Training on New Instructions for Charging Salaries to Sponsored Program Accounts
Please share this information with anyone in your department that is involved in calculating or processing salary charges to sponsored program accounts for faculty and other 9 or 10 month employees.
Each year, the University undergoes an external audit of its federally sponsored activity, as required by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. For the past two years, there has been a repeat finding that expresses concern over how UConn manages the charging of salary to federal grants and contracts and the associated reporting of effort for 9 and 10 month faculty who are paid over 12 months. The concern is that the charging of salary to sponsored programs (appointment and payroll) is not consistent with the timing of the work and therefore effort reports for these employees do not align the time period being certified with the actual pay earned.
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) Sponsored Program Services (SPS) has worked closely with a group of administrators from academic schools and departments, expert external consultants and members from the offices of the Provost, Controller, Budget and Payroll to identify the best possible solution to meet this requirement.
As a result of this work, we will be implementing a one-time transition that will align payroll with sponsored program effort in the necessary manner, and going forward, tools and support will be provided to assist with the proper charging that will align effort with costs incurred.
Generally speaking, we will now require academic year effort charged to sponsored program accounts to only be charged during the academic year months. Any 9 or 10 month employee who has more than 75% paid effort on sponsored program accounts will need to be handled through a separate process.
This change only applies to effort directly charged to sponsored projects during the academic year. There is no change for effort performed and charged during the summer.
We have initially scheduled three training sessions on the new instruction:
- Tuesday February 17th, 10:00AM – 12:00PM, Dodd Konover Auditorium
- Thursday February 19th, 2:00PM – 4:00PM, Dodd Konover Auditorium
- Wednesday February 25th, 2:00AM – 4:00PM, Dodd Konover Auditorium
The training will include an overview of effort reporting and focus in detail on how salaries to sponsored program accounts must be charged. We expect, in many cases, payroll will need to be changed for the current academic year as well as potentially for the prior fall semester. These changes go into effect immediately.
Please register for this training at https://web2.uconn.edu/hrtraining/training/index.php?course=351.
If you are unable to attend one of these sessions, but require training, please email Jennifer.pelletier@uconn.edu.
Thank you very much for your assistance in addressing this finding.
For more information, contact: Jennifer Pelletier, Office of the Vice President for Research at Jennifer.pelletier@uconn.edu