Business Operations November Newsletter
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How Can We Contact You?
Please keep your phone numbers and emails updated in the campus directory and encourage other faculty and staff to do so as well, so we can contact folks when questions arise. To update the information, please select the “Update My Directory Listing (Faculty/Staff)” on the
NCSU Directory page
.
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Upcoming Business Partners Meeting
Join us for our upcoming Business Partners meeting on
November 13
from 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. in Williams Hall Room 2405, or online at
www.go.ncsu.edu/cbo-partners
as we live stream the meeting.
These meetings are used to share valuable information and updates to CALS' departments that impact our ability to effectively and efficiently carry out business operations for our college, while maintaining compliance with policies and regulations. If you are unable to attend the meeting or view it live, please visit our
Business Partners webpage
to view the recording and meeting slides, and share any pertinent information with your departments.
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Business Purpose Needed on ALL Marketplace Orders
A detailed business purpose must be provided on ALL Marketplace orders to ensure accurate processing and correct account codes are used. The AP Approver team has had to push back a high volume of orders because there is no business purpose.
Effective January 1, 2020
once the approver has contacted the submitter to add a business purpose (when not provided) the approver will hold the requisition for 48 hours. If the requisition has not been updated with the business purpose, the approver will deny the requisition back to the submitter.
An acceptable business purpose will explain how the item is used. For example, “Purchasing X for purpose of Y” or “Purchasing paper towels for rodent lab cages.”
To edit your requisition you must go to the “Manage Requisitions” page in Mypack Portal. This can be located by going to the Navigator icon, then Financial Systems, then Marketplace, and then Manage Requisitions. From there you should see your pending requisitions. On the right hand side there is a “Select Action” drop down, select “Edit” click “ok” on the pop up that appears, add the business purpose to the comments and hit submit.
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Sole Source Requisition Requests - Strengthening Internal College Controls
This is a reminder of a change implemented in April 2019. Sole source requisition requests must be submitted to the CBO via ServiceNow. Next-level review and sign-off (e.g., Department/Unit Head, Directors, or Dean) will be required prior to the CBO forwarding to NCSU Procurement Services. We will require an email or letter from Department/Unit Head, Directors, or Deans approving the sole source requisition exceeding $5,000. The email or letter must include a description of the good or service being requested to include: vendor name, amount, and details of good or service, typically found in the vendor quote to the purchaser. In addition, next-level review and sign off for individual PCard purchases valued at or exceeding $5,000, and which are not associated with an existing purchase order, will be required prior to CBO approval of the PCard holder’s PCard statement.
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Purchase Authorization (PA) versus Purchase Order
At times vendors may ask for a purchase authorization to satisfy an order of any value. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has a purchase authorization system. This system provides quick access to a purchase authorization number, however, it is not the same as a NCSU Purchase Order. The NCSU Purchase Order is required when a supplier/vendor will be providing goods or services over a twelve month (fiscal) period greater than $5000. The purchase authorization system (PA system) will be under construction in January 2020, because the PA is not officially approved by NCSU Procurement Services, however, is a resource for providing a vendor a purchase authorization number. The purchase of goods or services must still be an allowable expense. Please refer to the
Basic Spending Guidelines
, prior to making purchases, or contact the CBO Helpline for assistance at (919)515-4226.
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Why Do I Need a Purchase Order?
As you consider the large-scale purchases (greater than $5,000) that you may need to make over the upcoming year, it is important to understand why it is necessary to submit a purchase order, and how the college and university offices work together with suppliers to negotiate the best prices, delivery expectations, and invoicing options. By informing the CBO of your purchasing needs and decisions, we can work with the university to ensure you are receiving great quality goods and services at the best prices.
Read more to understand how we can work together to meet your purchasing needs
.
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Contract Requirement Prior to Paying Vendors - Independent Contractors
In July 2019, Procurement Services rolled out the new contracts portal. A contracted service between NCSU and any vendor of ANY nominal value must be signed off by NCSU Procurement Services. A contract is any document that legally binds the University to another party. Contracts can take many forms, including affiliation agreements, memoranda of understandings (MOUs), terms and conditions (T&C’s), letters of agreement, on-line click-through agreements and a variety of other labels.
