“How to $peak Finance”

Finance for Non-finance UsersElisabeth Rogers, CGIBD Grants Mngr. / Acct.

Tech.

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Agenda

The Mysterious Chartfield String

Budgets / Transactions

Cost Accounting Standards

Payroll Redistribution Tool / ePar Fund Swaps

Basic Finance Information

Travel / Reimbursements

Student Administration

Finance

InfoPorteReporting

Human Resources

Human Resources • Positions, transfers, status

changes, benefits, payroll, etc.

Finance• Accounts, purchases,

budgets, etc.

Student Administration• Bio/demo information for

students, employees, and affiliates.

• Information about student tuition, fees, billing, etc.

InfoPorte Reporting• Custom reports for both

financial information and human resources

Where to Go & How to Get there

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What is a Chartfield?

• Chartfields are the basis of our accounting activity• Every activity that requires money is tracked by the use of

chartfields– All purchases large and small– Travel– Scholarships and student aid– Tuition deposits– Paying employees

• Chartfields also help you:– Prepare and manage budgets– Deliver reports required by the state and other entities

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Five Required Chartfields

• Business Unit, which specifies either UNC-Chapel Hill, General Administration, or a foundation

• Fund and Source, which together specify where the money is coming from (for example, fund might specify that it’s an endowment and source specifies which endowment)

• Account, which specifies what the money is being spent on (for example, personnel)

• Department, which identifies the department spending the money

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Three Chartfields for Contracts & Grants

The three chartfields used for contracts and grants are:

• PC Business Unit, which specifies the Office of Sponsored Research

• Project ID, which identifies the contract or grant

• Activity ID, which will always be 1

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Remaining Four Chartfields

Each school or division can choose whether they need the remaining four chartfields, and their purpose is defined by the school or division:

• Program

• Cost Code 1

• Cost Code 2

• Cost Code 3

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Examples of Funds

Non-Sponsored

Funds

Residual Accounts

State Funds

Overhead / Startup

Imprest Accounts

Research Council Awards

Trust Accounts

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Examples of Funds

Sponsored Funds

Federal Grants / Awards

Contracts

Clinical TrialsCapitated Studies

Non-Federal Grants / Awards

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Where Do You Find Your Chartfield String?

Sponsored - RAMSeS

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Where Do You Find Your Chartfield String?

Sponsored – InfoPorte Grant Profile Page

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Where Do You Find Your Chartfield String?Non-Sponsored

Infoporte / Tools / Data Dictionary / Account Mapping

Old Accounts

New Accounts Source and Fund Authority document

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Cool Tip!

Infoporte / Tools / Data Dictionary / Chartfield Lookup

Budgets / Transactions

How to $peak Finance

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Overview

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Budget vs Transactions

• Sponsored sources– Budgets are set up at time of proposal / Awarded per sponsor– Budgeted personnel effort for key/senior personnel cannot be reduced

>25%– Allowable transactions are based on budget & budget justification– When reviewing budget / transactions in Infoporte – best practice to

search by Project ID only (this will help to catch any errors with CFS’s)– Tracking with Budget / Tracking without Budget

• Rebudgeting Allowability (000…005)

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Budget vs Transactions

• Non-sponsored sources– Menu Path for Creating New Account

• Finance Menu/UNC Campus/Source Create/Source Request/Add Source/Request Category

• Once you select category, complete account & budget information, submit• Receive Source & Fund Authority doc

– Includes Chartfield String, how to process revenue and expenses

– Cost codes / program codes / tagging• Infoporte cost codes – tag after charge hits• Connect Carolina cost codes – Cost Code 1, 2, 3 – part of CFS• Excel Spreadsheet• EXAMPLES

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• Overhead/Start up Funds – lumped into 100 line – use Program Codes to manage different pots of money

EXAMPLE 1

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• Non-sponsored funds (our dept) – Use Infoporte Cost codes to tag & separate— Click on blue button – right side of Infoporte screen “MORE”

EXAMPLE 2

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• ConnectCarolina cost codes – Used largely for personnelEXAMPLE 3

Cost Accounting Standards

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Cost Accounting – The Allowable Questions

• Are the costs:– Reasonable?

• The cost is generally recognized as providing explicit benefit for a specific programmatic purpose

– Allocable? • Specifically identifiable with an individual project

– Consistent?• Treatment and Application

– The costs must also conform to any limits and/or exclusions as found in the costing principles or in the sponsored agreement

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Cost Accounting -- Standards

• Cost Accounting Standards apply to:– All Federal Awards, OR– All awards that contain any federal flow-through dollars,

OR– All awards where the terms and conditions of the proposal

or award documents reference OMB Circular A-21 or CAS, OR

– All other non-federal cost reimbursable awards that recover the full negotiated F&A cost rate, OR

– Individual costs within a non-Federal sponsored project being used as cost sharing on a CAS covered project

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Cost Accounting Standards for Non-Sponsored Funds

• Cost Accounting Standards for Non-Sponsored funds:– Normally follow same rules as sponsored funds– No Alcohol allowed (very few funds allow)– Refer to Fund Authority for specific restrictions or

allowances

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Cost Accounting

WHAT CAS IS REALLY SAYING

• Don’t charge the government twice for the same cost (Direct vs F&A costs) or for unallowable costs.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CAS?• Primarily with PIs of sponsored projects (oversight of all staff); • Department Heads, Directors and college/department fiscal

officers; • Research administrators, laboratory staff who order

on grants; fiscal (accounting) managers;• University administration.

