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Overview 

A guiding cost principle of sponsored project administration is that expenses charged to a sponsored project should be consistent with established institutional policies, as well as with regulations and requirements of the sponsor. Charges should be in proportion to effort on the project for all personnel paid on sponsored projects. All personnel charges on sponsored projects should follow these general guidelines – be in the approved budget and within the grant period reflected on the spending plan; reflect the actual effort on the grant; include documentation of direct PI approval of the appointment.

Faculty Academic Year Support A Salary Redistribution Workflow needs to be completed for faculty with academic year effort on a sponsored project. This will charge their effort as allocated in the project budget and as performed on the project, and is initiated in FlashLine: Employee → Workflows → HR & Employee Workflows → Salary Redistribution Workflow. This should be done at the beginning of each academic year or when the effort changes. If the effort is identified as cost sharing the percent of effort should be charged to the cost share index for the sponsored project.

Summer Salary Appointments Summer appointments for persons on a 9-month contract are not automatic. An Electronic Personnel Action Form (ePAF) must be initiated for these personnel working on the sponsored project during the summer. This is initiated in FlashLine: Employee → Workflows → HR & Employee Workflows → Electronic Personnel Action Form. Academic Personnel releases a schedule of summer ePAF deadlines every Spring, and Sponsored Programs provides information and a worksheet to calculate effort for summer ePAFs to be funded on a sponsored project. For sponsored project activity, faculty compensation is based on the equivalent monthly, weekly, or even daily rate of the previous academic year salary (1/39th for each week or 1/9th for each month) and cannot exceed the maximum allowable amount for summer (usually 13 weeks) or exceed the maximum amount that can be earned for any time period during summer.

An ePAF should also be initiated for graduate assistants receiving a stipend and tuition for the summer (full or partially funded on sponsored projects). The comments section of the ePAF needs to indicate where the tuition is to be charged, and if the student is opting in or out of PERS. Graduate students working on a sponsored project without tuition should be paid on an hourly basis in the summer, with an appointment initiated through the Career Exploration and Development office (see below for details on that hiring process).

As with all other expenditures including appointment forms on sponsored projects, ePAFs must have PI approval. Academic Personnel can initiate the required paperwork to add the PI to the approval queue, which is a one-time process. Each Spring Sponsored Programs releases a memo, tip sheet, and calculation spreadsheet to assist with creating summer salary ePAFs.

Secretarial and clerical personnel are typically not allowable as direct costs unless the positions were requested and justified in the proposal budget, and approved in the sponsored project award per 2 CFR 200.413(c).

Hourly/classified staff members are paid biweekly. Time is recorded electronically using the University’s electronic timekeeping system. The PI should be the supervisor reviewing

and approving the weekly entries for payment. Salary and fringe benefits are charged to the sponsored project fund/index listed on the appointing document, or for existing positions,

per the Salary Redistribution Workflow available in FlashLine: Employee → Workflows → HR & Employee Workflows → Salary Redistribution Workflow.

Hiring New Staff on a Sponsored Project

University Human Resource policies and procedures must be followed when hiring personnel to work on a sponsored project. PIs should contact their department’s Business Manager or equivalent to inquire about hiring procedures and requirements. Standard forms, as described below, are to be used and are generally available on-line.

Prior to initiating a search and/or a new hire, a Strategic Hiring form must be completed. Information on that process is here.

New Administrative & Staff Positions (full & part-time)

Position Request Authorization (PRA) - In order to create a new position a PRA must be completed, routed, and approved electronically by the appropriate administrators through FlashLine: Employee → Workflows → HR & Employee Workflows → Position Request Authorization (PRA). This workflow requests the position be established and identifies the source(s) of funding. The form also indicates whether or not the position is to be posted. If a waiver of posting is requested, appropriate documentation must be attached to the PRA for review and approval by the Office of Compliance, Equal Opportunity, and Affirmative Action. Ordinarily a Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ) describing the responsibilities of the position must accompany the PRA. For an existing position a PRA is necessary when the title and/or responsibilities of the position change or the position changes to full or part-time, but a PRA is not necessary to re-appoint personnel to their existing grant-funded position (see below for reappointing personnel).

Personnel hired via the PRA process are automatically entered into Banner. A ‘hire completed’ email is generated by the HR system that includes the person hired, start date/end date of the position, salary, and funding source, in addition to other information. Sponsored Programs receives a copy of these emails for review, to verify the appointment is compliant with the requirements of the sponsored project, and is approved by the PI.

Graduate Assistants Salary and fringe benefits are charged to the sponsored project fund/index listed on the appointing document.A cost transfer will need to be processed to charge these appropriately. Budgeted tuition/dissertation fees and health insurance benefits should be charged proportionately to the effort for the Graduate Assistant. Responsible orgs should verify tuition and health insurance benefits are each correctly charged in proportion to the effort on the project. Responsible orgs need to initiate the appropriate workflow if corrections are needed.

Reappointing personnel - When the appointment is to continue beyond the current budget period, an Employee Transaction Workflow (ETW) can be routed for reappointment.

Student Employees - The hiring process for hourly student employees is managed by the Career Exploration and Development office. The online system CampusWorks manages the recruitment and hiring process. At the time of hiring the sponsored project fund/index to be charged is entered. To acknowledge approval, PIs should sign a paper copy of the appointment. A copy should be sent to the Sponsored Programs office.

Consultants / Independent Contractors – IRS regulations require that any individual employed by the University currently, or within the last year, must continue to be paid as an employee. The online Independent Contractor Determination process will assist in determining the eligibility of an individual to be paid as an independent contractor, as well as the payment process.

Trainee/Participant stipends – Any perceived ‘service’ arrangement requires trainees/participants on a grant to be paid as employees rather than via a check request. The University Tax Manager can assist in determining whether the activity of the participant constitutes a service for the University (employment), or if the arrangement is solely educational in nature for the participant. This determination dictates the mechanism by which the participant will be paid.

Additional compensation - In unusual cases where work is across departmental lines, is performed in addition to regular departmental load, any charges for such work representing extra compensation above the base salary are allowable provided that such arrangements are specifically provided for in the agreement or approved in writing by the sponsoring agency. See 2 CFR 200.430(i).

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