Investigator; the staff member's percent of effort to be charged to a project is determined.
• A personnel action form (Form 800, 510/610/710/506 form, or time sheet change) is initiated to effect the change in the distribution of effort. (Contact the Office of Human Resources for a copy of the Users Guide to Personnel Action Forms, which will soon be added to the Human Resources website.
  
  

  • Prepare Salary Cap forms if applicable (generally for faculty-only positions). NOTE: Contact the Office of Research Accounting and Costing Standards (ORACS) departmental representative for additional information on salary cap form preparation.
  • Notify PERC when there are any changes to a salary cap form, including when the salary cap form is no longer applicable.
    
    
• Obtain appropriate signatures based on departmental and School policies (e.g., generally PI, administrative staff member in each department with responsibility for accounts listed, Dean's Office representative, ORACS, PERC).
• Update change in departmental encumbrance accounting system.
• Verify change on returned 510/610/710 form (also known as a "clean turnaround" form.
• Reconcile changes with monthly cumulative salary report and ledgers and communicate with PERC when salaries are not correctly reflected in order to ensure correction prior to account closeout. In most cases, detailed worksheets (back-up documentation) should be submitted to PERC reflecting appropriate charges, actual charges, and variance.
• Verify or correct new account changes on semi-annual Plan Confirmation System report.
• Closeout confirmation with ORACS and verification on final reports. (Refer to Section 16).
• Retain documentation following record retention policies. (Website links for record retention policies can be found at the ORPA website at http://www.rochester.edu/ORPA/policies/, listed under 'Other', or the Department of Internal Audit website at http://www.rochester.edu/adminfinance/audit, listed under 'Record Retention Best Practices (Power Point)'.