FAQ

Most Principal Investigators (PI) have committed themselves and/or others to work on a grant for a specified percentage of time. If the grant is from a federal agency regulations require all employees paid from said grant complete the time and effort certification. The certification will show your time spent on the grant to cash match time and other activities expressed as a percent. The total of all of these activities cannot equal more than 100%. If you believe the percentages to be incorrect by more than plus or minus 5% please handwrite the correct percent in the appropriate column and a payroll correction will have to be done.

Budget changes can be requested at any time during your grant, by contacting Financial Services grant office, however, the general guideline is only 10% of the total grant can be shifted between budget lines without having to receive permission from the rewarding agency.

Example 1: A grant totaling $100,000 can shift up to $10,000 from supplies & services to salary & fringe. However, to move more, permission is needed from the rewarding agency. Please keep in mind this is only the general guideline and some grants have stricter restrictions that may require permission before shifting any budget amount.

Indirects are administrative charges on grants (when allowed) to cover incidentals that are hard to estimate for each individual grant, such as space usages, electricity, etc. on a monthly basis. Typically it is a percentage of either total direct costs or total salary and fringe. At the end of the grant year the indirects charged are distributed once all administrative items such as the annual report or final report are complete.

60% of the directs earned on each grant are kept in a centralized pool and are managed by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs supporting seed grants and related activity.

Currently 60% of the earned indirects stay in the pool, 10% is given to the college or department, 10% is given to the seed grants fund and 20% is distributed to the PI. The distribution is done on an annual basis typically at the end of the grant year when all reporting requirements have been fulfilled.

If you do not currently have an indirect project code one will be set up for you at the end of your first grant year for distribution. The Grant Accountant will prepare a brief report that will contain the amount of indirects earned and the amount distributed between your indirect project code, the pool, the college or department and the seed grant code.The funds in your indirect account are to be used for grant related activities, such as stipend payments for grant writing time, travel to conventions related to your grant but not funded through the grant or supplies that can't be covered by the grant due to lack of budget.

There are two different kinds of match: cash and in-kind.

• Cash match are items or time that is not funded directly through the grant. Typically it is funded from elsewhere in your department or college.
• In-Kind match could be a donation of time or materials, above and beyond the grant, for which a dollar amount can be determined. A memo detailing time spent or an assigned value to supplies & equipment will have to be completed and signed by the PI.

No. The full value of one item cannot be claimed on more than one grant. If the item was purchased to use equally between two grants then a 50/50 split could be claimed.

No, overload payments are not allowed on federal awards. Overload payments are allowed on privately funded or other non-federally funded grants but should be submitted on the budget as such.

Summer payments are allowed as long as the PI is not going to receive more than 2/9ths of their normal academic salary. If the payment will cause the PI to receive more than 2/9ths of their normal salary, exception will have tobe requested from Grad Studies and the payment absolutely can not cause the PI to receive more than 3/9ths. For help with receiving a summer payment, please contact the Grant Accountant before the summer begins to ensure that a contract is created, signed and submitted to Human Resources before the work has begun.Winterim payments are considered overload and are not allowed on federal grants.

Typically when the  Research and Sponsored Programs Pre Award Office sends notification of a grant award the Financial Services Post Award office has received the award packet and it will send the project request form to the PI listed on the award. When the needed signatures are obtained, the PI sends the form back to the Grant Accountant who will create the project code. When the project code is created the Grant Accountant will send an email to the PI with the complete funding string and will request a meeting to go through the details of your grant.

Yes. Please apply to the procurement office for a card. You will need to know your funding string for the application as that will be the default account for charges made to the card.

No. All expenses need to be incurred before the end of the grant. If you have used your card for grant purchases be sure that the receipt is clearly dated before the end of the grant as proof of being incurred before the end date.

Each grant is different concerning the requirements for requesting an extension. Please contact the Grant Accountant to discuss.

Typically your final report is due within 90 days of the grant end date.

The Financial Services Post-Award office does do not advise spending funds until the formal grant award notification has been signed and received. That is our contract guaranteeing payment for all cost incurred for the grant.

Release time is the PI's release from teaching responsibilities funded through the grant. Replacement time is funding for the PI's teaching replacement for the applicable time.

Human Resources will be happy to work with you to compile the proper hire paperwork.

For supplies and equipment purchases less than $5,000, use best judgement to purchase the items, complete and print a quick order and submit the original invoice to Financial Services. Invoice copies or attachments forwarded to wtwap@uww.edu are not acceptable. If you are making a purchase over $5,000 please contact Procurement.To pay a speaker or individual, a PIR form (found through the Financial Services website) will need to be completed. If the person has never been paid from UW-Whitewater a W-9 form will also be needed. Also, if the payment amount is over $600 an  Academic Support Services Agreement form (ASSA form) from Carrie Lencho, Continuing Education Outreach Program Manager, will need to be received by Financial Services before payment can be made.

The University of Wisconsin - Whitewater will continue to comply with the procurement standards in previous OMB guidance, per @ CFR 200.110(a), for two additional years after 2 CFR 200 goes into effect. The University will delay implementation of new procurement rules in 2 CFR 200.317 - 200.326 until July 1, 2017, and in the interim will follow the guidance of the old standards.