Dear colleagues,
ORA noted that payroll expenses on the Contract and Grant Funds for the first half of the Fiscal Year 2018-2019 are considerably lower than what was reported for the same period during Fiscal Year 2017-2018. Given that the University received more sponsored project funding last year, an increase in payroll expenses was anticipated. This unexpected result is suspected to be due to not having correct Contract and Grant Funding sources indicated in UCPath for the positions involved in the sponsored projects.
It is critical that all funding sources for the positions involved in the sponsored projects are reviewed and confirmed to be accurate as soon as possible. If actions are not taken immediately, there is a high risk of underreporting expenses to the sponsors. A delay in correcting funding entry errors will result in numerous salary cost transfers, may require revision of invoices and financial reports, and may cause the University not to be able to recover costs incurred for the sponsored projects.
We have discovered a large number of cases where the funding source reflects the department suspense/default account. This can result from three following scenarios:
- Actual funding sources in PPS were not correctly converted and the Suspense account was designated.
- A position is created in UCPath but funding entry has not been completed. If the individual creating a position is not the one completing the funding entry page, close coordination is essential.
- A position has “Funding End Date”, which has been reached, and funding source for the subsequent period has not been identified. It is recommended not to use “funding end date”. Please see the attached Quick Reference Guide and the job aid document for more details.
I also attached the email UCLA Central Resource Unit team sent to the departments that have one or more of three issues above. It includes step-by-step guidelines on how to correct these errors.
The scenarios above are examples of cases where funding source is not identified and does not cover all cases with errors. With this, I urge you to immediately review funding sources of all positions involved in the sponsored projects and make correction upon discovery of errors as soon as possible. If you are not the person completing the funding entry page in UCPath, please coordinate with those individuals in your department to make correction in UCPath.
I appreciate your immediate attention to this highly important matter. If you have any questions related to UCPath, please contact the Central Resource Unit. If you have any questions related to the Contract and Grant funds, please feel free to contact your EFM Manager or me.
Sincerely,
Yoon Lee
Director of Extramural Fund Management