Faculty Handbook 2017-2018

External Grants

For any grant-related questions, please contact Grant Accountant Carmesha Jemerson in the Business Office: 450-4501 or jemerson@hendrix.edu.

External Grant Budget Proposal Process

All grant applications initiated by or for the benefit of faculty must first be approved by the Provost. The proposal budget must also be reviewed and approved by the Business Office prior to submitting the Grant. Grant applications or proposals submitted for approval must be endorsed by the Chair of the sponsoring academic or administrative departments and by the Area Chair. The Grant Approval process outlined in Section G should be followed. Additional details concerning the involvement of the Business Office in the approval process and in the development of the grant budget are given below.

Budget

Budgets on all proposals must be reviewed and approved by the Business Office prior to submission to the grant funding agency.

Hendrix Match—If Hendrix Match is listed in the proposal, (either cash match or in-kind match – defined below), this must be reviewed and have written approval by the Hendrix Provost and V.P. of Business & Finance prior to submission. Information sent for approval should include how much cash match is required, how much in-kind match is required, and what can be included as in-kind match. If summer housing is to be provided to student researchers, this is considered in-kind match and should be included in the match information.

In-Kind Match—In-kind contributions are donated time and effort, real and personal property, and goods and services. The value of in-kind contributions must be evaluated and documented. The most basic tenet of valuation is that the item or service donated cannot exceed its fair market value.

Salary/Stipend and Fringe Benefits

If salary/stipends are listed on the proposal for faculty, students, and/or contract workers, then the following issues should be addressed in the budget proposal.

Hendrix Faculty/Staff:

     Academic Year—If a faculty member has a reduced work load to accommodate time spent on research and the grant is to reimburse Hendrix for that time (i.e. just not considered Hendrix in-kind match), the percentage of salary to reimburse should be 33% (or whatever portion of time is spent on the grant) of the Primary Investigator’s (i.e. P.I.) total academic year salary. Fringe Benefits (including Health Insurance) should also be reimbursed using the percentages listed below.

0% CREF – 16% 8.5% - 24%
4.5% CREF – 20%
(NOT to be used for Faculty/Staff 100% covered by grant.
See below for Faculty/Staff 100% covered by Grant.)

     Summer Months—Summer stipends are to be in compliance with the granting agencies contract in terms of percentage of the academic year/base salary-if applicable. FICA (7.65%) on these stipends must be paid and should be included in the budget. Faculty can request TIAA-CREF on a summer stipend only if the grant will reimburse Hendrix for the retirement match contribution.

     Faculty/Staff Covered 100% by Grant—If an employee is to be covered 100% by the grant (i.e. a full-time lab tech) the grant should cover FICA, Health Insurance, and TIAA-CREF (if applicable). Please contact the Grants Manager for estimated Health Insurance amounts. Hendrix will cover Life Insurance, meals, and workman’s comp, so don’t include these items with fringe benefits.

     Hendrix Students:

     Academic Year—Any salary for part time students during the academic year will not require FICA benefits.

     Summer—Salary for part or full time students during summer months will require FICA benefits and should be included in the budget. The P.I. will determine if the students will submit timecards or be on a set payment plan (no time card needed). This information must be submitted to the Business Office on the Summer Stipend Grant Information form that will be updated with summer dates and dispersed to faculty each spring. If FICA is not included in the original budget, FICA will need to be removed from another line item (if the granting agency approves) or the FICA will need to be removed from the student’s pay.

     Summer Housing—If summer housing will be provided to part-time or full-time students, the cost of this should be included in Hendrix In-Kind Match in the budget proposal. Please contact the Grants Manager for the amount to budget for the in-kind match as this amount may vary depending on the year. The P.I. should complete the Summer Stipend Grant Information form and submit it to the Grants Manager in the Business Office.

Contract Workers:

     Payments made directly to individuals (not employees of Hendrix) for services rendered are paid as Contract Labor. Contract Labor includes consultants, honorariums, and part-time services around campus. These individuals are not paid through the payroll system and no taxes are withheld from their payment. The Business Office must send them a tax form 1099 at the end of the year, therefore, pertinent information such as social security number and current mailing address must be obtained for the Business Office prior to any contract work payment distribution.

     A Payment Request Form should be completed and submitted to the Grants Manager in the Business Office. If Hendrix has not paid the individual before, a W-9 must be completed and sent to vendorrequests@hendrix.edu before the Payment Request Form is submitted. Please contact the Grants Manager for assistance with this process.

Indirect Costs

Indirect Costs may be referred to as administrative or overhead costs in the grant applications. The current Hendrix Indirect Cost Rate is 62% of wages and salaries (this does not include fringe benefits). Please keep in mind that changes to salary amounts will affect the indirect amount and may cause other budget lines to decrease (or increase) to make up the difference. The departmental indirect allocations are as follows:

External Grants with No Hendrix Cash Match–

     25% indirect to the department of the P.I. to offset departmental expenses

     75% indirect to Hendrix College to offset administration expenses

External Grants with Hendrix Cash Match–

     100% indirect to Hendrix College to offset administrative expenses. Once cash match is covered by the indirect allocation, the indirect allocation will go to 25% to the department and 75% to Hendrix to offset administrative costs.

