Sponsored Project Resources
The Office of Budget Management (OMB) continually updates and describes the Federal government’s cost principles in great detail.
- 2 CFR Chapter II Part 200 – Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards.
- Subpart F – Audit Requirements.
The State of Washington Office of Financial Management (OFM) accounting policies and procedures are followed in the financial administration of all awards located in the State Administrative & Accounting Manual (SAAM). If the sponsor’s accounting procedures conflict with those of OFM, the OFM policies and procedures will be applied.
- The proper name of the grant or contract program should be indicated in the agency box.
- If the checks are to be picked up rather than mailed to the individual receiving payment, this should also be noted along with the name and campus extension number of the individual who will be picking up and distributing the checks to the individuals listed on the A-19 invoice voucher. The date the checks are to be picked up should be included on the invoice voucher, if applicable.
- A brief explanation of the reason for the payment should be provided.
- The PI or designee should sign and date the agency approval box.
- The grant to which the expenditures are to be charged should appear in the fund and program index columns near the bottom half of the page. The total dollar amount of all checks to be issued should be entered in the amount column.
- When multiple people are receiving stipends, attach to the A-19 invoice voucher (the OGRD has a formatted table that can be sent electronically upon request) a list with the following information for each individual who is to receive payment:
- Name
- Permanent mailing address
- EWU Vendor, Employee or Student ID number
- Payment amount
- Column for the Accounts Payable Department to insert the voucher number used for payment
Bid Requirements
Effective July 26, 2009, state agencies and higher education institutions must use Washington Electronic Business Solutions (WEBS) as Washington’s common vendor registration and bid notification system. Both formal and informal competitive solicitations need to be posted on WEBS by EWU’s Purchasing Office. You may contact Purchasing for assistance on the quoting process.
Bid Thresholds
Purchases up to $10,000 may be made without competitive bids based on buyer experience and knowledge of the market. The bidding process applies when a single order exceeds $10,000 or if annual dollars spent with a particular vendor for repetitive small purchases of similar commodities exceed $10,000. Goods and services that exceed or are projected to exceed $10,000 must go through the quoting process to show evidence of competition. A hard copy purchase requisition must be submitted for goods and services that need to go through the quoting process. The quoting process does not apply to goods and services that are purchased against a state contract.
PIs should consult with the Purchasing Department for questions concerning the quoting process. PIs can also visit the Purchasing Department (http://access.ewu.edu/purchasing.xml) to obtain other information.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the principal set of rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulations System regarding government procurement in the United States, and is codified at Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 48 CFR 1.
The FAR System governs the "acquisition process" by which executive agencies of the United States federal government acquire (i.e. purchase or lease) goods and services by contract with appropriated funds. If a principal investigator receives a contract or purchase order for services from a federal agency, the agreement may stipulate that FAR apply.
Contact the Graduate Program Office.
Indirect costs are generally recovered on a monthly basis as grant/contract funds are spent. The university redistributes the indirect costs to multiple areas within the university that are responsible for the administration and oversight of each grant or contract according to university policy (12/2021).
Based on this policy, the current indirect cost distribution is as follows:
Grants Administration 50.00%
University Infrastructure 15.00%
PI 5.00%
College 20.00%
Provost 10.00%
TOTAL 100.00%
While a significant portion of the indirect costs recovered by the university are used directly to support university services and operations, a portion is also distributed to PD/PIs. These funds should not be used to support direct charges to grant budgets. They are to be used to support various initiatives such as:
- current grant programming activities
- seed money for securing additional external funding
- incentives to participate in proposal development for grants and contracts
- support for students involved in research or projects
- purchase of necessary supplies or equipment related to the project
- support the costs of publications and dissemination
- offset disallowed costs or over expenditures
Although the primary PD/PI has direct access to the indirect costs returned to them, these dollars are not personal funds, they are university funds made available for discretionary purposes during the time the PD/PI is employed at Eastern. Additionally, expenditures must be university-related purposes. Any equipment, supplies or goods purchased using recovered indirect costs become the property of the University.
Expenditures of ICRs must also align with the university budget practices, as well and must conform with all University and Washington State policies and procedures.
EWU has several programs that fall within the category of self-support. Since self-support programs rely on the combined efforts of their staff to keep those programs in operation and since these programs are in themselves their own self-funded departments, the amount of indirect costs recovered by them will be the Faculty and Department shares of 5.00%. Due to the fact that the administrative structure of such programs is usually under the auspices of a college, the college will retain 20.00%. The deans will reserve the right to redirect the college’s recovery in support of the program. The remaining 75% will be distributed according to the original distribution formula.
Contact the Post-Award POC or e-mail ogrd@ewu.edu.
- Professional or technical in nature and meet more specialized needs. Work is predominantly intellectual and varied.
- Work is independent from the day-to-day control of the agency; consultant maintains control of work methods.
- Work requires regular exercise of judgment, discretion, and decision-making; involves providing advice, opinions, or recommendations; may have policy-implications for agency; often addresses management-level issues.
- May require advanced or specialized knowledge, or expertise gained over an extensive period of time in a specialized field of experience.
- Work may be original and creative in character in a recognized field of endeavor, the result of which may depend primarily on the individual’s invention, imagination, or talent.
- Consultant generally assumes risk of loss if the requirements are not satisfied.
Personal service examples:
- accounting services
- actuarial services
- analysis and assessment of processes
- appraisal services
- business analysis
- guest speakers
- grant writing
- operational assessments
- statistical analysis
- public relations
- medical and psychological services and
- investigations
- Repetitive, routine, or mechanical in nature; following established or standardized procedures as contrasted with customary and regular exercise of discretion or independent judgment.
- Services contribute to the day-to-day business operations of the agency, rather than the management or policy side of the agency, and may meet more general needs of the agency.
- Services generally involving completion of an assigned task, rather than an entire project.
- Decision-making and analysis, if required, is more routine or perfunctory in nature.
- Services that are generally performed based upon agency discretion.
Purchased service examples:
- advertising in newspapers
- bookkeeping services
- credit card service
- document storage
- drug testing and screening (standard tests)
- engraving service
- environmental monitoring
- HVAC system maintenance service
- Landscaping
- linen rental service
- language translation service
- vehicle inspection
- temporary employment service and
- telephone interview service
To view the status of a Purchase Requisition (PR) or a Purchase Order (PO), log in to EagleNET SSO, select "Finance" and "View Document." Enter the "Document number" which is the requisition number and click "View Document" or "Approval History" depending on the need. Screenshots are below for reference.
The Communications Services Billing Report may be used to audit tele-recharges on the sponsored project index via the Banner FGRODTA report. The Communication Services Billing Report can be run at the PI's convenience any time after Banner closes.
Log in to EagleNET SSO and select "Finance" and then "Communication Services Billing Report:"
The project index should auto-populate unless the PI is managing more than one project. Then select the index to run the report for and select "Submit Report Request." The example below shows a request for an April 2018 report:
Contact EWU Communications through an IT Help Desk ticket for assistance, if needed.