Review Monthly Expenditure Reports

Process

Current Guidance

Tools & Reports to Assist this Process

Does the budget match the award, or other budget information?

Verify the expenditure report matches the sponsor & Stanford's  Notice of Award

Open tasks opened if cost sharing is required

Sponsored: To verify budget accuracy, use the sponsor's Notice of Award.

Capital Projects: Contact Capital Accounting if you have questions about the budgets.

Review Cardinal Curriculum Managing Sponsored Projects

BI Reports:

• FIN_REF_216_Award_Config_Report (realtime) ( report also located @ BI:  Finance:  Reference Date & Inquiry Tab)
• FIN_BGT_211_PTA_Budget_Report (Daily)
• Budget Transaction Details – Fund and Revenue Management Dashboard

If the PI wants to rebudget- is it allowed by the sponsor?

A change in scope always requires approval

Refer to Sponsor Notice of Award terms and conditions. In the eCertification System, this can be found on the Account Detail page by click on the "i" icon.

Resource: Award Acceptance: Review Award Terms and Conditions

Are there any unusually large or small expenditures in relation to the budget, prior months' trends, or other expectations?

1. Do you see any unexpected charges?
2. Are there expected charges that are NOT here?
3. Are expenses for all budgeted accounts reviewed monthly to ensure that any unplanned variances are identified and brought to the attention of unit management

If  so, correct “genuine ”errors, such as:

• An incorrect PTA or Expenditure Type (corrected with iJournal or for non salary non equipment in the eCertification System)
• An incorrect salary charge i.e., a person was incorrectly charged to your PTA (corrected with LD Adjustment)

1. Review for obvious, large missing charges.
2. Salaries may be held in an Org suspense account, and must be cleared in a similar manner.

Review the Commitment Management System (CMS).

The following policies, reports, and job aids are available for your reference and use:

Administrative Guide Memo 3.1.3 : Expenditure Accounts (PTAs)

Overview of iJournal Module of Oracle Financials

Cost Transfer Policy for Sponsored Projects

Overview: About the Labor Distribution Module of Oracle Financials

Reports available in BI:
FIN_EXP_150_Spo_Funded_Amt_Vs_Act_OD (real-time)

Burn Rate Analysis Report

Reports Available re: Suspense Account in BI:
Finance-Payroll & Labor Management Dashboard

Are all expenses:

• Allowable: Do you see any unallowable costs (based on the Uniform Guidance or A-21 and on the specific terms and conditions of this award), and if so, have corrections been initiated?
• Allocable (they benefit the project)
• Reasonable (to a prudent person)
• Consistent (with Stanford and sponsor policies)

Review for compliance with policies.

Discussion on Allowable and Unallowable Expenditures

Reports available in BI:
Purch_Order_Recon_148

Details also available in eCertification System by drilling down on the Account Detail page.

Are salaries appropriate and charged to the appropriate PTA and Expenditure  Type, or if not, have corrections been initiated?

Salaries may be held in an Org suspense account and must be cleared. If you have questions about whether or not you have salaries in a suspense account, contact your department administrator.

Corrections to salary errors are done with a LD Adjustment; expenditure type corrections must be processed through the Payroll Department.

If a wrong PTA was used, correct through an iJournal. To ensure these errors don’t repeat, make the change in the Labor Distribution schedule.

Check the "Quick Steps: Calculate Vacation Accrual"

Reports available in BI:
Finance & Labor Management Dashboard re: labor distribution and earnings by PTA

View 100% Salary Distribution in the eCertification System.

Does effort for "Key Personnel" appear to match the award, or if not, are sponsor notifications required?

Note: A change in scope or a reduction in PI effort of 25% or more requires sponsor approval. Propose salary as anticipated by the project scope.

Review the effort committed in the awarded budget & Sponsor's Notice of Awards. In the eCertification System, this can be found on the Account Detail page by click on the "i" icon.

See DoResearch Topic: Faculty Effort

Does the NIH salary cap apply to any of these charges, and if so, was it properly treated?

The difference must be identified on the PeopleSoft Job Earnings Distribution Panels using the special Expenditure Type, “RBE UNALW SLRY OVER CAP 51190" (RBE =Regular Benefits Eligible)

Adjustments can be made via labor distribution.

See DoResearch Topic: Salary Caps

Create Salary Distribution Adjustment in LD

If vacation or disability sick leave has been taken, has it been properly accounted?

Time-keeping at Stanford is maintained in Axess Time and Leave. For proper accrual and credit of vacation and sick leave, it is essential all employees input all leave into this system. Verify leave by reviewing your Expenditure Detail Report.

Run a Leave Accrual Detail report (PS_TL006) in PeopleSoft.

FinGate Vacation Accrual Page

Commitment Management System

Have the correct fringe benefit rates been applied?

Don’t calculate the rate; just verify the correct rate was used (e.g.: faculty salary, student, etc.).

See DoResearch Topic: Rates

Commitment Management System (CMS)

Has equipment been pre-approved (if necessary) and recorded in Sunflower?

Check your agreement to ensure the equipment is pre-approved (if not, contact the sponsor through OSR/ERA/RMG to obtain approval).

Ensure your Department Property Administrator (DPA) has tagged and entered the property into Sunflower.

Refer to Sponsor notice of award documents. In the  eCertification System, this can be found on the Account Detail page by click on the information icon.

Property Management Manual 

Has title been reflected with the proper Expenditure Type and if sales tax is applicable, is it properly charged?

