Title
Office of Sponsored Programs - 500.20, Procedure 1 - Creating Justification for Cost Transfers
Corresponding with:
Purpose
The following cost transfer procedures have been established to comply with the requirements of Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR Part §200, Subpart E, the National Institute of Health (NIH) Grants Policy Statement, and the requirements of other Federal sponsors.
Time-frames for Cost Transfers:
- Non-Salary cost transfers: must be prepared and submitted within 90 days from the date the transaction is charged to the project.
- Salary cost transfers: related to the effort certification process must be prepared and submitted within 30 days after the end of the effort certification period to reconcile the salary expenditures to the individual’s certified effort.
University policy does not supersede sponsors’ policies that require a shorter period for cost transfers and/or corrections to effort.
Procedure
I. Cost Transfers Within a 90-Day Time-frame
For cost transfers initiated within the 90-day period, a journal entry must be submitted with justification to include the following:
- A detailed explanation of the reason for the transfer; explanations such as "to correct an error" or "to transfer to correct project" are not adequate.
- An explanation of the allocation of the cost if only a portion of the original cost is being transferred.
- Why the charge(s) are allowable, allocable, consistent, and reasonable, based on the terms and conditions of the project being charged
Adequate documentation related to the transfer and original expense must be attached to the journal and kept on file within the department until the applicable record retention requirement has been satisfied.
II. Cost Transfers After a 90-Day Time-frame
For cost transfers initiated outside of the 90-day period, additional justification must accompany transfer requests to include the following:
- Why the original expenditure did not charge appropriately
- How this expense benefits the project being charged
- Why the charge(s) are allowable, allocable, consistent, and reasonable, based on the terms and conditions of the project being charged
- Why this cost transfer is being requested more than 90 days after the original transaction date
- The steps that will be taken to prevent this type of error from happening in the future
Adequate documentation related to the transfer and original expense must be attached to the journal and kept on file within the department until the applicable record retention requirement has been satisfied.
Cost Transfer Examples
| ALLOWABLE |
UNALLOWABLE |
- Transferring Pre-Award costs from a University fund to the sponsored project, if Pre-Award spending is allowable per the sponsor guidelines
- Correcting clerical errors, transpositions, or mistyped entries
- Reallocating costs originally charged to a central administrative location or when multiple projects benefit
- Reallocating salary expenses to match effort distributions
|
- Transfers for purposes of fiscal expediency without regard to whether the cost is appropriate on the receiving project (e.g., reallocation of expenses from a project in deficit to a project with unexpended funds to clear the account in deficit)
- Transfer of post-term expenses to another project
- Transfer of an expense that was previously transferred
|
Contact Information
For questions regarding this operating standard and its related procedure, please contact SponsoredPrograms@unc.edu.
For questions regarding Pre-Award management or Post-Award administration, please contact the assigned Sponsored Projects Specialist (SPS).
For invoicing, reporting and other financial matters, please contact the assigned Sponsored Projects Accountant. OSP Staff assignments are found in RAMSeS or on the OSP website.
History
History Table
| Date |
Revision |
| 07/01/2022 |
Revised to reflect new office name. |
| 05/15/2018 |
Revised to coincide with the release of the new OSP Website. |
| 12/1/2017 |
Revised procedure to align with updates made to the related operating standard. |
The operating standards in the Office of Sponsored Programs Operating Standards & Procedures Manual supersede any OSP operating standards, procedures and appendices previously included in the University Business Manual, a publication of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Division of Finance.