Budgets Finance  Administration Division

• How do I obtain Monthly Financial Reports on-line?
• How do I obtain Monthly Financial Reports on paper?
• How do I obtain Monthly Financial Reports for my Grant?
• Who do I contact for questions on the Monthly Financial Reports? (ie - JSR, Staffing Plan Variance Analysis)
• How do I know whether to charge an item to direct or indirect?
• What is an accrual?
• How do I get a copy of my budget?
• What is a productive hour?

• Description of each rate (What's in there) (For Example)
• Current Rates
• Fees
• Escalation

FAQs

Each division is able to access on-line financial reports. The on-line financial reports are usually available on the Administration Website the Friday afternoon following the end of each accounting period . In order to have access to these on-line financial reports, you have to be granted the access by the division manager. If there are any questions concerning the contents of these financial reports, please contact Amy Power at ext 4801.

Monthly Financial Reports are not generally available on paper. However, if you want to have a special financial report prepared which is not available on-line, please contact Lisa Kleinwort at ext 5019 or e-mail Lisa Kleinwort

As a principal investigator, you should receive a Project Status Report monthly for each of your projects. If you do not receive one, please contact Lisa Kleinwort at ext 4801, and this will be corrected. If you wish to receive a Project Status Report and you are not the principal investigator, please send an e-mail to sessa@stsci.edu

Karen Schimpf 338-1309 (overall)

Costs directly associated with any of the Institute's many different contracts and grants are considered direct charges. A direct cost is one that can be identified specifically with a particular contract/grant.

Conversely, an indirect cost is any cost not directly identified with a single contract/grant, but identified with two or more contracts/grants.

Consequently, the most straight-forward way to determine whether an allowable charge is a direct or an indirect cost is to identify which contract(s)/grant(s) are benefitting from the charge. If only one contract/grant is benefitting from the item, then the expense normally should be directly charged to the benefiting contract/grant. If, on the other hand, more than one contract/grant is benefiting from the item, then it should be an indirect charge.

Though STScI has defined its cost structure to include four different types of indirect costs (Fringe Benefits, Overhead, G&A, and Subcontractor Overhead), generally overhead is the indirect pool appropriately charged for indirect costs incurred by personnel who typically charge contracts/grants.

If a question exists about the appropriate charge of an item, it is best to ask FIN personnel before charging.

What is an accrual?

Accruals are items of expense that have been incurred during the period, but have not yet been paid. Additionally, expenses for those items that have been paid in advance of performance are also commonly referred to as accruals. Fundamentally, accruing is a mechanism to allocate and assign costs to those accounting periods to which they were incurred, irrespective of the date the invoice was paid.

By way of example, let's use something with which we all are familiar: insurance cost. We know that we will typically pay a one time amount for a year of coverage. Let's assume a $1,200 invoice. If we didn't use accruals, the entire year's expense, or $1,200, would show up in the period the invoice was paid, with zero expense in the remaining eleven months. We know instead that a more accurate depiction of the transaction would spread the $1,200 invoice over the twelve months-- or $100 to each month ($1,200 / 12 months). The $100 monthly expense is an accrual.

Generally, only invoices of significant magnitude are accrued. This is necessary to keep accounting activities and costs to a minimum.

How do I get a copy of my Indirect budget?

A hard copy of both Labor and Non-Labor budgets can be obtained by contacting Karen Schimpf ext.1309

What is a productive hour?

There are 2,080 in any given year. This is what your annual salary is based on. However, very few of us actually work 2,080. On average, each staff member works only 1,756 hours per year. The other 324 hours is made up of vacation, sick, holiday, and discretionary leave. So, a productive hour is time actually spent working vs. leave time which is unproductive time.

Description of each rate

All allowable costs that can be identified to a specific project or task are considered direct costs. Allowable costs that cannot be identified to a particular project or task, or that support multiple functions are considered indirect costs. ST ScI operates in a Fixed Indirect Rate environment. Consequently, over/under applied costs associated with each indirect burden is rolled forward into the appropriate indirect pool calculation in a subsequent fiscal year. Below are the definitions of ST ScI's indirect cost pools:

Fringe Benefits

The Fringe Benefit pool accumulates all costs associated with employee insurance programs, including, but not limited to, medical, dental, basic life, and disability and other employee costs such as the employee assistance program, social security, worker's compensation, Maryland unemployment tax, and retirement.

The allocation base for Fringe Benefits is total payroll dollars for both direct and indirect employees.

General and Administrative

The G&A pool collects all costs associated with administrative personnel such as the Director's Office, Finance, Computer Support, Accounting, Contracts, Procurement, Property, Publication and Human Resources. Costs include, but are not limited to, labor, M&E, travel, office supplies, training, recruiting, seminars, tuition, insurance, computer hardware and software maintenance, outside and professional services, consultants, publications, other operating expenses, and B&P labor and ODCs. It also includes allocations from the Fringe Pools, Facilities Service Center, and B&P Overhead allocation.

The allocation base for G&A is total cost before G&A, with the exception of direct subcontract expenses. The base includes direct labor, fringe benefits, Overhead, Subcontract Overhead, Direct ODCs, material and equipment, and travel.

Overhead

The Overhead pool collects costs associated with the Science Data Analyst (SDA) supervisor, Computer Systems & Users Support, Graphic Arts and Library costs, including labor, allocations from the Fringe Pool, Facilities Service Center and a variety of operating costs such as office supplies, equipment, travel, seminars, computer hardware and software maintenance.

The allocation base for Overhead is total direct labor dollars, including regular, straight overtime, overtime premium and shift differential.

Subcontract Overhead

The Subcontractor Overhead collects costs associated with the administration of subcontracts. This includes a portion of costs associated with administrative personnel such as the Director's Office, Finance, MIS, Accounting, Contracts, and Procurement. Costs include labor, M&E, travel, office supplies, training, recruiting seminars, tuition, insurance, computer hardware and software maintenance, outside and professional services, consultants, publications, other operating expense. It also includes allocations from the Fringe Pools and the Facilities Service Center.

The allocation base for Subcontractor Overhead is direct subcontractor expenses.

Facilities

The Facilities Service Center accumulates all costs associated with Facilities. These costs include all Facilities staff labor and related indirect allocations, M&E, leases, utilities, travel, postage, shipping, telephone, seminars, insurance, security, outside and professional services and other operating expenses. Facility costs are embedded in the Overhead and G&A rates.

The allocation base for the Facilities Center is square footage based on office space of personnel and/or labs associated with each final cost objective. Common square footage is allocated on the same relative allocation as dedicated space.

Current Rates

 

Full Fringe Benefits	28.33%
Partial Fringe Benefits	8.40%
Overhead	63.38%
Subcontract Overhead	.70%
G & A	14.57%

Fee

Science Fee is used by AURA to accumulate funds for ST ScI employee's use in director-approved scientific research.

Escalation of Rates

 

Labor	4.0%
Nonlabor	3.2%