EVERYONE!!!

WHAT CAS IS REALLY SAYING

• Don’t charge the government twice for the same cost (Direct vs F&A costs) or for unallowable costs.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CAS?• Primarily with PIs of sponsored projects (oversight of all staff); • Department Heads, Directors and college/department fiscal

officers; • Research administrators, laboratory staff who order

on grants; fiscal (accounting) managers;• University administration.

EVERYONE!!!

The Financial Side of ePar Funding Swaps / Payroll

Redistribution Tool

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Tools

• Since March, we have used a Short Term Retro Tool for making changes to funding sources for past pay periods.– Use ended Oct. 19

• Payroll Accounting Adjustment Tool (PAAT)– Use PAAT to make funding changes on past pay periods– Go-live is Oct. 28

• Funding Swap ePAR form– Continue to used this to make funding changes for the current or

future pay periods.

• NOTE: in PAAT, like the Short Term Retro tool, you cannot make retro funding changes for payrolls prior to October 1, 2014 (when ConnectCarolina launched).

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Payroll Redistribution Tool

• In Payroll redistribution tool – click on specific salary adjustment

• Click on purple tab “PeopleSoft Transaction Information”

How to track transactions

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Payroll Redistribution Tool

• Note the transaction date

• Look for your salary adjustments— Match up date and adjustment with amount and accounting date in

Infoporte

How to track transactions

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Retro Fund Swaps and Effort Reporting

• Salary source Tracking / Effort Reporting

• ePAR Fund swap Business Practice— Finance enters Infoporte Request > Business Manager for approval >

HR Technician enters data into ePar Fund Swap > Tracks until executed > Communicates with Finance of execution or errors

— Combo codes – Combination of chartfield string produces a unique combo code.

— Earnings codes – RNF vs REG

— Cost Shareo Specific to research and federally funded awardso Based upon federal salary cap / Must be calculated correctly and tracked

Important that payroll be charged to the correct sources

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Cost Codes -- Personnel

• Budget tracking for future business decisions and monitor spending

• Break out associated benefits (Cost Code 3 – MPID)• Tagging the entry on front end of the transaction rather than

on the back end when reconciling• Some schools/departments don’t use because they may not

need to track at the division level.

Basic Finance Info

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Basic Financial Information• Purchase Orders

— $5,000 >o Service Agreement Contract – PO required regardless of amounto Sole source justification, waiver of competition and quote

— $25,000 >o Has to be sent out by Procurement Services for bid

— Receiving PO’so VISP (Vendor Invoice Submission Page)o Creating a Receipt by Purchase Order

• Campus Vouchers— Check/payment request

— Reimbursements, IC Payments, Cash Advances…

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Basic Finance Information• Purchasing Card

— Specific purchasing rules/restrictions – See finance person

• ePro Vendor Catalog— Used for purchases of less than $5,000

• CBM (Customer Billing Management) / Bill Presentation— CBM – System used to review specific vendor/area charges and modify

before hitting Connect Carolina (Carolina Inn, Printing, Student Stores, eCommerce…) (Window of time to modify 15th and 21st each month)

— Bill Presentation – System used to review charges / pull invoices that have already hit Connect Carolina (Facilities Services, Carolina Copy, Telecom…)

• Reconciliation— Infoporte – Recon ready

Travel / Reimbursements

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Travel / Reimbursements

• Helpful Travel web pages / Handouts– http://finance.unc.edu/procurement/systems-and-operations/travel-servic

es/– http://www.unc.edu/finance/fd/gen_docs/travel_related_reminders.pdf

• Check with your Accounting Tech for your Department’s CABS form– Airfare – C#, Corresponding T# for reimbursement after travel

• Items that can be paid in advance by University (Using WebTravel)– Registration– Airfare– Travel Advance

• Reimbursement Process– Travel, submit receipts, (if not employee – set up as vendor), voucher

entered

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Travel / Reimbursements

• Travel advances are paid by check to either the traveler or directly to an organization for expenses such as conference fees. – No reimbursement to employee for conference registrations until after

conference without valid justification.

• Travel reimbursements are processed TR payments as part of the normal biweekly pay cycle runs for ACH payments, typically on Mondays and Wednesdays.

• Original receipts are required• No Travel charges are allowable on a Purchasing Card (P-card)• New since Go-Live

– Foreign travelers – required to complete WBEN-8 and copy of photo ID, plus 2 forms by department

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Communicate

Ask questionsFollow Up

The phrase “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.” DOES NOT apply here.

How to $peak Finance

THANK YOU!!!