All purchases using grant funds must comply with the Bates Procurement Policy and the Bates Payment for Services Policy. Individual grants may contain additional specific terms and conditions in addition to this Policy. When in doubt, contact ORSP before making a purchase!

If your award proposal contained subawards or contracts, ORSP will work with you to set up the necessary agreements after you receive your notice of award. Subrecipients and contractors may not begin work on the project until these agreements are fully executed.

When you receive an invoice from a subrecipient or contractor, please follow the instructions under Invoice Approval, below, to ensure prompt payment. If the subrecipient sends an invoice directly to ORSP, we will review and then route to you in Adobe Sign for signature.

Prior to signing an invoice, please verify the following:

• The expenses listed in the invoice accurately reflect the completion of tasks associated with the Scope of Work.
• The subrecipient is fulfilling its obligations related to the Scope of Work.
• The expenses are allowable per subagreement and prime award.
• The expenses are within the budget period(s) of agreement.

Invoice Approval Cover Sheet – for submission via Adobe Sign

Invoice submission Policy

Invoices should be submitted to Accounts Payable electronically through Adobe Sign, through campus mail, or by dropping off at 217 Lane Hall during the hours of 8:00 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.

ORSP will automatically receive invoices associated with federal awards for approval. For invoices associated with non-federal awards, please route to the Associate Director of ORSP (tbishop@bates.edu) in Adobe Sign for signature before sending to financialinvoices@bates.edu

Summer Salary/Stipend Request Form

Stipends and Salaries Policy

Faculty members who receive external grants with funding to support their effort (usually summer salary or sabbatical funding) are paid through the payroll system.

Faculty members who are to receive summer stipend payments in June — funded by either internal or external support — must make requests to the dean of the faculty’s office by May 1 in order to begin summer stipends in June.

Contact ORSP (orsp@bates.edu) with questions about how to calculate the amount of stipend payment to request.

New Hires – If your award includes funds to hire a new employee, please contact Human Resources for assistance creating and advertising the position. ORSP and HR will work together with you to make sure the position is created in compliance with your award terms and conditions.

Existing staff employees – If you award includes funds to support a current employee, please complete a Personnel Change Form to charge a portion or all of their wages to your grant. Please contact ORSP (tbishop@bates.edu) with questions.

Travel Expense Report/Reimbursement Form

Bates Travel and Expense Policy

All travel expenses (including food and lodging expenses for off-campus activities), regardless of source of funds, must comply with the Bates Travel and Expense Policy.

Travelers must submit a travel expense reimbursement form, found on the Accounting website.

When using grant funds to support travel, please route the travel expense reimbursement form to ORSP (tbishop@bates.edu) for our signature in Adobe Sign before routing to financialinvoices@bates.edu.

Extra Service Pay Policy

In unusual circumstances, a staff employee may receive additional compensation beyond their contracted wages for performing work outside of their regular duties. (Note: this is relevant to staff and is distinct from summer salary/stipend payments for faculty.)

Contact ORSP (tbishop@bates.edu) and Human Resources with questions and before entering into any agreements.

Policy on Cost Transfers

Although costs should always be properly identified as directly related and charged to the correct fund/account initially, cost transfers are sometimes necessary.

In the event that a cost must be transferred from one fund to another, please contact ORSP (tbishop@bates.edu) and review the Policy on Cost Transfers.

As part of the award terms and conditions, ORSP works with Accounting to prepare financial reports for the sponsor depending on the sponsor requirements. Typically, we prepare financial reports at least quarterly. We will send you a copy to let you know how much you’ve spent and how much you have left. Feel free to contact us for updated reports or with any questions at any point.

If you have questions about allowability of costs or how to spend your funds, please ask us first!

Most sponsors request some type of report detailing progress and grant activities. Most federal sponsors require a yearly report, and release of subsequent funding may be conditional on approval of the previous year’s report, however it is important to review the terms and conditions of your award to identify any and all report requirements

Reporting on the progress of a project is a responsibility that is shared between Principal Investigators / Project Directors (PI/PD) and their institution. In some cases (e.g. NSF), ORSP can only view reports submitted by the PI/PD and the status of pending reports. In others (e.g. NIH), ORSP is required, as organizational representative, to certify the accuracy of reports prepared by the PI/PD. In either case, if you anticipate any unavoidable delays in reporting, please notify ORSP well in advance of the deadline.

Changes in the Scope, senior personnel, or budget of your project may require notice to and/or preapproval from the sponsor. Contact ORSP as soon as possible whenever you anticipate the possibility of significant changes in their project.

The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards spell out, in 2 CFR 200.308, several circumstances requiring preapproval by the Federal awarding agency. There are other circumstances wherein agencies are given the latitude to waive pre-approval requirements, but even in many such cases, institutions are required to furnish timely notification to the awarding agency. PIs/PDs should contact ORSP as soon as possible whenever they anticipate the possibility of one or more of the following:

1. Change in project scope
2. Change in key personnel
3. Temporary disengagement or reduction in effort by a PI/PD or Co-PI/PD
4. Budget changes, especially any relating to Participant Support Costs
5. Changes in the number, scope, or amount of subawards/subcontracts
6. Difficulty meeting mandatory or voluntarily committed cost-sharing
7. Needing to spend money before the official start date of an award
8. No-cost extensions

Such notifications may be sent via e-mail to the Senior Director of ORSP (shumphre@bates.edu). Revision requests that result in either a net increase or net decrease of sponsored funds are not accepted by the system, and all requests must be accompanied by a narrative justification. Prior to implementation, all requests must be approved by the Senior Director of ORSP, who has the option of routing the request for prior review to the Associate Director of ORSP, the Assistant Controller,  Controller or any other institutional administrator with relevant knowledge and expertise. Prior to approval, the Senior Director of ORSP consults the relevant Terms and Conditions of the award, which are referenced in the Cayuse award record, to determine if the requested revision requires sponsoring agency approval. If so, ORSP prepares the request according to agency instructions, and further action in Cayuse is withheld pending the agency response.

A budget revision would be denied if:

• the requested revision includes costs that are not reasonable, allowable, or allocable to the award;
• the requested revision is inconsistent with the applicable cost principles (e.g. Circular A-21 for Federal awards from prior to December 26, 2014, or the OMB Uniform Guidance for those thereafter);
• the requested revision is inconsistent with applicable institutional policies and procedures (e.g. compensation policies, or the institutional travel policy);
• the requested revision requires prior sponsoring agency approval, and such approval is not given;
• or the requested revision results in a budget that is inconsistent with the scope and objectives of the project as described in the proposal.

Once a budget revision has been approved by all necessary parties, the revision is posted to the award record in Cayuse, and a copy of the revised budget is sent to the Assistant Controller of Accounting for any necessary updates to the accounting system.

All participants on NIH-funded projects are required to have an eRA Commons ID to be listed on the annual and final progress reports. Note: This applies to students who are paid from grant funds AND those who work on an NIH project for academic credit.

Please notify ORSP as new participants join your project, and we will set up eRA Commons accounts. It is the responsibility of the PI to follow up with students to ensure that their eRA Commons profiles are completed.