CALS Business Operations Newsletter
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Get CBO Help at:
919-515-4226 or cbo_help@ncsu.edu
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COVID-19: CBO Updates Webpage
Keep up-to-date on business operations updates and guidance related to COVID-19 on the
CBO Updates – COVID-19
webpage.
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Status of Business Partners Meetings
We decided to cancel our July Business Partners meeting as we have been holding weekly meetings with primary business partners and the CBO leadership team during the COVID-19 restrictions.
You can view recordings of the weekly meetings on the
CBO COVID-19 Updates
webpage. If you have questions regarding these meetings, please contact Molly Bradshaw, Process Efficiency and Training Manager, at
mqbradsh@ncsu.edu
.
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FY2021 - Shop the Marketplace First Initiative Version 2.0
As of 7/1/2020 NC State is moving to required use of the NC State eProcurement MarketPlace for supply purchases of less than $1,000. Faculty, staff, and the CALS community are expected to shop Marketplace first for supply orders $1,000 or less and follow the
Decision Process for Purchasing Goods
. Shop MarketPlace First is an Initiative which kicked off in July 2017. The initiative is for NCSU Faculty and Staff to purchase all low dollar supplies from
NC State MarketPlace
.
PCard Impacts:
If the supplies are not available in Marketplace then a PCard may be used to purchase from a non MarketPlace vendor. If the supply is available in MarketPlace or if the cardholder purchases from a MarketPlace vendor, supply purchases $1,000 or less paid on a PCard will require justification explaining why MarketPlace was not used.
General Accounting Impacts:
Also in alignment with this initiative, supply purchases $1,000 or less can only be paid using a voucher if 1) the vendor does not accept visa/mastercard (will be confirmed by Procurement), or 2) an invoice that is below $1,000 is a portion of a larger PO (totaling over $1,000).
Please note:
A voucher cannot be submitted to pay a vendor listed in MarketPlace.
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MarketPlace Issues?
If you are having trouble checking out while shopping in MarketPlace, this could be due to an error when using Google Chrome. Try Firefox or another internet browser and see if this corrects the issue. If not, reach out to the MarketPlace Help Desk at
help@ncsu.edu
or call (919) 515-HELP.
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Basic Invoice Tips to Keep in Mind
If you are creating an invoice, please keep in mind that an invoice should include the following:
- The word “invoice”
- Supplier Name
- Remittance address
- Bill to information (NCSU and name/department receiving goods/services and appropriate address, if possible)
- Invoice Date
- Invoice Number
- Description of goods/services
- Date of services
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Purchases Over $5,000 - Reminder
Purchases for goods that total $5,000 or more that cannot be found in the MarketPlace may be purchased by submitting a Non-MarketPlace Requisition. The order must go through this process, and should not be ordered directly by the department for any reason. Instead, the department should submit a “Requisition Request” into ServiceNow. Also the department should never split the payment of an invoice over $5,000 through multiple PCard transactions as this is not allowable.
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Travel Updates
University travel remains restricted due to UNC System directives and public health concerns. All travel is considered an exception and must be approved by the Chancellor or the Chancellor’s designees. Travel exception approvals are required before travel occurs, and for reimbursement of any travel expenses. The only exemptions to this travel exception requirement are 1) reimbursement for in-state mileage-only travel; or 2) reimbursement for in-state travel with no overnight stay.
Emergency Management and Mission Continuity (EMMC) will continue to coordinate the travel exception process for the university and advise the Cabinet regarding UNC System, OSBM, State of North Carolina (including Executive Orders) and CDC travel protocol. The university will adhere to recommendations ensuring prudent and, as feasible, uniform decisions. All travel exception requests must be submitted via the
Travel Exception Form
(except for in-state mileage-only travel or in-state travel with no overnight stay which are exempted from this requirement).
- As designated by the Chancellor, Cabinet leadership will review and determine resolution of travel exception requests specific to their functional areas.
- The travel exception process is a preliminary step to, not in lieu of, the standing travel authorization process. Colleges and units are expected to review, and approve or deny, travel authorization requests per their normal standard operating procedures.
- Travel exception requests should be submitted at least two weeks prior to travel departure date and no further than two months in advance.
- An email confirming the submission will be sent to the individual initiating the request. When the request is routed to the Cabinet leader for review, the applicable Associate Dean for Research, Academic Affairs, or Extension (ADR/ADAA/ADE) or similar key contact, and the unit Finance lead such as the Assistant Dean for Finance (ADF), will be copied.
