Briefs

Fiscal Year-End is Approaching Fast! 

Prepare for year-end closing!  See a list of accounting deadlines, available here . 

Find out about year-end accounting activity, including Account Deletion, Reconciliation, Expense Accrual, and more at the Accounting Services  website.

Payroll Year-End Information Available!

View important payroll or labor distribution fiscal year-end information from the Office of Payroll Services, available here .

PI's Should Allow Two Days for SPS Review

Sponsored Program Services (SPS) (formerly Office of Sponsored Programs) must review research proposals before they are submitted to ensure they conform to sponsors' and the university's requirements.  Without this compliance, the proposal may be rejected by the sponsor, or the university may receive an award that it is unable to accept.  To meet submission deadlines, principal investigators must allow SPS at least two days to review proposals.

For more information about SPS, see story, "Sponsored Programs Merges with DFA"  of this newsletter.

More Graduates Earn ACP Certification

Click photo to enlarge and view names of Accounting Certificate recipients .

The fourth class of the Accounting Certification Program (ACP) held its graduation in February.  DFA Training offers the ACP to business service center staff to strengthen their skills in finance administration so they can provide better service to customers and improve consistency and accuracy in transaction processing across the campus.

The next session of ACP training begins September 9. For other available training and dates, please visit the DFA Training  site.

New Policies
The University Policy Office  (UPO) announces that the following policies were issued or revised recently:

     • University Policy 5.5, Stewardship and Custodianship of Electronic Mail 
     • University Policy 6.13.8, Religious Accommodation 
     • University Policy 6.10.9, Staff Transfer (Excluding Academic and Bargaining Unit Staff) 

For a listing of all policies, visit UPO's website at www.policy.cornell.edu .

The Bottom Line

Editor, Jamie Churchill

Director, Marguerite Spencer
Assistant, Taina Nilson

Questions, comments, listserv changes:
dfa-comm@cornell.edu .

The Bottom Line is a publication of the
Division of Financial Affairs
Cornell University
341 Pine Tree Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
T: 607.255.6240

Partners, Stewards, Innovators

Sponsored Programs Merges with Division of Financial Affairs

Director of Financial Research Administration in the Division of Financial Affairs (DFA), Jeffrey Silber, assumed leadership of the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) on April 1, 2005.  A new unit is being created called "Sponsored Program Services (SPS)," which combines DFA's Sponsored Funds Accounting with the Office of Sponsored Programs.

SPS will maintain OSP's line of accountability to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research on certain matters relating to research policy, including academic issues, technology transfer, and economic development.

The new arrangement is the first step toward unified pre- and post-award research administration.  It will provide research faculty and sponsors with "one-stop" assistance with preparing research proposals and managing the financial aspects of awards.In the longer term, the

Director of newly formed SPS Jeff Silber and Vicki Dann, of the former OSP, share a laugh at a recent reception held by
DFA to welcome OSP.

organization will position Cornell to deliver new resources, services,and training to the entire research enterprise.This structural model is used by many of Cornell's academic peers, including Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth, and University of Pennsylvania.

For more information, see the announcement by the Vice Provost for Research and Vice President for Financial Affairs and University Controller .

Also, for information about research proposal reviews, see "PI's Should Allow Two Days for SPS Review" in the "Briefs" section of this newsletter.

Top

Cornell Joins Effort to Develop New Finance System for Higher Education

Cornell University has joined with several other institutions to develop a comprehensive new finance system for higher education.  Called "Kuali," the project is partly funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.- The aim is for Kuali to be distributed without license fees to interested institutions of higher education.  Each project partner also is contributing to the project.  Cornell's contribution is a few full-time technical staff.

Modules of the Kuali system will be developed in phases over the next two and a half years and will include general ledger, workflow, purchasing and accounts payable, and pre- and post-award research administration.

Cornell activities to date include evaluating the functionality of the University of Indiana 's system, on which Kauli is based, via a series of internet demonstrations.  Cornell has also initiated the evaluation of a chart of accounts. -In addition to contributing technical resources, Cornell is collaborating at the board level and with functional colleagues to support design and development.

For more information about this project and related efforts, visit the "Kuali at Cornell"  website.  To learn about other DFA initiatives, see "Financial Systems Update" of this newsletter.

 Top

Volunteer for Review to Streamline Accounts

The Division of Financial Affairs (DFA) is looking for units to volunteer to be the first to participate in a diagnostic review of accounts to find out how units are setting up their accounts, how they are using these accounts, and whether the accounting structure, in general, is consistent with university policy.  This analysis, will not only assist units to clarify their own needs, but also will be used to streamline Cornell's accounting structure in the event that Kuali  is implemented as the new finance management system for Cornell.  The review will look at all asset and liability accounts, most current fund accounts, and endowment accounts, but will exclude all sponsored fund accounts.  The ultimate intent is to include all units in the review.  (For more information about Kuali, see story, "Cornell Joins Effort to Develop New Finance System for Higher Education"  of this newsletter.) 

