Accessibility disclaimer: To obtain information contained in document files on this page in an accessible format please contact the Office of Research Administration via email at iuprop@iu.edu.
Best Practices and Requirements
Requirements for managing effort
- Monitor and reconcile accounts on a monthly basis.
- Monitor cost share commitments.
- Monitor unallowable salary over the Salary Cap.
Best practices for managing effort
Payroll is the largest component of most sponsored awards. The following summary of best practices for ongoing compensation.
- Appoint personnel to the correct accounts to minimize salary transfers.
- Utilize Advance Accounts to document valid effort expended on a project prior to award set up.
- Review salary charges with the principal investigator and make corrections, generating eDocs in a timely manner.
- Avoid retroactive payroll.
- Review awards 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 after this deadline. Modify eDocs to ensure employees are charged appropriately.
- Notify ORA in advance of project directors (PI's) leaving the University
- Primary award PI's 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 PI's leaving IU.
- A report is available to assist with identifying PI’s that have left IU.
- View the PI Leaving IU Dashboard
The Office of Research Administration provides a number of reports to assist departments with the management of compensation on sponsored awards and to support compliance with federal regulation and IU Policy. Please visit the Compensation Management Reports and Resources webpage for more information.
Cost Transfers on Sponsored Projects
Sponsored accounts must be reviewed on a monthly basis in accordance with IU Policy. Any costs transfers must be completed in a timely manner, as well as properly justified in order to ensure their allowability and allocability.
All cost transfers must include a reason for the cost transfer and a justification of how the expenditures benefited the sponsored project.
Cost transfers for all federal and federal pass-through sponsored awards, including corrections to salary costs, must be initiated and routed to ORA within three months following the month in which the cost was first incurred.
| Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | Month 4 | Month 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Transaction Date - No ORA Late Cost Transfer Committee review required | No ORA Late Cost Transfer Committee review required | No ORA Late Cost Transfer Committee review required | No ORA Late Cost Transfer Committee review required | Requires ORA Late Cost Transfer Committee review |
- Cost transfers initiated in Months 1 through 4 do not require ORA Cost Exception Committee review
- Cost transfers initiated after Month 4 require ORA Cost Exception Committee review
- Please note that cost transfers initiated during the project confirmation period may change project statement status. Cost transfers affecting a project statement in the confirmation period must be fully routed and approved by March 20th. Please refer to Project Confirmation in ECC.
To find additional information or to initiate a late cost transfer request please visit the ORA Cost Transfer webpage.