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Financial Management Newsletter #55

June 2008

Happy Summer!!

This issue of the newsletter includes the following items:

* New Sales Tax Procedures for goods shipped in WA
* New eProcurement vendors and an upcoming system upgrade on the way!
* 2008 Fiscal Year Closing Calendar and Procedures
* 2009 Fringe Benefit Rates now on the Web
* Post-Award Module now available in SERA
* Interim FEC Cost Share REMINDER
* SIMS Update Deadline - JULY 3, 2008
* F&A Unallowable Cost Tracking Tool

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New Sales Tax Procedures for goods shipped in WA

Beginning July 1, 2008, the State of Washington will move from an origin-based local sales tax to a destination-based local sales tax. This change only affects shipments or deliveries to locations within Washington State.

If you do not ship or deliver, nothing will change about the way you handle sales tax. If you do, more information can be found at:

http://www.washington.edu/admin/sp/office/salestax.htm

For questions regarding the new destination based sales tax, please contact Julia Shanahan at 206-616-3003 or jeshana@u.washington.edu

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New eProcurement vendors and an upcoming system upgrade on the way!

eProcurement has added three new scientific vendors: Invitrogen, Continental Laboratory Products (CLP), and a new Qiagen punchout catalog.

As always, University-wide contracts have been established for all eProcurement vendors; therefore, there is no direct buy limitation, no need for special quotes, and no sole source documentation requirements.
Remember, there is NO MARKUP in eProcurement. All displayed prices are University contract prices.

***Coming This Fall - eProcurement upgrade with new search capabilities, exciting new user interface and streamlined requisition process. Stay tuned for more details in future FM News editions!!

More information about eProcurement at:
eprocure@u.washington.edu or by calling the Help Desk at 206-685-3558

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2008 Fiscal Year Closing Calendar and Procedures

While many budgets are not impacted by the fiscal year close (as opposed to a biennial close) Financial Services has posted the calendar for year-end processing procedures at:

http://www.washington.edu/admin/finserv/payables/yearendclose2008.html

Please email any questions to Erick Winger, at erickw@u.washington.edu or call at 206-221-7845.

In addition, every fiscal year-end, the Financial Accounting Office sends surveys to departments requesting inventory, accounts receivable, and deferred revenue balances. These items are recorded on the University's balance sheet as of June 30. Surveys have already been sent out to departments relevant to the data needed. For more information, please see:

http://www.washington.edu/admin/finacct/office/survey.html Questions may be directed to Nancy Treibel, 206-543-8803 or treibel@u.washington.edu

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2009 Fringe Benefit Rates now on the Web

You can find the 2009 rates at http://www.washington.edu/admin/finacct/loadrate.html. You may note that many of the Fringe Benefit Rates for Fiscal Year 2009 decreased from FY 2008. This is due to a one-time decrease in the health care premium for FY 2009. While this is good news for 2009, expect a more than usual increase in the rates in Fiscal 2010 as a result. Please contact Sarah Moore at 616-6786 or moores@u.washington.edu with any questions.

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Post-Award Module now available in SERA

The System for Electronic Research Accounting (SERA) is the first post-award module built in SAGE for use by Grant & Contract Accounting.

The new Advance Budget Request process begins in SAGE with data then flowing directly to SERA. The benefits include: entering data only once (by campus); linking only to eligible eGC1s, validating data before routing, sending email notification to the PI and contacts and displaying the budget number in SAGE. Essentially, this enhancement increases the transparency and efficiency of the overall process.

SERA Phase II is coming (!) and will include an electronic NEA process linking OSP & GCA - putting us one step closer to a fully integrated grant management system. Please contact Lily Gebrenegus at lgebren@u.washington.edu with questions.

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Interim FEC Cost Share REMINDER

In order to meet sponsor reporting deadlines, it is sometimes necessary to obtain cost sharing documentation for financial reports before the FECs are processed, especially for those departments on a six month FEC reporting cycle. A special interim FEC cost sharing report is available (link below)

Questions can be directed to Suzette Ashby-Larrabee at suzette@u.washington.edu with questions. The form can be found at:

http://www.washington.edu/research/maa/fec/pdf/interimcs.pdf

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SIMS Update Deadline - JULY 3, 2008

The last day for you to enter any changes to your FY 2008 research lab space functionalization is THURSDAY, JULY 3RD, 2008. Management Accounting and Analysis will take its final extract from the University's space inventory system, SIMS, early the following week.

If you still have changes you need to make, especially to your research labs, MAA strongly encourages you to get those completed by that date. If you have questions or need assistance, please call 206-543-4990 or contact Brion Norton brionn@u.washington.edu, Joe Nalley jwfn@u.washington.edu, Devon Rosencrans devonr@u.washington.edu, or Cristi Chapman cristic@u.washington.edu.

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F&A Unallowable Cost Tracking Tool

On July 1st, Management Accounting and Analysis will release a web tool designed to track unallowable costs incurred during FY 2008. This data is critical for completion of the current Facilities and Administrative (F&A-or, Indirect Cost) Proposal for 2008. For every non-sponsored operating budget (state, RCR, self-sustaining, and gift budgets), the University must confirm either:

a.) the budget has no A-21 unallowable costs, or if so, b.) the total amount of unallowable expenditures the budget incurred in FY 2008.

This process is done only during F&A rate base years. The base year is the "expenditure year" on which the F&A proposal is based upon.

The web tool will be available on MAA's website:

https://depts.washington.edu/maaweb/maa/faapp/index.php

Information regarding A-21 unallowable costs can be referenced at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a021/a021.html

If you have questions or need access to the tool, please contact Devon Rosencrans devonr@u.washington.edu or 206-543-4990.


Ann Anderson, Associate Vice President / Controller, Financial Management Group (andera@u.washington.edu or 543-4993)

V'Ella Warren, Senior Vice President, Finance and Facilities (vwarren@u.washington.edu or 543-8765)