Projects Uses and Limitations

Transcription

1 Projects Uses and Limitations The university uses the project chartfield to track a number of different types of projects. In general, projects are managed in keeping with the following principles: Used to capture and track accounting transactions related to a particular activity/specific purpose; Have specific revenue sources; Have project owners/responsible officers; Have clearly defined work scopes or statements of purpose; and Have a defined start and end date (with a limited number of exceptions such as endowments, clinical trials, residual surplus projects, overhead). 1) Projects are first classified by three criteria: i) Source of Funds (Internal or External); ii) Restricted or Unrestricted; and iii) Research, Capital or Other. i) Internal source funds are as described in the Fund Definitions and include: a) Provincial government operating grants, credit and tuition and other funds which make up the central pool for purpose of Budget Envelope allocations b) Directed tuition for credit courses c) Other directed revenues including non-credit courses d) Investment income e) Revenues from sales of goods and services ii) The source of funds will always be tied to the original source; funds received from an external party must always reside in an externally funded project. Likewise internal funds will always be classified as internally sourced. iii) There may be situations where a granting agency, donor or other contributor removes their original restrictions; if all restrictions are lifted funds must be re-classified from restricted to unrestricted. 2) In general, projects will not be set up for less than $1, Consideration will be given to special situations requiring smaller projects if department justification warrants such treatment. 3) New projects will be set up upon completion of either a New Project Request form, a Notice of Award from one of the Tri-Council agencies or Alberta Innovates (and other agencies, where appropriate), or upon submission of a completed template for Personal Expense Reimbursement (PER) projects. 4) In all cases, budgets must be developed and included in the initial project set-up. 5) Research Services will determine if a project must be classified as Research.

2 6) If the activity/specific purpose is to be funded by more than one type of revenue source (external and internal) or more than one sponsor the use of Parent and Child projects must be used to ensure correct project classification and accountability to each sponsor. The university classifies projects within nine major categories: 1. External Source Restricted Research The source of documentation for such funds can be grants, contracts and other agreements related specifically to research activities. Projects attributed to research must be approved by Research Services. Examples of Externally Restricted Research projects: Sponsored Research Clinical trials Research Salary Award Capital/Equipment related to research activity Graduate student travel grants Allocated endowment earnings Externally sourced restricted research activity is recorded in fund External Source Restricted non-research The source of documentation for such funds can be grants, contracts and other agreements that are not related to research, capital or endowments. Examples of Externally Restricted non-research projects: Scholarships, bursaries and other awards Chairs Professorships Donations Graduate student travel grants Allocated endowment earnings Externally sourced restricted non-research activity is recorded in fund External Source Unrestricted Other The majority of externally sourced projects have restrictions attached; however there are limited situations where external funds are unrestricted in nature. Approval from Financial Reporting is required prior to a fund 45 project being set up.

3 If over-expenditures occur in fund 45 projects the faculty/operating unit must cover such deficit positions by fiscal year end; over-expenditures are not allowed to be carried into the new fiscal year. Examples of Externally Sourced Unrestricted projects: Donations which have no restrictions in place. Overheads. Residual surplus amounts from completed externally restricted research or non research projects Services provided to external parties such as lab services and other self sustaining operations that: i) do not rely on support from the operating fund; ii) have no intent to make profit (as opposed to ancillary services where there may be a surplus recorded at fiscal year-end); iii) generate sufficient sales revenue to cover costs; and iv) are not otherwise classified as U of C ancillary departments. Externally sourced unrestricted activity is recorded in fund Internal Funds, Restricted Research Internally funded research funds originate with fund 10 revenues. Where possible, awards given for a single purpose to multiple recipients should be grouped within one specific project, with the activity chartfield used to identify individual recipients. Individual faculties may provide internal funds to an academic member to pursue his/her field of research. An example of such an arrangement is a faculty starter grant. These funds must be used for the purpose(s) as defined in the project set-up and as agreed by the budget owner and project holder. Such internal awards must be approved by the budget owner. The University Research Grants Committee (URGC) offers a number of programs related to internal grants. Terms, conditions and other information can be found at: Approval from Financial Reporting is required prior to set up of internally restricted research projects. Internally funded, restricted research activity is recorded in fund Internal Funds, Restricted non-research Internally funded non-research funds originate with fund 10 revenues. Where possible, awards given for a single purpose to multiple recipients should be grouped within one specific project, with the activity chartfield used to identify individual recipients. These funds must be used for the purpose(s) as defined in the project set-up and as agreed by the budget owner and project holder. Such internal awards must be approved by the

4 budget owner. Approval from Financial Reporting is required prior to set up of internally restricted non-research projects. Examples of Internally Funded non-research projects: Scholarships, bursaries and other awards Chairs Professorships Publications The University Research Grants Committee (URGC) offers a number of programs related to internal grants. Terms, conditions and other information can be found at: Internally funded, restricted non-research activity is recorded in fund Internal Funds Unrestricted Other The majority of revenue generating internal activity is recorded in fund 10 (referred to as directed revenue ), or in the case of approved ancillary operations, in fund 15. There may be cases where internal activity is allowed to be classified within a project attached to fund 45; approval from Financial Reporting is required prior to this type of project being set up. If over-expenditures occur in fund 45 projects the faculty/operating unit must cover such deficit positions by fiscal year end; over-expenditures are not allowed to be carried into the new fiscal year. Examples of Internally Funded - Other projects: Services provided to other university departments such as lab services and other self sustaining operations that: i) do not rely on support from the operating fund; ii) have no intent to make profit (as opposed to ancillary services where there may be a surplus recorded at fiscal year-end); iii) generate sufficient sales revenue to cover costs; and iv) are not otherwise classified as U of C ancillary departments. Internally funded - other activity is recorded in fund External Source Restricted Capital The source of documentation for such funds can be external grants, agreements or other types of contributions that have been restricted for the purpose of non-research capital. Examples of Externally Restricted Capital projects: Building construction Equipment purchases Externally sourced, restricted capital activity is recorded in fund 50.

5 8. Debt Funded Capital Debt funded capital projects require the approval of the Treasury department and fully approved Authorization for Expenditures prior to project set-up. Debt funded capital activity is recorded in fund Endowments Endowments are restricted in nature in that the principle must be maintained in perpetuity. Implementation of projects to hold the principle portion of endowments will not take place with the initial 9.1 go-live; conversion from the existing internal chartfields will be deferred until a future date. Endowment principal is recorded in fund 85.