- Resolution of the request (approval or denial) will be communicated via email to the requester, and the applicable ADR/ADAA/ADE/ADF or key contact.
- If the travel exception is approved by the Cabinet leader, the approval email must be uploaded with the travel authorization and travel reimbursement request in MyPack Portal.
- Travel exception requests must be approved in advance of submitting a travel authorization via MyPack Portal.
- Documented approvals of travel exception requests are required to receive reimbursement for travel expenses.
Approval of travel exceptions may be revoked or adjusted at any time as deemed appropriate by university leadership due to changes in risk locally, the area in which travel is planned and travel conveyances; and will be communicated to the traveler as appropriate.
Questions related to the travel exception process and/or status of an exception request should be directed to EMMC (919-515-9657 or
ncstateemmc@ncsu.edu
).
Please note the following which applies to all travelers:
COVID-19 has been declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization and is becoming more widespread, including spreading in the community. COVID-19 is extremely contagious and believed to be spread mainly from person-to-person contact. Although the university has instituted reasonable practices in an attempt to lessen or reduce the spread of COVID-19, NC State cannot guarantee that you will never get exposed to the virus or get sick from it. Further, undertaking travel could increase your risk of contracting COVID-19. You must review and comply with any federal, state, or local travel restrictions or requirements related to COVID-19 that apply to your travel destination. Please review any and all travel guidance and advisories for your destination, including the Centers for Disease Control’s “Considerations for Travelers” resource at
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/index.html
prior to your travel.
The CDC, and state and local health departments, are reviewing and updating their respective guidance on the pandemic and its impact nearly every day. As a result, NC State reserves the right to restrict your travel if necessary to protect campus health and safety. Further, based on your travel destination, and government order or guidance, the university may restrict your access to campus for a certain period of time following your return in order to lessen the risk of possible COVID-19 transmission.
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Membership Policies and Guidance
We would like to remind the CALS community of the university policy and CALS Business Office expectations related to memberships on state and federal appropriations.
Institutional Memberships
will be allowed on state funds when determined there is a substantial benefit to the department.
Individual memberships
will not be allowed on state funds unless that membership is required for the position held by that individual and it can be guaranteed that the individual membership is terminated at the same time that individual separates from the department/college.
Memberships tied to Conference Registrations
will only be allowed on state funds when that membership derives a cost-savings to the university. Faculty and staff wishing to use state funds for this registration/membership combo will be required to upload documentation to support the cost-savings.
Requests that do not include cost-savings documentation will not be allowed on state funding.
A cost-savings is derived when the difference of the member and non-member conference registration is greater than or equal to the membership dues.
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Water and Cooler Rental Reminder
This is a reminder to our CALS community that water and cooler rentals are not allowed on state appropriations except under exceptional circumstances. In the event that the quality of the water in a campus building is in question, the department should call the Environmental Health and Safety Office at 515-6859 to have the water tested. A portable water dispenser can be rented or bottled water purchased from state appropriated or overhead funds only if there is a health/safety reason for the purchase. Departments requesting to place water and cooler rentals on state funds will be required to provide documentation supporting the health/safety reason. Requests received without proper approval and documentation will not be reconciled to state or overhead funds.
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PCard Deadlines
Please take a moment to review the deadlines and reminders below to help ensure PCard policies and procedures are being followed and transactions are processed in a timely manner.
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June Billing Cycle (Past Billing Cycle)
- The June billing cycle (May 21 - June 19) statement deadline is 5 p.m. on July 20.
- To allow cardholders and supervisors adequate time for approval, reconcilers will approve statements by July 7 unless additional information is required.
- If additional information is required in order to approve a statement, cardholders will received notification by July 7 from cals_cbo_pcard@ncsu.edu. Please be on the lookout for these communications.
- Additionally, cardholders who did not have their receipts uploaded for this billing cycle into the PCard Center as of 3:30 p.m. on June 22 would be required to submit a JV request via ServiceNow if the transaction was not charged to the appropriate project.
July Billing Cycle (Current Billing Cycle)
- The reconciliation deadline for the July billing cycle (June 20 - July 20) is July 22. However, in order to guarantee reconciliation of transactions, receipts should be uploaded by 3:30 p.m. on July 21.
- Anything uploaded after the July 21 deadline will be reconciled for this billing cycle only if time allows and the cardholder will be responsible for submitting any JV requests via ServiceNow if necessary.
