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Recharge center overview

Recharge centers are facilities that offer their services or specific products for a fee to the ASU community and non-ASU customers. These centers are managed by individual ASU units and support a variety of research related activities such as consultation, training, and equipment usage.

The term “Service Centers” is an all-inclusive term to describe an operating unit within ASU that provides goods or services for a fee based on a rate schedule, to recover no more than the cost of the goods or services and to break-even over time. “Recharge Centers” and “Cores” are types of service xenters. The University defines all operating units recharging for goods and services as a service center.

The term “Recharge Center” defines a service center that provides mainly internal services and goods to sponsored projects, with revenue no more than one million dollars (<$1M). Typical service centers operate more like a business competing for internal and external users to provide revenue to offset expenses, whereas a Recharge Center has a static population of users and predictable costs.

Establishing a recharge center

Understanding rate types

There are two basic rate types, internal and external:

  • Internal rates are those that are charged to ASU customers and can be assessed on sponsored projects and internal non-sponsored accounts.
  • External rates are those that are charged to private enterprises or customers with no affiliation to ASU. These can be further broken down into non-profit rates or for-profit rates.

Individuals seeking to sell services or products for a fee should determine the anticipated sales frequency and the primary customer base. Thinking about the customer allows individuals to define what kind of rates will be charged and to whom.

  • A recharge center should be considered if the services or products will be sold primarily to internal customers or a combination of both internal and external customers.
  • An external sale(s) should be considered if services or products will be sold strictly to external customers.

Rate development process

Once the anticipated sales and customer base have been confirmed, a recharge center will be established based on cost accounting standards. A fee or rate structure will be approved by the appropriate party and will be valid for two fiscal years. Rates must be re-reviewed and approved by the end of the second fiscal year with updated sales information in order to meet the renewal criteria. Upon re-approval, the center will maintain a status of ‘active’ and may charge customers for services or products using the newly developed fees or rates. If the renewal criteria is not met. The center’s rates will be considered ineligible for charging and will maintain a status of ‘expired’ until new rates are developed.

If a center does not elect to renew their rates, they must retire the recharge center within 90 days of documenting this decision with the approving party. For more information, see Requirements.

Contact information

To develop internal rates or a recharge center, contact KE’s Cost Analysis Team.

To develop external rates or an external sales agreement, contact Financial Services.

For assistance with contract terms and conditions, contact the Industry Agreements Group.

Core facilities

How are these different from recharge facilities?

ASU’s Core Facilities are considered a combination of several recharge centers and are managed by a special administrative team. These facilities offer services and products for a fee that promote specialized research assistance.

Mandated guidelines

Governance and policy