POLICIES AND
PROCEDURES
1. Travel Authorization and Payments
To comply with
UI Administrative Procedures, we are enforcing the requirement that you
receive written travel authorization when traveling on grant
funds managed by NIATT Before such travel, you will need to get
authorization from both your department chair and from the NIATT
director or his representative. You can accomplish this by either
- Completing
a written form (either one from your department or from NIATT),
getting it signed, and turning it in to NIATT BEFORE you
travel.
- Sending an email with travel
dates, destination, purpose and budget to your department chair, who
should signify his/her approval by forwarding it to Judy to get
NIATT approval. In this case, the email with both the traveler’s and
department head address will serve as the paper copy for the files.
The procedures
for submitting travel claims are constantly changing. One change that
could affect you is that all checks for reimbursement will be delivered
to the NIATT office (unless you or your student travelers sign up for
direct deposit) instead of to your department zip address.
The OSP has
notified us that each PI “must delegate authority on each grant
account.” This would include the paperwork to set up new UTC budgets and
signatures on 771 (ITD Monthly Reports).
Judy has assumed
this responsibility in the past (having access to your project
descriptions and the current status of your budget). If you would like
to continue allowing Judy to have signature authority, we will ask you
to put that in writing for our files (and for ITD). We have prepared
forms for your use.
3. NIATT Purchasing Card Use
The use of
University purchasing (credit) cards is a choice left to each
department. Several years ago, NIATT administrators evaluated the
advisability of using purchasing cards for purchases. We made informal
queries to accountants in several departments to determine purchasing
card use and department procedures. We took into account security issues
as well as your need for students to make purchases to enable their
research. We decided that the benefit of being able to make “quick”
purchases outran the risks.
However because
once a NIATT credit card is used, there is no way to “undo” the expense,
we did establish some security measures. For one thing, all purchasing
cards are in Judy’s name/social security number and must be checked out
for use from the NIATT office. When students first use a card, they are
given detailed instructions about the proper use of the card (which
includes NOT passing the card to another student without checking the
card back in).
Recently, there
have been some changes to the purchasing card. For one thing, travel
expenses are now permitted. However, because travel charges are
transferred from the purchasing card directly to Judy’s personal
account, we are not allowing the use of the purchasing
card for hotel charges. Except for certain student travel, we ask that
you continue to use your own credit cards for hotel charges and get
reimbursed through the “normal” travel reimbursement procedures. The
NIATT purchasing card can be used for airplane fares.
Another security
measure we put in place years ago was to establish the limit of $500 for
single purchase on the purchasing cards. Judy is holding one card that
can be used for larger purchases. PIs or students who need to make these
larger purchases must do so through Judy. That higher limit card will
not be given to students.
Since we have
had only one serious violation of the purchasing card use, we will
continue to support the program. However, to insure that the use of the
card(s) is authorized by the PI responsible for research budgets, you
will be required to notify us (by email, is ok) of the names of the
students you authorize to use a credit card (with the ability to
purchase up to $500) whenever a new budget is established. For purchases
over $500, we would ask that YOU notify us of that purchase and
we will either issue a purchase order or we will place the order with
our “special” credit card.
Because we have
no such information now and have assumed that the students who come to
us have your authority, we ask that you send us a list of students
authorized to make purchases up to $500 (email is fine) for each of your
current budgets.
4. Your budgets
It is each PI’s
responsibility to be aware of the status of his/her budget. NIATT tries
to make this easy for you by supplying monthly reports that include
information not obtainable through Banner (i.e., purchasing card charges
before they are posted; encumbered salaries and fringes). In fact, your
budget reports are updated daily and can be emailed to you upon
request at any time. If you need help in interpreting the reports, we
are glad to do so.
In the event
that expenses are disapproved by the Office of Sponsored Programs, those
expenses will be transferred to your overhead return budget. That is one
reason your returned overhead account is maintained in NIATT rather than
transferred to an account in your department.
Please help us
ensure payment by supplying all necessary information for prompt and
allowable expenses.
5. Personnel Activity Reports (PARs)
Beginning in
January, the Personnel Activity Reports (PARS) will be available for
completion online. Each PI and graduate student will have to log on to
the Vandal Employee page to complete PARs, including indicating any
cost-sharing.
We will continue
to keep track of the amount of cost-sharing and budgets that PIs and
students need to indicate on the PARS, and will ask that you continue to
ask Judy for information.
We will keep you
updated as training occurs and we know more about how this will happen
and if some type of administrative access will be possible.
6. Subcontract Payments
Although we have
always asked for your approval before we submitted subcontract billings
to be paid, Accounts Payable is now requiring that the PI personally
sign invoices and indicate that the billed work has been completed.
For all future bills, we will use a stamp that indicates the amount to
be paid and the budget from which the subcontract is to be paid. We will
then send the invoice to you. If you approve payment, you will sign on
the approval line and write a short sentence indicating that the billed
work has been completed. Please return the invoices to us as quickly as
possible to be processed for payment.
7. Flying by Horizon/Alaska
In order to get
the discounted prices on Horizon/Alaska, purchase of tickets will
have to be done through EasyBiz. NIATT has established an account (as
each department has been advised to do). If you wish to be added as a
user so that you can purchase your own Horizon/Alaska tickets, please
contact Judy, who is the EasyBiz administrator for NIATT.
Note—this is
ONLY flights associated with Horizon/Alaska—not other airlines. You will
get a discounted rate ONLY by purchasing through EasyBiz.
2/24/06 |