As a reminder, to ensure deadlines are met, cardholders should do the following:
- Upload receipts within 1-3 days of the transaction date and avoid uploading all receipts the day before or on the day of the reconciliation deadline.
- Be sure receipts have written on them the project phase to be charged, a detailed business purpose, and the travel authorization number (if applicable).
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Detailed Business Purpose Required for PCard Transactions
A detailed business purpose is required for all PCard transactions and answers the following questions: who benefits from the transaction, where the purchased item is located (if applicable), and why the transaction was necessary. When the type of transaction may inherently imply a business purpose (e.g., toner, paper, pens, lab supplies etc.), it is still necessary to provide a business purpose that describes which location or project within the department the item was purchased.
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PCard Project Phase Default Numbers
Effective August 14, 2020 all PCard defaults will be required to be moved to a 6XXXXX or 7XXXXX ledger. With the exception of cardholders assigned to County Extension belonging to the home OUC beginning with 117XX, cardholders who currently have a project phase default of 2XXXXX, 3XXXXX, 4XXXXX or 5XXXXX will be required to update their project phase numbers to reflect a 6XXXXX or a 7XXXXX ledger fund. The department's enhancement fund tied to the faculty members project phase should be used when a cardholder does not have access to alternative 6XXXXX or 7XXXXX ledger funding. Non-faculty cardholders should use the appropriate 6 or 7 ledger fund tied to the faculty members phase for whom they are assigned to work with.
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CALS C&G COVID-19 Information
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New OMB Memorandum - M-20-26
Extension of Administrative Relief for Recipients and Applicants of Federal Financial Assistance Directly Impacted by the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) due to Loss of Operations
On June 18th, the Office of Management and Budget released M-20-26 which will extend two items from the previous COVID based Memos (M-20-17, M-20-20 and M-20-11) until September 30, 2020. These memos were issued this past March, to address the COVID impacts related to Federal Grants and Granting Agencies. The full memo can be found at this
link
; however, please see below for an important addition from the previous memos.
Allowability of Salaries and Other Project Activities
- Awarding agencies may allow recipients to continue to charge salaries and benefits to active Federal awards consistent with the recipients' policy of paying salaries (under unexpected or extraordinary circumstances) from all funding sources, Federal and non-Federal.
- Awarding agencies may allow other costs to be charged to Federal awards necessary to resume activities supported by the award, consistent with applicable Federal cost principles and the benefit to the project.
- Awarding agencies must inform recipients to exhaust other available funding sources to sustain its workforce and implement necessary steps to save overall operational costs (such as rent renegotiations) during this pandemic period in order to preserve Federal funds for the ramp-up effort. Recipients should retain documentation of their efforts to exhaust other funding sources and reduce overall operational costs.
Agency Implementation of Memo:
Please work with your assigned Post Award Consultant to document both any COVID-19 related expenses charged to your federal ledger 5 project and also any steps taken to exhaust other funding sources and reduce overall operational costs.
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Conflict of Interest (COI) and Notice of Intent (NOI) forms are now in RED (Research Enterprise Database)
Please see the below email from the Enterprise Research Administration (ERA) Project Team.
The COI/NOI module
launched for a limited audience on May 12
.
The COI/NOI module replaces the separate legacy COI and NOI online systems
, with both forms now being housed in the
Research Enterprise Data (RED) system
.
Now that the COI/NOI module is live, the legacy systems have been deprecated to prevent new-data entry. They will remain read-only accessible for reference, review and reporting until winter 2020.
All new COI disclosures and NOI forms must now be submitted through RED.
EHRA employees who intend to engage in an External Professional Activity for Pay (EPAP) must file a NOI through RED at least ten days prior to the activity’s start date. Training resources for the COI/NOI module are provided within the forms and can also be found at
go.ncsu.edu/red-coi-noi-training
.
The only people at this time who are required to complete a COI disclosure in RED are
:
- Newly hired EHRA employees;
- Those who undergo a status change that requires them to submit a COI disclosure (e.g., SHRA to EHRA, graduate student who becomes involved in sponsored research); and
- Anyone who needs to update their COI disclosure due to a change in circumstances.
If you need to use RED to submit a COI disclosure, you have been or will be notified. For more information, please follow this
link
.
