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12 Aug 2015: UFS is a commitment accounting system. This means that details of any orders placed in the UFS iProcurement Module are transferred to the UFS Grants module and funds are then reserved for the purchase. These are shown as commitments on several

12 Aug 2015: Staff costs are imported into the Grants module monthly. Where Staff costs have been incorrectly coded they can be transferred using the Tools/Transfer function in the Expenditure enquiry screen. Costs which fail validation will go to departmental

12 Aug 2015: Disbursements from petty cash can be charged to a research grant. There is a limit of £25 per item and all petty cash expenditure should be supported by a receipt.

4 Sep 2015: This is used to define the department or institution processing the transaction, e.g. AG for the Finance Division. The first letter can help to indicate the group to which the department belongs.

12 Aug 2015: Your School Team in the Research Operations Office must be notified of all amendments to a grant, e.g. extensions (cost and no cost), supplementary funding and virement of funds between expenditure categories.

23 Jul 2015: As well as the GL Financial Summary Report, there are other Cognos reports that deal with actual and budgeting variances. Refer to the Finance Division Training webpages Guidance and FAQs, Cognos reports, for a list of reports and detailed assistance

5 Aug 2015: Department users are only able to use the Corporate exchange rates (i.e. are unable to enter User exchange rates). CUFS will usually default to this as the Rate Type. If prompted to complete this field when entering a foreign currency transaction,

6 Aug 2015: All modules will be closed at 5 pm on the following dates.

6 Aug 2015: Click on the image to download the checklist Excel: PDF:

29 Jul 2015: Where applications are successful the sponsor will send an ‘Award Letter’ notifying the Research Operations Office and the applying Principal Investigator (PI). If the department of the PI receive a copy directly from the sponsor they should

23 Jul 2015: Cognos reports for monitoring grant expenditure at institutional level are available, including a summary report which provides an overview of grants expenditure and remaining budget on active awards. Furthermore, once-off, bespoke Cognos reports

5 Aug 2015: All reimbursements for travel and other expenses are made via the Accounts Payable Module, which means that a payment cannot be made to an individual unless they are on the Suppliers List. If required, refer to new supplier set-up procedures. This

5 Aug 2015: AR Invoices are automatically transferred overnight (via an interface) into the receiving department’s AP module. PDF invoice copies are automatically emailed nightly to the receiving department. Departments should be emailing any backup

12 Aug 2015: Grants that are awarded in a foreign currency will be converted to sterling at activation stage, using the University’s foreign exchange policy. The preferred currency for research grants is sterling. For US Dollar and Euro denominated grants the

5 Aug 2015: Amendments to an existing supplier record are only acceptable if they are accompanied by official documentation regarding the relevant change. This may be in the form of a letter from the company stating the change or a copy of an invoice headed

23 Jul 2015: When transferring costs between sources of funds, it is recommended that the transfer should use the original transaction code wherever possible. However should this not be practical then the generic transfer code of EZXX can be used, but must be

5 Aug 2015: If you come across an invoice that states the payment should be processed to a factoring company, then process the invoice as normal against the actual invoicing company. However, check to ensure that the supplier has been set up with a site named

12 Aug 2015: The Departmental Administrator and the Principal Investigator will be notified by email once the grant has been activated by the School Team in the Research Operations Office The activation notice will include a link to the sponsor’s terms and

5 Aug 2015: To maintain a level of timeliness and good housekeeping within the Supplier database, suppliers who have not been used for over 18 months, and have had no activity, are classed as Inactive. This applies only where there are no open Purchase Orders

12 Aug 2015: Some research sponsors, eg. Research Councils and the EC, may require a Principal Investigator to submit an interim or final scientific report. These are also known as Individual Grant Reviews (IGR).

23 Jul 2015: The primary purpose when monitoring expenditure against a budget is to ensure that expenditure does not exceed either the budget, or its planned or received income. The first problem is how to spot where expenditure has, or will, exceed the budget.

5 Aug 2015: BACS payments All Sterling University Suppliers are paid via BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing System). This is an electronic payment system whereby money can be paid directly into a supplier's UK bank account on a specified day, without the need to

12 Aug 2015: Costs can only be incurred during the active period of research, i.e. after the start date and before the end date of the grant. After the end date, purchases can be charged if the goods were physically received before the end date. The start date

12 Aug 2015: All departments have access to Cognos, as well as reports within the UFS Grants Module, enabling them to view the latest financial position on their grants.

5 Aug 2015: Each department should designate two individuals to be responsible for requesting new suppliers or amendments. However, many staff may simply require the Supplier database to view suppliers and this is available to anyone with UFS access.

2 Apr 2015: Departments should determine the appropriate source of funds code using the guidance in section Types of Donation for Accounting Purposes, complete the undertaking and return to CUDAR.

