This policy outlines the requirements of Commitment Accounting at Georgia Tech in compliance with USG financial systems and processes.
Commitment Accounting Requirements - General
Georgia Tech departments are required to:
- Review and reconcile salary and fringe benefit data in a timely manner,
- Establish position funding for filled positons,
- Submit, review, and approve transactions in a timely manner.
If a department is awaiting funding from internal or external awards, salary and fringe benefits must be allocated to the undesignated driver worktag, or another discretionary funding source. Departments should not allocate salary and fringe benefits from delayed funds to the suspense worktag for their Department, or another grant.
Change Position Funding (CPF)
When salary and fringe benefit distribution for a future pay period needs to be updated, Departments must follow the requirements outlined below to execute a CPF transaction.
Express Direct Retro (EDR)
If the salary and fringe benefit distribution for a prior pay period within the current fiscal year needs to be corrected, Departments must follow the requirements outlined below to execute an EDR transaction.
Late EDR - Special Documentation Requirements and Limitations for Externally-funded Sponsored Awards and Cost Share
Per 2CFR §200.431, EDR salary distribution changes that add salary charges to externally-fundedsponsored awards and cost share worktags must be accompanied by a written (or system-recorded) justification statement at an appropriate level of detail. Specific reasons for the transfer must be provided in the explanation. Cost transfer requests of this type that are not properly documented with an acceptable justification statement will be moved to the unit's sponsored undesignated worktag number by the Commitment Accounting central office and must be reallocated off of undesignated by the end of the fiscal year.
EDR salary cost transfers to externally-funded sponsored projects beyond 90 days of the original expense posting will not be allowed under normal circumstances. Exceptions to the 90 day limit must be approved by the Commitment Accounting Manager (Institute Budget Planning and Administration Office) , Sr. Director of Grants and Contracts Accounting (Grants and Contracts Accounting Office), and Vice President for Research Administration (Georgia Tech Research Corporation). Exceptions will be considered when:
- Initial or continued sponsor funding is delayed beyond 90 days after the effective date, and the transfer is requested within the reporting period of the sponsored award (typically 60-90 days after the expiration date of the award).
- The terms and conditions of the sponsored agreement provide for acceptance and payment of the expenses covered by the proposed cost transfer and appropriate supporting documentation is provided.
- Other exceptions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Senior Director of Grants and Contracts, and/or the Vice President for Research.
When a request doesn’t meet the one of the exceptions above, the Vice President of Finance and Planning (Administration and Finance Office) may also be required to approve the over 90 days EDR request.
Transfers between grants associated with the same sponsored award and sponsored gifts not identified as cost share projects funded by the Georgia Tech Foundation and Georgia Tech Research Corporation are not subject to special documentation requirements or the 90 day limitation.
Invalid Funding / Suspense
Departments must run and review the Invalid Funding Report daily and correct entries found on the report prior to payroll processing for the pay period. In order to correct the invalid funding entries, a change position funding transaction must be submitted and approved.
Failure to correct invalid funding entries before the payroll is processed for the period will cause the allocations to post to a suspense worktag. If suspense transactions are not corrected in a timely manner, the transactions will be transferred to departmental undesignated driver worktags or cost overrun.
This policy applies to all departments of Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Actuals |
The actual amount of the encumbered portion that has been spent to date. An encumbered amount becomes an actual when an encumbered amount is paid. Actuals represent salary and fringe benefit expenses. |
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Change Position Funding (CPF) |
The process of assigning or updating future pay period salary and fringe benefit distribution to a position by percentage and effective date. |
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Commitment Accounting |
The Commitment Accounting business process enables departments to budget for salary and fringe benefit expenses and track actual salary and fringe benefit costs. |
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Encumbrance |
A claim against funds; a projection of future expenses. |
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Express Direct Retro (EDR) |
An Express Direct Retro is the retroactive redistribution of salary and fringe benefit costs. |
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Invalid Funding Report |
The invalid funding report displays positions with an error for future pay periods that have not been processed. |
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Provisioned Initiator |
A Provisioned Initiator is a security role which gives an individual access to complete transactions for positions, position funding, EDRs, and other tasks for departments. Information regarding training to become a Provisioned Initiator can be found in the GT learning management system. |
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Suspense |
A Suspense is a combination code that allows for the review and resolution of errors, to track payroll costs that do not have position funding, and to track when funding ends in the middle of an earnings period. |
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5.1 Change Position Funding Procedure Requirements |
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Submission |
A CPF transaction must be submitted by a user with appropriate access to update future pay period (encumbrance) postings of gross salary distributions. |
Review |
Provisioned Initiators must identify if the employee for which the CPF is being processed is funded from multiple departments or awards. If employees are funded from multiple departments or awards, all departments must approve the CPF transaction. If all required departments are not included in the approval workflow the transaction will be denied. |
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5.2 Express Direct Retro Procedure Requirements |
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Submission |
EDR requests must be submitted by a user with appropriate access to correct actual payroll postings of gross salary distributions. |
Documentation |
An Employee Cost Detail report and supporting documentation are required to be attached to each transaction. Failure to attach the required documents to the transaction will cause the transaction to be denied. |
Review |
Provisioned Initiators must identify if the employee for which the EDR is being processed is funded from multiple departments. If employees are split funded, all departments must approve the EDR. |
Timing Requirements |
The accounting date of the EDR transaction must be approved at all levels within the current accounting period in order to post the transaction to workday. The monthly cutoff for EDR transactions is determined by the Workday month end schedule. If the accounting date of the transaction is outside of the current accounting period, the transaction will be denied. Example: the transaction was initiated on May 1st with the same accounting date, however the transaction was not approved until June 10th. This transaction will be denied because Workday closed for May prior to the approval date. The user will need to resubmit the transaction with a June accounting date and ensure the transaction is approved within the same month. |
Late EDRs |
An EDR request over 90 days past the original payroll posting date, where funding is being moved to a grant requires additional documentation and approval by the Commitment Accounting Manager, and the Sr. Director of Grants and Contracts Accounting. When a request doesn’t meet the one of the exceptions noted in the Policy Statement above, the Vice President of Finance and Planning (Administration and Finance Office) may also be required to approve the over 90 days EDR request. Users must complete the transmittal form, attach the employee cost detail report, supporting documentation and submit the request to the GT Financials Service Now. |
Institute Budget Planning and Administration – Commitment Accounting Team
The Commitment Accounting team in Institute Budget Planning and Administration is responsible for:
- Managing, reviewing, and approving all commitment accounting related transactions,
- Submitting EDR transactions over 90 days on behalf of campus users,
- Correcting fringe benefits and tuition errors
- Verifying transactions post to Workday general ledger
Departmental Initiators/Approvers/Reviewers
Departmental Initiators/Approvers/Reviewers are responsible for:
- Verifying position funding,
- Verifying salary, flate rate fringe benefits, and tuition remission distributions are accurate,
- Reconciling transactions,
- Reviewing transactions in a timely manner and ensuring transactions are approved or denied.
To report suspected instances of ethical violations, please visit Georgia Tech’s Ethics Helpline a secure and confidential reporting system, at: https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/en/report_custom.asp?clientid=7508
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Revision Date |
Author |
Description |
| 10/20/2020 |
Institute Budget Planning and Administration |
New Policy |