Other Fiscal Services

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PARS
(Proposal APPROVAL ROUTING SYSTEM) Research
Reporting Dashboard

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Project Account Setup

Cost Sharing

Cost Transfers

Budget revision

Financial Reporting

Fiscal Services helps with a number of other areas covered within the Office of Research Administration. This section covers those additional items.

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Monthly Reconciliation I Time & Effort Reporting

Monthly Reconciliation

As part of its overall system of internal controls, the University of Maine (UM) requires that a person familiar with activity on a sponsored project review the monthly transactions on the general ledger of that project to reconcile all transactions. Office of Research Administration (ORA) reserves the right to request a copy of the monthly reconciliation procedure per department from time-to-time in connection with Cost Transfers.

In general, any discrepancies a PI notices should be reported to the grant administrator, who will take action to rectify the problem. Some areas to consider:

Expenditures

Salaries
Were all salaries that belong on this award charged?
Were any salaries that don’t belong on this award charged?
Other Direct
Do I recognize all of the charges posted this month?
Are there charges I expected to see that didn’t post this month?
Do I see any anomalies — amounts charged twice with identical document numbers, for example?
F&A
Does the rate in the “F&A Rate” column agree with what I expect for this award?
Does the F&A charged this month agree with the rate shown?
Remember that some expenditures (e.g. capital or fabricated equipment, participant support, and subcontracts) > $25,000 are not usually subject to F&A

General

Are all Encumbrances closed?
Is the budget up to date?
Remember that for some awards, funding subsequent to Year One will be placed in a separate account. When that happens, salaries may need to be reassigned to the new account number. Always run GL reports at the grant level to ensure you capture all internal project numbers for the grant
Do I have enough money to cover all anticipated expenditures through the end of the budget period?
Check the Balance column, and remember to add salaries, fringe, and F&A to the Commitments column, either in your head or by exporting the summary report to Excel and adding the encumbrances

Monthly Reconciliation Resources

Time & Effort Reporting

The University of Maine complies with federal regulations by using an after-the-fact time and effort reporting system. While compensation is estimated before services are performed, reports document the actual percentage of time spent on various duties, including grant work.

Who Must Report

All faculty, professional staff, and graduate students involved with federal grants must complete Time & Effort reports three times per calendar year. Reports are required even if no compensation is received, including for cost-shared efforts. Staff and students who submit weekly or bi-weekly time sheets are not required to complete these reports.

Reporting Process

Completion: Reports must be submitted to the Office of Research Administration (ORA) within 30 days of distribution
Verification: Principal Investigators (PIs) are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information provided by all employees working on their grants.

Federal Compliance

In accordance with federal regulations A-21 (section J.10.c.2.) and CFR 200 (section 200.430, Compensation-Personal Services), charges to federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on after-the-fact activity reports that accurately reflect the work performed.

Grants with start dates prior to December 26, 2014, follow the federal guidelines outlined in Circular A-21 (explore source guidance), while grants with start dates on or after December 26, 2014, follow the federal guidelines outlined in 2 CFR Part 200 (explore source guidance).

If you need more assistance or would like this information in a different format for accessibility reasons, please email us at ora@maine.edu.

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