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RFUG Meeting

Finance Session

Tuesday February 15, 2011

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AGENDA• Update re Tri-Council Monitoring Visit

- Multiple Account Journal Entries – What’s New and What’s coming down the pipeline- McMaster Telecommunication Charges- Systems Contracts- Stores

• Office Supplies - Eligibility on Tri-Council Accounts - Suggested approaches given budgeting constraints

• Research Account Review- Should it or should it not be an 8 ledger Account

• E- Reports - How is it going?

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AGENDA

• CIHR Year End – March 31, 2011

• CFI Year End – March 31, 2011

• Internally Sponsored Research Account Review • - What’s it all about??

• Deficit Review

• Research Accounts on SAS FM

• Questions and Answers

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Multiple Account Journal Entries

• Concern with Tri-Council accounts is that PI approval is not being obtained; original receipts are not being retained; and eligibility review is not being conducted

• Meeting with originators of these journal entries to review their process to see how we can meet these requirements

• Typically most offices originating these journal entries are sending invoices to the PIs/departments outlining their charges on monthly basis – we request that these are signed off by either the PI or delegate and retained at the department level should they be selected for audit

• Eligibility Review will be conducted by our office, FHS Research Finance

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Multiple Account Journal Entries• McMaster Telecommunication Charges – Unfortunately in reviewing the process that the Telecommunication department undergoes to complete their journal entry, it was discovered that there is an administrative fee component to their monthly charge. For Tri-Council accounts administrative fees are ineligible and rather than make Telecommunications change their fee structure, we have made Telecommunication Charges ineligible on Tri-Council accounts only. Outside providers of these services will be allowed on Tri-Council accounts due to them being arms-length provider of these services.

• Systems Contracts – There are current plans in the works for an electronic purchasing software package that would address all the concerns identified by in the most recent Tri-Council review. However this is a long term solution, and we must put something immediate in place in order to be prepared for when Tri-Council comes back in February 2012. The temporary short term solution being looked at, is that on a monthly basis, copies of the Systems Contracts invoices for only Tri-council accounts will be forwarded to the PI/and or delegate.

Multiple Account Journal Entries

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Multiple Account Journal Entries

• We ask that these are signed by either the PI/delegate and retained for audit purposes at the departmental level

• This is only a temporary measure until an automated approach can be developed

• Stores – For stores the tentative solution being worked on is that on a monthly basis, the PI will be receiving a statement from stores outlining the charges to their accounts. We ask that they review this listing and sign off and again retain for audit purposes. Purchasing is currently looking into this solution with UTS to develop such a report, but this may not be feasible. If it isn’t, this will have to re-looked at and revisited for a potential short term solution.

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Supporting Evidence Requirements for

Expenditures on Research Accounts

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Travel and Subsistence ExpensesExpense Document Required

Signatures Required – Under PI, must be approved by PI or Delegate, for reimbursement to PI, must be signed approved by Department Chair(Acting) or Delegate, for Chair of Dept, must be approved by VP or Acting

Airfare Original Air Travel Ticket & Boarding Passes (Economy Fare)Original Receipt showing payment for Ticket

Railway/Bus Original Ticket and Receipt

Auto Allowance Currently $.40 per km

Vehicle Rental Original Receipts of rental costs, gas and other related costs-no per km claim

Taxi Original Receipt

Parking Original Receipt

Accommodation Original Receipt

Meals w/Receipts Original ITEMIZED Receipt

Meals w/o receipt Claim Per Diem, if Conference includes meals, adjustment must be made

Conference Registration

Original Receipt and Program/Agenda of Conference (attendee tags from Conference, if available)

Miscellaneous Original Receipts

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Office Supplies•Tri-Council is very strict as to eligibility of Office Supplies on Research Accounts funded by their agencies. In order to be eligible they must be specifically related to the research project being conducted, The argument must prove that if it weren’t for the research project, these supplies wouldn’t be purchased.•So how can we handle them given budget constraints within operating accounts: • We are suggesting to PIs to build these costs into their budget at application so that if the grant is approved by Tri-council with the included budget, then we will have an argument for approving them on their grants•Re-direct some overhead $$ to these types of expenses•Use another Research Account funded by a different agency which is less strict about these types of expenses.

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Research Account Review

• We will be re-commencing our review of Research Accounts to ensure that they meet the definition of Research and should be held in the 8 ledger series

• For those that are questionable, our office will be contacting the Department’s Finance Manager to discuss whether it should remain in the Research Ledger or whether it should be moved elsewhere.

• This is done to ensure proper recording of the funding received on our University Financial Statements

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E - Reports

• Now that we are up and running with E-Reports our office is just wondering what everyone thinks

• Is anyone having any problems?• Are there any concerns?• We have tried to clean up the database of users as best as we could

and will be conducting this exercise on an annual basis as well as the Signing Authorities audit

• We hopefully will be sending a letter to the PIs with a list of people who have access to their accounts to further cleanup this database, and ensure only those who should have access to the various account do so

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CIHR• Please be reminded that for all CIHR accounts that have an

end date of March 31, 2010 and prior, that the final possible date for expenditure is March 31, 2011. Any funds not expended by March 31, 2011 will need to be returned to CIHR

• There is an additional year available for expenditure if absolutely needed, however, you must apply to CIHR for this extended year by February 28, 2011

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CFI• Please be reminded that we have an annual reporting

period of March 31, 2011 for all CFI grants not ending within the fiscal year 2011

• These reports are due to CFI by June 15, 2011, and include a projection of expenses in the upcoming fiscal year (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012)

• Once the analysis is done for March 31, 2011, our office will be contacting you so that we can go over this year’s results and discuss the plans for the upcoming year.

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Internally Sponsored Research Accounts

• New Policy was approved by the President and PVP group Feb 2009

• The Policy requires that an annual review be conducted.• We will be conducting this over the current calendar year,

and expect it to take some time as this is the first time the University has conducted such a review.

• For those ISRA accounts in Deficit, we will be contacting the applicable individuals to have them cleared, and close the account, if there is no justification for having them remain open…eg start up account

• For those ISRA accounts that are under the $1,000 we will be contacting the PI and encouraging them to spend it out within the next fiscal year and then close out the accounts

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Internally Sponsored Research Accounts

• For those accounts over $1,000 but under $10,000 our office will be contacting the PI and developing a plan for them to spend it out within a reasonable time frame and then close the account.

• For those accounts over $10,000 our office will be contacting the PI and going discussing with them and the applicable sponsor of the accounts potential solutions outlined within the policy.

• The choice of action will need to be documented and signed off by both the PI and sponsor. This will then be approved by the Dean of the Faculty before the plan of action is put into place.

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Deficit Review

• The annual review of Research Accounts with Deficit Balances will be done with balances in the accounts as of February 28, 2011. These will be the basis of the annual report to the Overdraft Committee.

• We have started preliminary review in order to try and resolve as many as we can before February 28, 2011 and give individuals more time to address them with the Account Holder to come up with the necessary solutions.

• Please make every attempt to have as many cleared by Feb 2011 month end.

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Research Ledgers on SAS FM

• The University will be putting the 8 ledger Research Accounts on SAS FM by April 30, 2011. For now they will be mirroring the budgeting model currently in place for this target date.

• Subsequently we will be building various other hierarchies within the research ledger in order to give you more access to the information you need for your various research accounts.

• If there are any hierarchies you would like developed, please feel free to contact me so that when I sit with UTS we can develop them over the next year.

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Questions and Answers

• Anything you would like to discuss….questions….