1. Department Administrator Session #22
October 18, 2017

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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 ‘ ’ faculty information on their grants and projects.
Thank you for sharing this information. It is very helpful.

5. 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
Food From Thought
302 to
Externally Funded Named Gift Positions
- (excluding CRC’s and some historical funded positions)
306 to

6. 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

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

8. 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;
sent to Researcher and Financial Adm

9. 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 ”;

10. 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

11. 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:
This link is attached to each account set up
This document was approved by all of the College Associate Dean’s of Research

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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