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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Business Partners Bi-Weekly Meetings
Previously scheduled bi-monthly Business Partners meetings have been canceled as the CBO and CALS HR are now holding bi-weekly meetings with primary business and HR coordinators to answer questions and provide updates surrounding the COVID-19 situation.
Recordings of each meeting along with the agendas are posted to the CBO Business Partners webpage as they become available. If you have questions regarding these meetings, please contact Molly Bradshaw, Process Efficiency and Training Manager, at mqbradsh@ncsu.edu.
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CBO Training and Guidance
Did you know CALS Business Operations (CBO) has a Training and Guidance webpage that contains tutorials, tip sheets, and workflow documentation to assist departments, research stations, and Extension with the submitting and successful processing of business transactions? CALS must adhere to specific college, university, and state guidelines when it comes to business operations, and we understand that many of the processes can be confusing and at times tedious for our CALS’ customers. The webpage includes resources specific to budgeting, contracts & grants, business services, and more. The CBO team is continuously updating and adding to this page and hopes the page will provide guidance for and understanding of the various business activities that take part across the college.
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New Streamlined Subaward Invoice Approval Process
In response to feedback from departments, Business Services and Contracts & Grants has revised the subaward invoice approval process. Prior to this change, the PI had to both approve the invoice and confirm the appropriate ledger 5 project and phase number for each subaward invoice. Due to the below University requirements, we cannot remove the requirement that PIs approve the subaward invoices.
PIs must monitor Subrecipients’ performance through direct contact with the subrecipient’s PI and interim technical reporting. PI must approve all invoices submitted by subrecipients before they can be paid. The Department and College must retain all documentation relating to each subaward for a minimum of 3 years following the end date. https://research.ncsu.edu/sparcs/budgeting-guidelines/budgeting-consultants/
However, we are removing the step which requires the PI to confirm the ledger 5 and phase numbers. Going forward, the Post Award Consultants will now be accessing the ServiceNow incidents and providing the appropriate ledger 5 and phase numbers for all subaward invoices. Please note, the PI will still need to access ServiceNow in order to review and approve the invoice, via logging a comment.
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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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Remember to Receive Your MarketPlace Order
All MarketPlace orders require receiving within two business days of delivery. Follow these steps to receive your goods:
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Log into MyPack Portal and navigate to: Main Menu > Financial System > MarketPlace > Manage Receivers.
- All orders that require receiving will be listed.
- You can search for a specific order by entering the requisition or purchase order number in the search fields at the top of this page.
- Find the order you want to receive or reject and click on the triangle to the left of the order number. All lines of the order will be shown.
- Enter the date the items were received, the quantity received and choose accept or reject for each line.
- Only enter the amount received in the shipment, do not mark items received that have not arrived.
- Click the Save & Create Receipt button. A pop up window will appear with your receiver number.
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Detailed instructions on receiving can be found in the MarketPlace Manual (page 27).
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Confirming Orders
Confirming Orders are purchase orders that are issued AFTER purchases above $5,000, including shipping charges, are made and have been received by employees. These orders are normally unauthorized purchases and are not allowed because all purchase orders should be issued BEFORE goods or services are received.
There are times when Confirming Orders are allowed, but Procurement Services MUST be notified PRIOR to submitting a Confirming Order. An example of when a Confirming Order is allowed is an emergency repair of equipment that causes a research project or departmental process to stop.
Requisitions that are processed as Confirming Orders must include an explanation memo from the Requester explaining why the correct University process was not followed and how their department’s business processes will be changed so this does not happen again.
Requisitions that are submitted without the required documentation will be denied and sent back to the department. Once the proper documentation is attached to the requisition, it can then be re-routed for approval by the department, college, and Procurement Services.
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Travel Reminder - Overnight and Out of State Travel
As a reminder, blanket Travel Authorizations (TAs) cannot be used for any overnight or out of state travel. This is only to be used for in state travel with no overnight stay. Any overnight travel, or out of state travel will require an individual TA, as an EMMC approval email is needed to upload for each specific trip.
