Cost Transfers

When accepting an award, the principal investigator (PI) is also agreeing to accept financial oversight of the funds received. Even though the PI is not typically responsible for the day-to-day accounting of awarded funds, both personnel and non-personnel expenses should be reviewed by the PI regularly, at a minimum every 60 days. To help in this regard, monthly reports of grant expenditures and personnel paid are downloaded to the VandalWeb accounts for all PIs associated with a grant code monthly on the 10th. This Banner report (FWRITEM) may also be run on an ad hoc basis by your grant administrator.

The following monthly reports are emailed directly to the lead PI on the project, also on the 10th:

• Itemized expenses posted and personnel charged to project for prior month
• Current (as of date of email) summary balance by cost category (in total and by index if more than one associated index)
• Current list of personnel assigned to be paid on project

It is understood that sometimes expenses will accidentally be assigned to the wrong index. If, during your regular review of expenses, you notice an expense that has been incorrectly charged, please notify your grant administrator immediately so that a cost transfer to the appropriate index can be made (see APM 45.07). Note that an excessive number of cost transfers, especially cost transfers done long after the original transaction (e.g., over 90 days), are a red flag to external auditors of inadequate financial management. Additional justification must be provided for cost transfers of expenses that posted more than 90 days prior, and a plan to ensure that such expenses are addressed more quickly must be developed.