Cost Transfers Defined

							New York University
School Of Medicine
 Grant Management
  Improving Timeliness and
 Accuracy of Cost Allocations


         May 2005

                                1
            Grant Management?
   Principal Investigator (PI) has grant “A”, which
    terminates 9/30, as well as a discretionary account
   PI receives a new grant “B”, which begins 7/1
   Research costs continue to be charged to grant “A”
    despite some of the costs relating to new grant “B”
   The laboratory becomes very active, and timely
    cost allocations are not performed
   The PI initiates stop-gap transfers to “B” and the
    discretionary account, but not enough to avoid a
    deficit

                                                          2
    Grant Management? (Cont’d)

 Grant “A” terminates in deficit, now forcing
  hard look at what can be transferred out
 To properly reconcile, grant “A” charges needs
  to be fully identified and allocated
 PI now needs to examine who was charged to
  each grant, for what period, and the functions
  they performed
 Retro-active transfers processed involving all
  accounts

                                                   3
    Grant Management ? (Cont’d)
 Grant “B” is now due to terminate 6/30 and
  research is soon to be completed
 PI goes on vacation
 Upon PI’s return, in August, FA is looking for
  assistance to balance out and report on “B”,
  due September 30th
 PI now wants to transfer costs off of the
  discretionary account to Grant “B”
 The cycle continues
                                                   4
                     Grant Management Scenarios
           Ideal

                      Research,       Timely
                     Financial &     Reporting
                    Programmatic     Completed
      A             Management
      W
      A
      R
      D               Research,       Material               Late
                    Less Financial   Adjustments           Reporting
                   & Programmatic     Required
                    Management

           Less Than Ideal
                                        Compliant
                                        Reporting
                                                    Non-Compliant Reporting
Timeline             Budget Year         Window

                                         90 Days    Beyond 90 Days
                                                                              5
      Utilization of Cost Transfers
                                          Untimely P-Card          Insufficient
           Unexpected
                                             Allocation            Compliance
           Late Charges
                                                                   Knowledge


Lack of Interdepartmental                                                          Routine
       Cooperation                                                                Allocations



  Late Award and
                                         Cost Transfers                     Slow Response
                                                                               to Issues
  Account Set-Up


                                                                      Temporary Salary
                Untimely Grant                Lapse in Financial          Transfer
                    Review                     Analyst coverage

                                                                                                6
 NOTE: Must be timely to be acceptable
Ensuring Timely Cost Allocation
   Expedited account set-up and authorization with
    the Sponsored Programs Office(SPA)
   Merged restricted funds accounting with financial
    analyst(FA) group to promote system redesign
   Instituted bi-monthly forecasts, improved
    coverage among FA’s, online CPP’s, and
    utilization of grant spending report for billing
   Focus group meetings with departmental
    administrators
       Help involve PI’s in grant administration
       Assist in getting PI to act proactively
       Offer more PI training
                                                        7
     Ensuring Timely Cost Allocation
       Phase II – We Need Your Assistance!

   Restrict/Limit use of cost transfers
    • Federal guidelines state cost transfers MUST be
      processed within 90 days
       • Non-compliance could result in
          • Loss of privileges such as StaplesLink and P-Cards
          • PI having to cover costs from other funds
          • Forfeiture of grant balances(referenced in cost transfer)



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Projected Spending Report Graph




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