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Best Practices and Requirements
Requirements for managing compensation
- Monitor and reconcile accounts on a monthly basis.
- Monitor cost share commitments.
- Monitor unallowable salary over the Salary Cap.
Best practices for managing compensation
Payroll is the largest component of most sponsored awards.
Below is a summary of best practices for ongoing compensation management.
- Appoint personnel to the correct grant accounts at the time of the award to minimize salary transfers.
- Utilize Advance Accounts to document valid effort expended on a project prior to award set up and during the project period.
- Review salary charges with the Principal Investigator and make corrections, generating eDocs in a timely manner. See the Cost Transfer page.
- Avoid retroactive payroll.
- Review awards on a monthly basis and in advance of expiration to ensure appropriate costs are charged.
- Expenses must be posted to the award account by the date communicated in the final financial report notification. No additional salary charges will be allowed to be posted after this deadline.
- Notify ORA in advance of Principal Investigators (PIs) leaving the University
- Primary award PIs on any federal or federal pass through awards terminating employment with Indiana University may be required to confirm project statements for effort charged to those projects.
- See a flowchart of the process for PIs leaving IU.
- Visit the ORA Training Resources page and check out ECC Project Confirmation: When Award PI (Confirmers) Leave IU for more information.
Compensation Managements Resources
The Office for Research Administration (ORA) offers two key resources to help PIs and their unit administrators stay on top of compensation management and ensure compliance with federal regulations and IU policy:
- Compensation Management Tools and Reports
- Get access to a variety of reports designed to support accurate tracking of salary allocations, effort commitments, and more. These tools are essential for maintaining compliance and making informed decisions.
- Visit the Compensation Management Tools and Resources webpage to explore these tools.
- ORA Training Resources
- Looking for guidance on post-award processes? The ORA Training Resources page features a collection of short, practical videos to help you navigate key areas of research administration.
- Be sure to check out the Managing Compensation and Effort video—perfect for understanding how to handle effort reporting and compensation on sponsored awards.
- Looking for guidance on post-award processes? The ORA Training Resources page features a collection of short, practical videos to help you navigate key areas of research administration.