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REMINDER: 20 & 5 Pre-Award Policy Still in Effect
We understand that it has and continues to be a transition to remote working and learning, and the CALS Pre-Award Team has been working diligently with faculty and staff in regards to their proposals to overcome some of the new obstacles. However, please note that the
20 & 5 Pre-Award Policy
is still in effect for all proposals being submitted through CALS. We are recommending our PIs start their proposals and PINS initiations even earlier than before to allow for additional time so that Pre-Award Consultants can successfully assist with and submit their proposals. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your Pre-Award Consultant, Pre-Award Manager Wes Winkelman, or CALS Director of Research Administration Holly Lipkovich.
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NSF Delays Roll-out of Current & Pending and Biosketch Templates Until October 1, 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing stress on proposers, the research community has not been able to adequately prepare and train their staff for the implementation of the new requirements.
NSF has therefore made the decision to delay the requirement to use NSF-approved formats for the biographical sketch and current and pending support sections of NSF proposals until October 1, 2020.
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ORCID ID and SciENcv Biosketch Information and Steps
If you plan to submit or participate on an NSF submission, please follow the below steps to first create an ORCID ID, then a SciENcv biosketch. If there are any questions regarding the process, please contact the NCSU librarians for assistance at
group-lib-citations@ncsu.edu
.
P
lease follow the instructions below to complete this task as soon as possible.
- Create or link your ORCID record to your Unity ID by clicking "Get Started" at this link: https://ci.lib.ncsu.edu/
- Add your publications to ORCID by following these directions: https://ci.lib.ncsu.edu/user/search-and-link
- If you need help importing publications into your ORCID record, send your CV to the Libraries through this link: https://ci.lib.ncsu.edu/user/cv-service
- Log into SciENcv: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/ and select "Click here to start"
- Select "See more 3rd party sign in options" and choose "North Carolina State University"
- Log into SciENcv using your Unity ID
- In the upper right corner, go to Settings by clicking on your username
- In Settings, scroll down to "Linked Accounts" and click the "Change" button
- Search for "ORCID" in the "Search for account name" box and select "ORCID" from the results (you should now see your ORCID record in the "Your Linked Accounts" section above)
- Click on "MyNCBI" in the upper right corner to go back to the main dashboard
- Proceed to the "SciENcv" section to start creating biosketches
Additional Information Regarding the SciENcv requirements:
If there are any questions regarding the SciENcv biosketch process, please contact the NCSU librarians for assistance.
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Welcome Becky Smith - Accounts Payable, Business Services
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Please join us in welcoming Becky Smith to the Business Services Accounts Payable team. Becky joins us with computer systems support and accounting experience from the Wake County School System, and brings a wealth of administrative support experience from other employers as well. We are excited to have Becky join our CBO team and CALS community!
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Welcome Sherita Henry - Pre-Award Consultant, Contracts & Grants
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Please join us in welcoming Sherita Henry to the Pre-Award Team within CALS Contracts and Grants. Rita is coming to us from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of the College of Engineering, where she handled pre-award activities related to both federal and non-federal sponsors.
Details of what departments she will be responsible for will be shared once her training period has ended. We are looking forward to Sherita joining our team on July 13.
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Welcome Malakai Erskine - Post Award Consultant, Contracts & Grants
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Please join us in welcoming Malakai Erskine to the Post Award team within CALS Contracts & Grants. Malakai joins us from CALS Business Services, where he was temporarily part of the PCard team. Prior to joining Business Services, Malakai worked at the University of Washington where he oversaw a portfolio of grants from both federal and non-federal sponsors. Prior to UW, Malakai worked at NCSU in the Proposal Development Unit (PDU) and as the Administrative Director of first the USDA-NIFA NoroCORE Collaborative Grant (CALS) and then the NSF Engineering Research Center ASSIST (COE).
Details of what departments he will be responsible for will be shared once his training period has ended. Malakai will transition to the C&G team on July 14.
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Farewell Wesley Winkelman - Pre-Award Manager, Contracts & Grants
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Please join us in congratulating Wes on his promotion to Department Manager/Assistant Department Chair for Finance and Administration in the Biostatistics department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Though we are very sorry to see Wes leave CALS and NCSU, we wish him all the best in his new position. Wes has been the Pre-Award Manager in CALS since May 2017 and has guided his team through a period of transition which included numerous staff changes, the realignment of Pre-Award Consultants to specific departments, and the implementation of the CALS Pre-Award Policy - 20 & 5. Wes has been an essential member of both the CALS C&G Management and Pre-Award Teams. Please feel free to share your congratulations with Wes directly, prior to his departure date of July 24. (
wwinkel@ncsu.edu
) In the interim, Holly Lipkovich, CALS C&G Director, will be stepping in as the interim Pre-Award Manager.
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