To volunteer to review accounts, please contact David Pinker , 255-6513, Rayna King , 255-0862, or Judy Maracle , 255-9336.

Top

Elevator Maintenance Costs Get a Lift

To strengthen its negotiating position and get more bang for its buck, Cornell recently joined with neighbor Ithaca College to attract bids for elevator maintenance.  The result is hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in savings between both institutions. 

The collaboration meant the institutions could offer suppliers the prospect of a larger, and therefore, more attractive contract.  The resulting new arrangement with Schindler Elevators has yielded more than higher discounts, unprecedented savings, and price escalation caps.  It also provides improved full-service maintenance and equipment modernizations, which had not been part of prior agreements.  Led by Purchasing Agent Jeff Spada, the sourcing team included Eric Ludewig, Associate Director of Purchasing, along with representatives from across the Cornell Ithaca campus, and purchasing managers from Ithaca College.

 Top

Federal Government Audit Priorities

For the past two years, federal auditors have ranked effort certification at the top of their list of audit priorities, along with cost allocation, cost transfers, and award-specific terms.  Cornell units must prepare for July's annual confirmation of effort process by completing any required payroll adjustments immediately.  For instructions on how to prepare for the certification, see University Policy 3.11, Effort Planning and Confirmation .

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently audited two types of award-specific requirements.  These conditions encompassed obtaining sponsor approval before re-budgeting funds from participant support costs, and expending program income (such as registration fees) before grant funds.  In keeping with federal requirements, funds from participant support costs may not be used to support the activities of employees (see NSF Grant Policy Manual, Chapter 6, "Allowability of Costs," GPM 618.1 ).  In addition, NSF awards supporting conferences are subject to supplemental terms and conditions (see "Administration of NSF Conference or Group Travel Award Grant Special Conditions," FL-26 ).  Note: you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader  to view this document.

 Top

DHHS Visits Campus as Part of F&A Rate Review

Cornell has submitted a proposal to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost rates for fiscal years (FY) 2006-2008.  Part of the DHHS review of this proposal will be a site visit to the Ithaca campus this summer when they will examine research space, verify equipment locations, and inspect a variety of records.  The visit may include interviews with principal investigators and departmental staff.  This will be a critical component in the evaluation of our rate request, and we thank everyone in advance for cooperating.
 
The submitted proposal included a provisional rate for contract college research, fixed rates for FY 06-08 endowed benefits, and changes to subcontract activity rates.  For more information, visit the Cost Analysis  website.

 Top

Continue to Process NIH NRSA Stipends Through Payables

An article in the April 1 edition of Science Magazine has confused university administrators by stating that payments made to all postdoctoral trainees (postdocs) are subject to federal tax withholding under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).  However, under long-standing guidelines from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the National Institute of Health (NIH), as well as practices at Cornell and our peer institutions, National Research Service Award (NRSA) grants to postdocs are considered fellowship support. -Fellowship support is never subject to FICA taxes. -Therefore, units should continue to process stipends for trainees supported by NIH's NRSA's through the online Payment Request System .

 Top

Efforts are underway to develop a set of administrative channels on Cornell's uPortal , which is a web-based interface allowing users to access Cornell services and information from one location.  These channels will provide links to frequently used administrative applications and web pages.  The Division of Financial Affairs' (DFA) Financial Systems group is collaborating with colleagues in Human Resources, Budget, Facilities, Student and Academic Services, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the College of Engineering. -These convenient new channels could roll out early this summer.  For more information, contact Robin Yager , or visit the project website .

Exciting times are ahead.  Visit Financial Systems  regularly, and stay up to date on the latest developments.

For more information about another new project to develop a comprehensive finance management system, see story, "Cornell Joins Effort to Develop New Finance System for Higher Education" of this newsletter.

 Top

Routing Freedom of Information Requests

The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) of New York State provides the public's right to access records of New York State agencies.  Based on the federal Freedom of Information Act of 1966, the law presumes that individuals have a right to know how the government operates, and that government agencies have a duty to provide full disclosure of records that are not specifically and reasonably exempt.

Cornell University is a private educational institution with a unique partnership with the State University of New York, but is not considered a state agency and, therefore, is not generally subject to FOIL.  However, in a recent court case, Alderson v. Cornell, the Court of Appeals ruled that, in relation to its "public accounting function" for one of its contract colleges, Cornell is a state agency for purposes of an inquiry seeking financial documents.

Please send any FOIL requests immediately to the Vice President for Financial Affairs Joanne DeStefano for review and response.  Note that the law requires a response within five days of a written request.  For further information regarding this law, see the website for the Committee on Open Government .

 Top