If a contract has not been signed between NCSU and an Independent Contractor, when an invoice is presented, all NCSU colleges must first submit for a Requisition (or Purchase Order) before payment of the invoice can be made. These requests should be put into ServiceNow. The Business Services Accounting Technician will inform you if a PO is required from your initial Voucher/Invoice request. Once the PO is provided, the CBO will send the invoice to Procurement Services to process payment (standard process for vouchers related to open POs).
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PCard Updates and 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.
October Billing Cycle (Past Billing Cycle)
The
October
billing cycle (September 21 - October 18) statement deadline is
5 p.m.
on
November 20
. To allow cardholder and supervisors adequate time for approval, reconcilers will approve statements by
November 5
unless additional information is required. If additional information is required in order to approve a statement, cardholders will receive notification by
November 8
from
[email protected]
. 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
October 21
would be required to submit a JV request via ServiceNow if the transaction was not charged to the appropriate project.
November Billing Cycle (Current Billing Cycle)
The reconciliation deadline for the
November
billing cycle (October 19 - November 20) is
November 22
. However, in order to guarantee reconciliation of transactions, receipts should be uploaded by
3:30 p.m.
on
November 21
. Anything uploaded after the November 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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Reminder: NSF to Require SciENcv Biosketches in January 2020
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has designated the National Institutes of Health’s SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae) as an NSF-approved format for submission of biographical sketch(es).
Beginning with the next iteration of the PAPPG (anticipated effective date, January 2020), NSF will only accept PDFs for biographical sketches that are generated through use of an NSF-approved format.
A description of NSF-approved format(s) will be posted on the NSF website when the PAPPG is issued.
In case you or your faculty were unaware, data from profiles created in ORCID can be fed directly in SciENcv. NC State University Libraries offers a service called Citation Index to help folks flesh-out their ORCID profiles.
NC State Libraries' staff are working to create a SciENcv guide for its website and hopes to have this available, along with workshops for research administrators, by the fall. In the meantime, you can fill out a
research consultation request form
to request one-on-one support.
Additionally, a Q&A session on SciENcv and ORCID was held on November 12.
During the session a panel of experts from t
he NC State Libraries, College of Engineering, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Proposal Development Unit answered questions about setting up your SciENcv profile as well as using the Citation Index and your ORCID ID to facilitate the set up.
You may view the recorded session here
.
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Negotiation Notes: End-of-Year Agreement Requests, per ORI Newsletter
December typically sees a higher number of requests for new agreements with industry sponsors than all other months because the end of the calendar year is often tied to the end of a company's budget cycle.
Since the end of the year is fast approaching, the Office of Sponsored Programs encourages all departments and colleges to forward requests for a new agreement (a.k.a. requests for new funding) via an appropriate PINS record as soon as the request is received.
Please note any year-end budget constraints in the Comments section of PINS so that the Industry Negotiations Team is aware of the request. Thank you in advance for your assistance regarding these end-of-year requests. Please reach out to your Pre-Award Consultant or
[email protected]
with any questions.
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Grant Closeouts Routing Changes & Closeout Form Reminder
The university is updating the routing of Closeout forms within the PeopleSoft system. The updates are currently going through a second round of testing with an implementation in the near future.
As part of this process, we wanted to remind individuals that
University C&G has the authority to pull back closeouts forms which are not submitted to University C&G by their deadline
. Additionally, it appears this authority will now include a timeframe of 5 days prior to the agency deadline, as part of the new Draft Closeout Guidelines (which are not yet in effect).
Therefore, if closeouts are not complete by the deadline, only those expenditures on the closeout form may be submitted as part of the final financial report.
Please note CALS C&G is currently revisiting the ledger 5 closeout process in regards to the submission of SDC, JVs, vouchers, PCard and Marketplace charges made within the last 30 days of the grant. Additionally, we will be reaching out to Business Service Coordinators to understand their department’s process/deadlines related to these items with the goal of incorporating those deadlines into our revised CALS C&G closeout process to meet the University’s closeout deadlines. We will continue to keep the CALS community updated as we work through the system upgrade.