5 Aug 2015: If the distribution is incorrect when matching an invoice to a PO, the changes should be made at the invoice processing stage If you feel the PO distributions require altering then: • Within AP, match the PO to the invoice as normal (with the

23 Jul 2015: Where finances can be managed using UFS this is the most efficient way. However, there may be times when off-line systems can add further detail/clarity. For example, trust fund managers may choose to record a simple budget for the fund on an Excel

12 Aug 2015: Any external audit requirements will be included in the terms and conditions of each award. External audits will be arranged by ROO and auditors may need to visit departments to check invoices and payroll information. ROO will contact departments to

17 Aug 2015: All invoices for sales must be raised in UFS. They must be raised as soon as practically possible after the sale, and at most within one month of the transaction and comply with the VAT regulations. If use of another finance system is essential,

2 Apr 2015: Before releasing a donation, CUDAR will check that the source of funds code is appropriate given the nature of the donation. They will then instruct the Finance Division to transfer the funds.

23 Jul 2015: A commitment is an agreement or a pledge to assume a financial obligation at a future date e.g. the funds that we are committing to spend with a supplier when we send them a purchase order. UFS is a commitment accounting system.

2 Apr 2015: Expenditure charged to a specific donation must meet the conditions specified by the donor. Responsibility for ensuring that the terms of specific donations are available for reference and are adhered to rests with the Head of Department.

6 Aug 2015: If we purchase something from a supplier in the UK who is not registered for VAT (normally because their turnover is too low), then they will not be able to charge the University VAT and hence the expenditure is entered as 'No UK VAT' on CUFS.

31 Mar 2015: Fixed assets within the University are split into three specific categories and presented differently in the financial statements. Equipment Purchased by departments in the normal course of business, including from research grants.

23 Jul 2015: Budgets should be input to UFS on the same transaction codes to which actual expenditure will be coded, as far as possible, otherwise meaningful analysis of Actual versus Budget expenditure is jeopardised at institutional, School and University level

6 Aug 2015: Human blood and products for therapeutic purposes made of human blood, human (including foetal) organs or tissue for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes or medical research are exempt. Therefore no VAT is charge on the purchase and these purchases

23 Jul 2015: The primary consideration when budgeting for a non-Chest activity is to ensure that expenditure does not exceed the funds available. Therefore, the best place to start when budgeting for a non-Chest activity is to calculate the income available.

5 Aug 2015: From April 2015, HMRC changed the rules as to how VAT should be accounted for on invoices with a prompt payment discount. Prior to the change, VAT would always be calculated on the discounted value irrespective of whether the discount was actually

12 Aug 2015: Credit checks The credit control team within Research Accounting credit-check all new sponsors for credit worthiness where possible. Existing sponsors are monitored regularly.

5 Aug 2015: Suppliers that have been entered more than once onto the Supplier database are identified and deactivated by the Accounts Payable (AP) Team. Suppliers that the University does not wish to trade with in the future, for example, companies that have

1 Apr 2015: Calculate the cost of the activities of the trust over the forthcoming year. For salaries, do not forget to include on costs such as employer's NI and pension contributions, as well as the overhead charge.

7 Apr 2015: The GL is at the heart of CUFS, collating information from the sub-ledgers of all of the University's financial transactions. The GL is used for processing journals, account enquiries and running reports.

2 Apr 2015: Donations are not available for investment or spending until they have been received and credited to an income account in the relevant Department.

12 Aug 2015: Departments charge expenditure (excluding Staff costs, Pooled labour, Overheads and Non-direct costs) using UFS iProcurement and Accounts Payables (AP) modules. When charging expenditure in these modules you need to enter the award, project and task

12 Aug 2015: Research Grant expenditure will always be mapped across to a source of funds code MA**. The MA indicates research, the next letter indicating the sponsor type, and the last letter indicates the VAT Status. The sponsor type “letter” is used for

23 Jul 2015: A variance is the difference between actual and budgeted income and expenditure. Therefore, at the University, we only get variances in GL (General Ledger) on Chest funded activities. For all other sources of funds budgetary control will be

2 Apr 2015: The procedures for authorisation of Trust Funds and Special Funds expenditure involve explicit approval by a Manager of the Fund and are set out in a separate chapter of the Financial Procedures Manual (Chapter 13 - Trust Funds).

12 Aug 2015: Each department has a suspense project and award with the format RG00000 (dept cost centre) for the award code and dept cost centre/000 for the project code. Eg. RG00000 (EWAG) EWAG/000 The suspense account is used for posting expenditures which

20 Mar 2015: Budgetary control is financial jargon for managing income and expenditure. In practice it means regularly comparing actual income or expenditure to planned income or expenditure to identify whether corrective action is required.