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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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September Billing Cycle (Past Billing Cycle)
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The September billing cycle (August 21 - September 18) statement deadline is 5 p.m. on October 20.
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To allow cardholders and supervisors adequate time for approval, reconcilers will approve statements by October 6 unless additional information is required.
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If additional information is required in order to approve a statement, cardholders will received notification by October 6 from cals_cbo_pcard@ncsu.edu. Please be on the lookout for these communications.
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Additionally, cardholders who did not have their receipts uploaded for this billing cycle into the PCard Center as of 3:30 p.m. on September 21 would be required to submit a JV request via ServiceNow if the transaction was not charged to the appropriate project.
October Billing Cycle (Current Billing Cycle)
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The reconciliation deadline for the October billing cycle (September 19 - October 20) is October 22. However, in order to guarantee reconciliation of transactions, receipts should be uploaded by 3:30 p.m. on October 21.
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Anything uploaded after the October 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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CALS Cardholder PCard Distribution
NCSU PCards are set to expire November 30, 2020 and new PCards will be issued to cardholders prior to the expiration date. Departments and cardholders should expect to receive an email with details on how to obtain their new PCard.
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CALS Cardholder Training
To improve CALS PCard program compliance, all cardholders will be required to complete CALS CBO Cardholder training. The training module focuses on CALS CBO PCard processes, purchasing guidelines, travel guidelines, and documentation requirements.
Cardholders should know:
- They will receive an email with instructions on how to access the training.
- They must pass the end of training assessment with 90% or higher and complete the cardholder acknowledgement form before training is marked complete.
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They will be required to complete the training by January 8, 2020. The training may be completed in multiple sessions.
- They will receive email reminders until training is completed.
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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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Memberships
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 is purchased with a conference registration and the difference of the member and non-member conference registration is greater than or equal to the membership dues. Faculty and staff wishing to use state funds for this registration/membership combo will be required to upload documentation to support the registration difference. Requests that do not include this cost-savings documentation will not be allowed on state funding.
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COI Deadline was September 30th - Delinquency Notices Sent
As the COI deadline was Sept. 30th, starting October 6th, and weekly thereafter, delinquent notices will be sent from RED to individuals with a cc to their supervisor until the COI is submitted.
If you have received a delinquency notice, but believe the COI was completed. Please see below guidance in regards to confirming the COI was “submitted”.
To submit the disclosure, please follow the instructions below:
- Use your Unity ID and password to return to RED at the following link: https://era.ncsu.edu
- From the RED home page, click "COI / NOI" from the left sidebar.
- Click the "Create or Update Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure" button.
- Please confirm that all of the disclosed information is complete, accurate, and up-to-date to the best of your knowledge.
- When you are ready to submit your disclosure, click the Submit button in the toolbar at the top of the screen. RED will check your disclosure for missing responses to required fields.
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If your disclosure validates without finding any errors, the box inside the Complete button will check, and the disclosure will submit.
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However, if your disclosure finds missing information, a pop-up will appear listing all of the required fields in the form with missing responses. You can click on each question to jump to its location in the form. When you are finished, click the Submit button again. This process must be repeated until the form submits without finding any errors.
Remember that your disclosure will NOT be officially recorded until you click the Submit button.
You will know that you have submitted your disclosure successfully when you receive a confirmation email from the system. This email will also let you know if any further action is required on your part. If you are ever unsure that your submission was successful, keep in mind that you will always get an email confirmation from the system whenever a form is submitted successfully.
