Fun Facts!(?) about Awards, Award Dates and Determining Allowable Transactions
NOTE: Rules regarding allowability described here are NOT new and are not unique to KSU. What is new is that FIS includes functionality that will ensure these rules are consistently applied and followed for all transactions for all sponsored projects.
In FIS there are three dates associated with each award that are significant in terms of ensuring that only allowable expenditures are posted to the award. These dates are
Start Date
End Date
Close Date
Start and End Date: These are determined by the sponsor via the award agreement and are binding in terms of determining allowable expenditures. In FIS, these dates have important functionality that ensures that only those expenditures that are within the award period are allowed as expenditures on the award.
Start Date: If an expenditure is dated prior to this date, the system will not allow it to be processed against the award.
End Date: If an expenditure is dated after this date, the system will not allow it to be processed against the award.
Specific examples of how to properly determine the expenditure date for a payment are provided later in this document.
Close Date: This date also relates to sponsor regulations and requirements. Close dates are binding in that they indicate what the sponsor has designated as the date when the account must be finalized for invoicing, reporting and closing. For federal awards this is normally 90 days after the end date. For flow-through agreements and other sponsors it may be anywhere from 30-90 days.
Any expenditure, regardless of its date, will not be processed against the award after this date. This includes payroll transfers and other transfers of payment. For example, if the End Date of the award is April 30 and the Close Date is July 30, if you try to post an April 1 expenditure against the award on August 1, it will be rejected. The April 1 expenditure would have been allowed if processed prior to July 30 (and funds were available!).
Examples for Determining Expenditure Dates:
Expenditures must fall within the Start and End dates of awards to be allowable and to be processed against the award. The following examples should be followed when completing E-forms payment documents or funding payroll. If the E-forms (or payroll or other charges) date is not within the Award Start and End dates, then the system will not allow them to be charged against that award. The E-forms payment document or other charges such as payroll or telephone charges or transfers of payment/payroll, must also be processed prior to the Close date of the award, or the system will reject them.
1: Purchase of supplies, equipment, or services
For services, the date services were received (date item was sent via Fed-Ex for example) is the date that determines allowability.
For supplies or equipment, delivery date is the ideal date for determining allowability. Delivery date/received date often isn’t available, however, and/or is typically the same as the vendor invoice date, so the vendor invoice date would be used.
For completing the E-forms document:
If the vendor invoice includes many service/item purchase dates, you can use the date of the vendor invoice as the E-forms invoice date once you have taken into account the End dates of all the sponsored projects being charged. If the vendor invoice date falls outside any of the dates of the sponsored projects being charged, you will need to prepare multiple E-form documents to accommodate this and ensure the expenditures can be charged against the designated awards.
Example: Supplier invoice is dated 3/30/2005
Purchase/service dates include: 3/10/2005
3/15/2005
3/28/2005
Each purchase/service is to be charged to different awards.
If all awards being charged have End Dates on or after 3/30/2005, one E-forms document can be created using the 3/30/2005 date and charging the three awards. If, however, one of the awards ends 3/15/2005 and you want to charge the 3/10/2005 item/service to that award, you will have to put this on a separate E-forms document using the 3/10/2005 date.
Also think about the fact that you won’t get the supplier invoice that is dated 3/30/2005 until sometime after that. If you are charging awards that ended 3/30/2005, and you forget and use the date you are completing your E-forms document as the E-forms invoice date (such as April 25), your payment will be rejected by the system!
Close Date considerations:
In the above example, let’s assume the awards being charged are federal and therefore will have a 90-day Close Date. If the End Date is 3/30/2005, then the Close Date would be 6/30/2005. You must prepare and submit the E-forms document(s) that have the 3/05 date on them ON OR BEFORE 6/30/2005. If you don’t it will be rejected, even if there are funds available.
2. Travel
Actual dates of travel are the appropriate date for determining allowability. In most cases, the last day of the travel period would be used as the E-forms invoice date. As in the purchases example above, if multiple awards are being charged on one E-forms document, make sure the date of travel used for the E-forms invoice date falls within the award dates.
Close Date considerations:
I believe that the primary concern here would be if your award personnel travel near the End Date of the award. You will need to make sure they turn in their travel reimbursement request/receipts in time for you to submit and process the reimbursement ON OR BEFORE the Close Date. Again, assume a 3/30/2005 End Date. If federal, the Close Date would probably be 6/30/2005. Travel reimbursements for March travel would have to be submitted ON OR BEFORE 6/30/2005. A reimbursement request for March travel submitted in July would be rejected, even if there are funds remaining on the award.
3. Payroll
Pay Period: 11/21/2004 through 12/4/2004
Pay Date: 12/17/2004
The pay period is the appropriate date for determining allowability. In this case, a grant that ended November 30 could not have the entire pay period charged to it. Only pay for the days up to and including November 30 would be allowable. Departmental personnel need to be sure payroll funding is changed on a timely basis for pay periods that will include award end dates.
Close Date considerations:
I believe your main concern here should be payroll transfers. Any transfers must be done ON OR BEFORE the Close Date. Transfers that add payroll to the award must be for pay periods within the Start and End dates and must be completed ON OR BEFORE the Close Date. Transfers moving payroll off of the award must be completed ON OR BEFORE the Close Date.