Department Administrator Session #22 October 18, 2017

Agenda FRS - Month End Reports Research Account Coding (Fund and Grant) Research Account update AAC/AAFC Reporting ECS Changes Travel Per Diems Direction for justification Research Administration Roles & Responsibilities Document What to do when a researcher leaves the University GPR Accounts Invoicing Use of GP accounts Bad Debts … how are they treated Thank you

Month End Reports The month end reports in FRS require some effort to ensure that they work properly A recent request has come in: Could the month-end reports include a line at the top which indicates (with commitments) This account is in a Deficit:  xxxxxxxx or Positive xxxxxx Before making changes to Month End Reports, we would like to understand: How many of you use the Month End Reports? How do you use these reports?

Month End Reports Based on discussions in the room, more than 50% of those at the meeting indicated they use the Month End Reports. The Month End Reports are mostly used as a means to ‘email’ faculty information on their grants and projects. Thank you for sharing this information. It is very helpful.

Research Account Coding (Fund and Grant) Fund Description Fund Grant Numbering Research (including General Purpose Research Accounts) 300 04#### 05#### 07#### - GPR Tri-Agency and CFI 301 4##### to 469999 Food From Thought 302 490000 to 499999 Externally Funded Named Gift Positions - (excluding CRC’s and some historical funded positions) 306 290000 to 299999

Research Accounts Past End Date (September 30, 2017) 60 days or less 2 months to 1 year Greater than 1 year Total Accounts past End Date 58 301 166 525

Research Accounts with No Transactions in last 24 months (or greater)

Final Year Reporting – GF2 and AIP All expenses must be incurred by the award-end date: 31-Oct-2017 (AAC – GF2); 31-Mar-2018 (AAFC – AIP) or before; F/S Reporting – Matching (cash contribution), In-Kind and AAFC/AAC Portion; Email sent to Researcher and Financial Adm

Key Reporting Considerations Invoices must be dated between April 1, 2017 and the award-end date; Please be certain of your award end-date. Review expenses now and try to resolve any potential issues before the end date. Reconcile all cash contributions and in-kind reporting; These projects are matching so we must report appropriate amount of project expenditures to the main sponsor. If the project is 50/50 split for $100K and we have only spent $80K in total project costs, AAFC or AAC will adjust their contribution from $50K to $40K. Please remember … this is a Hard deadline – no extensions; “Each claim for reimbursement shall contain information specifying actual expenditures incurred during the period and during the Fiscal Year to date ”;

Changes with Expense Claim System Per direction of the Ontario government and the Broader Public Sector, travel per diems are now allowed in Ontario. As a result, the University of Guelph has modified the ECS system to allow travel per diems A question was raised about situations when a per diem is not accepted. I am not aware of any sponsor that has articulated that travel per diems are NOT allowed Some sponsors (eg. AAFC) are quite specific about travel directive and what constitutes a trip and travel rules apply vs. mileage to a research site. More direction was provided on the Tri-Agency form to allow the researcher to justify the expense and its connection to the approved research award This is intended to reduce the questions that RFS need to ask of researchers when completing Tri-Agency financial reports Please ensure that justification is completed and comments how the expense is ‘directly related’ to the research project

Research Administration Roles & Responsibilities As a requirement of the Tri-Agencies, we have finalized a document of Roles & Responsibilities for those involved with Research Administration. This document can be found at the following link: https://www.uoguelph.ca/finance/departments-services/research-finance/university-guelph-roles-and-responsibilities-those-involved This link is attached to each account set up This document was approved by all of the College Associate Dean’s of Research

What to do when a researcher leaves the University RFS does review the monthly Arrivals and Departures list from HR and that is often our first point of learning something. Please advise Office of Research and RFS when you know that a researcher is leaving.

What to do when a researcher leaves the University Is the Researcher going to receive Adjunct or Emeritus status at UofG? If yes, not too much is required. If no, then we need to go through portfolio of accounts and act based on the sponsor For Tri-Agency awards, there is a formal process that Tri-Agency guides us through A financial report and anticipated commitments will be submitted to Tri-Agency For Other government awards, we need to work with the Office of Research and communicate with the sponsor to determine if the award will transfer to another researcher at UofG or if the award will end. For Industry awards, we need to work with the Office of Research and the industry partner to understand if the award will continue to be held at UofG, end at UofG or will it follow the researcher For GPR accounts, these balances are to be cleared back to the department

GPR Accounts Invoicing from a GPR Account Use of GPR accounts Funds can be deposited into a research account when the following criteria are met: The amount is less than $5K The funding does not require financial reporting The funding does not attract indirect costs The researcher does not intend to match these funds to leverage any additional research awards Use of GPR accounts GPR accounts are research accounts so the expenses and funding must relate to research activity The accounts are expected to be kept in good standing If there are delays for a research account being set up, the GPR account is the best account to incur an expense until the new research award is in place Year end, the GPR accounts with a deficit greater than $10K are transferred to the department

Bad Debts … how are they treated If there is a bad debt, the balance will be resolved by the researcher, department, college administrator and ADR Identify the issue early Resolve them in a timely manner RFS should be communicating with researcher and department administrator if an invoice is not being paid

Thank you For those that have not heard, I am leaving UofG Thank you everyone for the memories and your support and contributions to make my last 17 years so great and memorable!! I have truly enjoyed to have had the opportunity to work with so many of you and I will miss all of you