Time Line

Please keep in mind the time needed to review and approve the grant budget proposals before submitting the grant. The minimum time of one business week is appropriate for this review-budget approval process.

External Grant Awarded Process

Awarded Grants

Once the grant has been awarded, proper documentation must be sent to the Grants Manager in the Business Office. Signed contracts, including budget information, must be included in the documentation.

Match

Any Cash or In-kind Match must have written approval from the Hendrix Provost and V.P. of Business and Finance Office prior to the grant being submitted. This approval must be included with this grant award material (see above in proposal section).

Please note that all Hendrix Match (cash or in-kind) must be satisfied by the expiration date of the awarded grant.

Account and Project Codes

Once the Business Office has received all grant documentation and approvals are on file, the expense accounts and project codes will be created. These accounts will be forwarded to the P.I. at which time the funds will be available for expenditures. No work or purchases should be done prior to receiving approval from the Grants Manager in the Business Office.

Grant Funds/Checks Received

Any and all payments received for external grants should be made out to Hendrix College and should be sent directly to the Grants Manager in the Business Office for processing. Please indicate to the granting agency that checks should be sent directly to the Business Office in attention to the Grants Manager.

Extensions/Revisions of Existing Grants

Any extension requests and/or revisions to the grant (this includes budget revisions) will need to be forwarded to the Business Office in order to update the records and maintain compliance with the grant guidelines. All extensions MUST be approved by the granting agency and the Business Office MUST receive documentation from the granting agency. If the granting agency allows the grant to stay open until all funds are expensed, we must receive documentation from the granting agency approving expenditures past the expiration date.

Expenditures

All expenditures need to be approved by the granting agency as listed in the contract and need to be expensed through the Business Office within the grant award contract dates. Any expenditures charged prior to or after the contract dates will not be expensed through the grant accounts without written authorization by the granting agency. See page 11 for details on expenditures near the expiration date of the awarded grant.

NOTE: While Hendrix is non-profit, the college IS NOT exempt from sales tax. Hendrix must pay taxes on items purchased even if the vendor does not charge tax. Please keep this in mind when budgeting remaining funds.

     Salaries—see above in Proposal section

     Benefits—see above in Proposal section

     Supplies—Supplies are considered tangible property other than equipment, costing less than $1,000 and are necessary to carry out the project allowable by the grant.

     Equipment—Equipment is determined as tangible, nonexpendable property having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of at least $1,000 or more per unit. Equipment purchased through external grant funds is considered property of Hendrix College.

Travel Expenses

There are certain types of expenditures that are allowable as reimbursable expenses by the college. They are the following:

  • Per Diem at a rate of $35 per day. This means that no receipts may be turned in for reimbursement for meals, snacks or beverages of any kind (i.e. water, coffee, tips, etc). Travel plans should include at least six hours in a given day to be eligible for the entire per diem rate for that day.
  • Direct Meal Reimbursement – This option can be used in place of per diem, with provided original itemized receipts. The tip cannot exceed 20% of total meal cost.
  • Mileage of Personal Vehicle at a rate of .58 per mile*. Please note that this is in place of gasoline, which cannot be claimed at the same time unless there was a rental car in addition to a personal vehicle (i.e. mileage to and from airport). *Our current rate is updated by the IRS Standard Mileage Rate.
  • Airfare
  • Miscellaneous Transportation Costs (i.e. taxi, shuttle, bus fare, etc)
  • Hotel
  • Car Rentals
  • Conference Registration and Fees

Please note that toiletry items (i.e. shampoo, hair cuts, clothing items, etc) are not considered allowable business expenses and will not be reimbursed by the college. If you are not sure if an item is allowed, please contact the business office for a determination.

Other Direct Costs—These expenses should be detailed in the grant proposal as to not be misrepresented in the expense accounting procedure.

Indirect Costs—See above in Proposal section.

Monthly Financial Statements

The Business Office works on a monthly basis for updating each of our external and internal grants. All expenditures are recorded on monthly statements and forwarded to the P.I. for review. Please contact the Grants Manager in the Business Office for any questions or concerns you may have regarding these statements. A detail of expenditures report will be available upon request.

Financial Reporting to Grantor

Required financial reports and the due dates to the grantor should be included in the grant contract. The Business Office will record the due date and work with the P.I. to process reports to the grantor in a timely manner.

Expiration of Grant

Prior to the grant expiration date, the P.I. should contact the Business Office to verify any upcoming expenditures and the funds balance. All products must be ordered, on site and received by the grant expiration date. All invoices/payment requests (for the grant or any Hendrix Match) MUST be submitted for payment within two weeks of the expiration date. Any expenses/invoices that arrive to the Business Office after the contract end date may not be charged to this related grant and will be charged to the following year of the grant or the P.I.’s departmental budget. This process will ensure that final expenditures and the final financial reports will be completed accurately and remain in compliance with the Awarded Grant Policy.

All extensions MUST be approved by the granting agency and the Grants Manager MUST receive documentation from the granting agency. If the granting agency allows the grant to stay open until all funds are expensed, the Grants Manager must receive documentation from the granting agency approving expenditures past the expiration date.