Generally, sales tax must be applied to purchases with title vested to Stanford, but is not applied to purchases where title of equipment or material vests in the federal sponsors. Review transactions to verify sales tax has been applied correctly.

Expenditure Type Table for Property and Equipment

Are you fabricating equipment?

Have fabrication projects been coordinated through the Property Management Office (PMO) and properly documented?

Verify all fabrications have either been created or converted with the appropriate PTA (and that the task is noted “fabrication”). Ensure a fabrication request form is on file.

View the Fabrication Procedures - outlined in the Property Management Manual

Are travel expenses allowable, allocable, reasonable and consistent?

Review these expenditures for reasonableness, appropriateness and compliance with policy (e.g. pre-approved where necessary, lowest available fares, correct per diems or receipts for reasonable and actual expenses).

• Amounts paid should be “reasonable and necessary.”
• Reimbursement requests must state business purpose and reason for the meeting.
• Individual attendees must be listed on reimbursement request or backup documents unless a specific identifiable group is noted.
• Alcohol must be charged to unallowable expenditure type and unrestricted PTA including a portion of tax and tip.
• Spouses should be included only when appropriate, and always charged to unallowable expenditure type.

Fingate Travel Page

Expense Guidance For Business Meals

Administrative Guide Memo 5.4.2 "Business and Travel Expenses"

• Reports available in BI:
  Expense Request Transaction Detail

Does the project have a subaward? If so, has the PI reviewed the Subaward’s invoices?

Ensure expenditure types are correct as this affects the IDC calculation (remember, indirect costs are only charged to the first $25,000 of a subaward).

Are all expenses:

• Allowable
• Allocable
• Reasonable
• Consistent

Has the PI reviewed and certified approval of the invoice?

Subaward invoices require the following statement to accompany the PI’s signature:  “In signing below I approve payment of this invoice and attest that the charges appear reasonable, and progress to date on this project is satisfactory and in keeping with the statement of work.”

See DoResearch Topic: Subawards

RPH Chapter 16: Subawards

• Reports available in BI:
  Expenditure Details Data Download

Purchase Order

The Cardinal Curriculum - Subawards

If you manage a subaward you must take DOR-1122, Subawards.

Are tuition charges made to the correct PTA and Expenditure Type?

During the first months of the quarter tuition appears as 51960 "Beginning Term Tuition Allowance Prepaid".

At the end of the term they are transferred centrally to 51975 "Tuition Allowance."

Administrative Guide Memo 10.2.1 "Graduate Student Assistantships"

Salary and Tuition Allowance Tables

• Reports available in BI:
  Expenditure Details Data Download

Are the F&A rates or the Infrastructure Charge rates correct, and have they been applied to the correct base?

Don’t calculate the rate; just verify the correct rate was used (e.g.: infrastructure, or for sponsored if the work is being performed off campus, was the off campus rate used, etc.)

Administrative Guide Memo 3.3.1 "Infrastructure Charges"

See DoResearch Topic: Rates

• Reports available in BI:
  Expenditure Details Data Download

Have appropriate credits posted, e.g., prior transfers, sales of surplus property, program income?

Review for reasonableness and appropriateness.

• Reports available in BI:
  Sponsored Fund Statement

Have the correct PTAs and Expenditure Types been used, or if not, have corrections been initiated?

If expenses are charged to an incorrect PTA or the wrong Expenditure Type was used, correct them via iJournals.

See DoResearch Topic: Cost Transfers

Create Salary Distribution Adjustment in LD

• Reports available in BI:
  Expenditure Details Data Download
• iJournals

labor adjustment detail in BI:
Finance-Labor and Payroll Management Dashboard

If cost sharing was committed on a sponsored project, has cost sharing been incurred and charged to the appropriate cost sharing PTA?

Cost sharing requires a new task and award. Contact OSR for a cost sharing task if you don’t see one on your report.

See DoResearch Topic: Cost Sharing

Reports available in BI:
Award Configuration Report (Real-time)

If charges on this PTA have been allocated, is the allocation basis documented?

If costs are charged via allocation journal, has proper authorization been obtained?

Regardless of funding source all expenses must be allocated based on a reasonable allocation method. Sponsored Projects must clearly document allocability.

Cardinal Curriculum: Allocability Discussion

Commitment Management System

If this award is nearing the “end date”, review:

• outstanding obligations
• other actions

Financial closeout should be completed if possible. Remember – even if we can’t perform a financial closeout on a project, we can still submit technical and patent information to the sponsor.

See DoResearch Topic: Closeout Procedures

Commitment Management System

Do you expect this PTA will go into overdraft, and if so, are there actions to take?

1. Take care to note if PTA appears to be heading for overdraft – especially if there are missing items and there is little or no funding left.

2. If you know the PTA is in overdraft before the end date, transfer charges as appropriate to a benefiting PTA.

3. After the end date an overdraft must be transferred to a “cost sharing task”.

4. If total overdraft is less than $500, transfer lump sum (net of indirect costs) Expenditure type 56135 to an appropriate unrestricted PTA.

Administrative Guide Memo 3.1.3 : Expenditure Accounts (PTAs)

RPH 3.2: Management of Project Expenditures  - Overdrafts section

Commitment Management System

Reports available in BI:
150 - SPO Funded Amount and OD

Has appropriate documentation been retained (on-line and centrally-filed, or in department files and does it match to the charges?

Confirm that documentation exists and supports charges on expenditure report (including receipts for Purchasing cards.)

The  eCertification System contains much of the supporting documentation. You can also upload supporting documentation in the Comments and History tab on the Account Detail Page.

Reports available in BI:
Expenditure Details Data Download