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3D Memo: Contracts & Grants and Student Fees - Reminder
In an effort to clarify any confusion, we have reached out to the University who confirmed that the 3D Memo on Student Fees applies to
all
ledger 5
projects, no matter the sponsor. The memo discusses three aspects:
- For proposals, no student fees have been budgeted since the end of July 2019.
- For existing ledger 5 projects, we will be working with faculty to address each ledger 5 project, per the memo’s stipulations.
- Lastly, it is at the department level to decide how to move forward with the recommended stipend increase, as detailed in the memo.
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New Limited Submissions Coordinator
Emily Callihan will be replacing Marie Grubbs, as the Limited Submissions Coordinator. Among her other duties, Emily oversees the University’s Limited Submission process which pre-selects proposals when the RFA/RFP restricts the number of proposal submissions by Institution. For additional details on the process, please see the Limited Submissions Opportunities
website
. For any questions, please reach out to
[email protected]
.
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Annual Effort Certification - Thank you!
We wanted to thank all those individuals who certified or assisted with the annual effort certification process. Through your efforts, we certified 96% of CALS 1,567 effort reports. As a University, 97% of the 5,242 effort reports were certified. We could not have done it without your assistance. Thank you!
Also, please note the Summer Effort Reports were distributed by the University at the end of October and will be due January 2, 2020. Please note these reports relate to 9 month appointment individuals who had summer effort. If you have questions please reach out to CALS Cost Share Coordinators at:
[email protected]
.
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NIH @ NC State Grantsmanship Series
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest funder of biomedical and health related research in the country, spending over $24 billion per year in research grants. The Proposal Development Unit is offering a seminar series for anyone in the NC State Community who would like to learn more about grant opportunities at NIH. See below for the upcoming seminar.
BUDGETING FOR NIH GRANTS
Duke Energy Hall, Hunt Library, Monday, November 18, 2019, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Topics include
: Understanding why NIH budgets may differ from other federal agencies, how to be strategic about budgeting, and how to set-up a modular budget.
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Welcome (Back) Marthy Purcell, Sr. Post Award Consultant
Marthy Purcell
re-joined the CALS C&G Post Award Team as Sr. Post Award Consultant on November 5. Marthy returns to the CBO from her most recent position at Duke University as a Pre-Award Proposal & Post Award Grant Manager. She brings to the team over
19 years of experience in various areas of accounting, grant development and particularly management, including her time as both a
Fiscal Manager in University C&G and Post Award Consultant within CALS C&G.
Once her training period ends, Marthy will be taking over
Steve Fowler’s portfolio
.
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Welcome Tayler Gentle, Pre-Award Consultant
Tayler Gentle joined the CALS C&G Pre-Award Team as a Pre-Award Consultant on November 4.
Tayler comes to the CBO from UNC Chapel Hill, where she worked as a Business Services Coordinator in the Office of Animal Care and Use. Additionally, Tayler brings with her nearly 10 years of administrative experience at UNC-CH, including time as a research technician and specialist. Once her training period ends, Tayler will be taking over
Aletta Davis’ portfolio
.
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While our new C&G individuals are being trained, please continue to reach out to your interim Post Award Consultant or Shirley Patterson (
[email protected]
)
and your interim Pre-Award Consultant or Wesley Winkelman (
[email protected]
)
if you have any questions.
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Welcome Missy Grissom, Accounting Supervisor
Please join us in welcoming new Accounting Supervisor, Missilina "Missy" Grissom, to the Travel and Accounts Receivables team. Missy joins us from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where she served as Accounting Technician Team-lead for the Central Travel Team. Prior to that role she was in Accounts Receivables for Randstad and also worked as a Financial Secretary with UAFC and was a Senior Teller with Bank of America.
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Welcome Jolie
Kajioka
, Accounting Supervisor
Please join us in welcoming new Business Services Supervisor, Jolie Kajioka, to the Accounts Payable team. Jolie joins us from the College of Engineering, where she served as the Contracts and Grants Manager. Prior to her current role, she was a Bookkeeper within the College of Engineering and previously worked with UNC Chapel Hill and Ashford University. Jolie will be in the office formerly occupied by Shelia Walden.
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