Why must sponsored project accounts be reconciled?
All sponsored project accounts, including those set up to receive program income, must be reconciled monthly to ensure that expenditures are charged correctly and comply with sponsor and ASU policy (FIN 203). Unit monthly reconciliation entails:
- Confirming all expenses were incurred during the project’s period of performance.
- Reviewing all expenditures and encumbrances to ensure that they are allowable, allocable, and reasonable.
- Correcting any errors discovered as soon as possible and in accordance with ASU’s cost transfer policy and procedures.
- Monitoring cost transfers to ensure that they are completed in a timely manner.
- Maintaining documentation that will support expenses in the event of an audit.
- Verifying PI’s progress on the project/statement of work to confirm status of deliverables.
What information is useful in preparing a monthly reconciliation?
- Reconcile project details
- Monthly Payroll Reconciliation – best practices
- Monthly P-Card Reconciliation – best practices
- RA/TA Tuition Remission and Rates
- Other documentation to support monthly actions and transactions
Are there tools available to assist with sponsored project reconciliations?
All units must reconcile in accordance with Financial Services requirements, regardless of funding source. To assist in meeting these requirements, the following tool is provided by KE for use in conjunction with sponsored project accounts.
This tool is optional and intended to assist units in establishing a reconciliation process. Units may use any process of their choosing as long as reconciliations are conducted monthly and satisfy Financial Services’ requirements.
What if there are errors that need to be corrected?
For payroll expenses, payroll redistributions are used. For information about payroll redistributions and other human resource questions, please see Process Expenses.
For non payroll expenses, an IX or J1 may be used, depending on the situation. For further information about non payroll transfer of expenses, see the Cost Transfers.