Please see below useful links, in addition to the email you should have received from COI/NOI Office Staff:
COI Help Desk: For assistance with questions, not on the COI website, please reach out to the SPARCS Helpline 919-515-4267 ext. 2 for COI
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Technical Issue with SciENcv Generated Documents During Sept. 9th - 17th
A SciENcv technical issue was identified that may have affected the formatting (i.e., margin size and/or font size) of documents (Biosketch and Current & Pending) generated during the September 9, 2020 through September 17, 2020 timeframe, resulting in non-compliance with Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) proposal formatting requirements. Please be aware that the SciENcv technical issue is now fixed, and documents generated in SciENcv prior to September 9, 2020 and after September 17, 2020, are compliant with PAPPG proposal formatting requirements.
Here’s what you need to know and do:
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Submitted Proposals: If you generated a Biographical Sketch or Current and Pending Support document in SciENcv between September 9 and September 17 and included it in an NSF proposal that was subsequently submitted, no action is required. We have informed NSF Program Officers of this issue to prevent proposals from being returned without review due to these potentially non-compliant Biographical Sketch or Current and Pending Support documents.
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In Progress Proposals: If you generated a Biographical Sketch or Current and Pending Support document in SciENcv between September 9 and September 17 and uploaded this document to an NSF proposal that is still in progress, you must download a new version of the document from SciENcv and replace it in your in-progress proposal prior to proposal submission to ensure full compliance with PAPPG proposal formatting requirements.
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Effective October 5th: Required NSF Biosketch and Current & Pending Templates and Updates to Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)
As shared in previous newsletters, NSF has now gone live with the requirement to utilize their established templates for both Biosketches and Current & Pending forms for all proposals starting October 5th. Please note, the system will prevent a proposal from being submitted, unless the required template formats are utilized for these documents.
Both templates can be generated via SciENcv, please see previous month’s newsletter for additional information. Additionally, individuals can download the templates and fill in the information. Please see below for additional information:
Additionally, please see below notification from Jean Feldman, Head, Policy Office:
Dear Colleagues:
Effective October 5, 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will enhance the Project Reporting System in Research.gov to implement the revised Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). The RPPR is a uniform format for reporting performance progress on Federally funded research projects and research-related activities. NSF awardees use the RPPR to prepare and submit annual and final project reports to NSF. Further details about the RPPR can be found on the Research.gov About Project Reports website.
New Question for Project Reports with Active Other Support Changes
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On October 5, 2020, NSF will add the following new question to the Edit Participants screen: Has there been a change in the active other support of the PI/PD(s) since the last reporting period? If Principal Investigators (PIs)/Project Directors (PDs) and co-PIs/co-PDs select “Yes,” they will be required to upload their most up-to-date Current and Pending Support document in an NSF-approved format to notify NSF that active other support has changed since the award was made or since the most recent annual report.
- Current and Pending Support documents not in an NSF-approved format will trigger a compliance error preventing document upload and submission of the annual or final project report.
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The NSF-approved formats for Current and Pending Support are SciENcv: Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae and an NSF fillable PDF.
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The NSF Current and Pending Support website includes additional information as well as links to system-related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for both NSF-approved formats. A set of policy-related FAQs related to current and pending support is also available.
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The complete lists of FastLane and Research.gov automated proposal compliance checks effective October 5, 2020, are available on the Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals website.
Additional New Questions from the Revised RPPR
Beginning October 5, 2020, NSF will also add the following three questions to the "Impact" and "Changes/Problems" tabs:
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What was the impact on teaching and educational experiences? (Impact tab);
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What percentage of the award’s budget was spent in a foreign country? (Impact tab); and
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Has there been a change in primary performance site location from that originally proposed? (Changes/Problems tab).
NSF-specific Updates
- NSF-specific help text updates have been added throughout, and NSF-specific instructions have been clarified or enhanced.
- To reduce administrative burden, NSF has consolidated data entry fields where possible.
Current and Pending Support Format Training Resources
SciENcv has created the following materials to guide the community through the preparation of the NSF Current and Pending Support document in SciENcv:
Questions? Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov. If you have IT system-related or technical questions regarding the NSF-approved formats or the Research.gov Project Reporting System, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 (7:00 AM - 9:00 PM ET; Monday - Friday except federal holidays) or via rgov@nsf.gov.
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