Frequently Asked Questions

If the final payroll and/or salary transactions have been processed, posted to the budget and it's been over two weeks, please contact GCA via gcahelp@uw.edu or via Grant Tracker.

The most common reasons Term Notices are returned by GCA are:

• Missing electronic validation ("signature")

  • MUST be validated by both the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Trainee for Training Grants

  • For Fellowships: Fellow and Sponsor (PI) validation required.

    • When such situations occur, and the institution has tried unsuccessfully to include the Sponsor in the termination process, the Business Official may assume responsibility for certification and submit the termination notice to the agency via xTrain.

    • From NIH Commons FAQs: In unusual cases, the Sponsor may not be available to certify the information on the termination notice.

• Incorrect stipend payment listed

  • Actual pay MUST correspond to trainee's stipend amounts listed on the training grant and the UW's proration calculation (see the Proration Calculator to calculate correct stipend amounts).

  • Supplemental/additional compensation on other budgets is not included in GCA's reconciliation.

  • GCA calculates salary transactions that posted in the financial system to the training grant. These can include salary transfers that are not reflected in the OPUS salary distributions.

Using any salary object codes other than the allowable ones will charge the training grant additional benefits which are NOT allowed to be charged (per NIH restrictions).

Stipends are to be coded either 01-50 for post-doctoral trainees or 01-90/08-02 for pre-doctoral trainees.

Yes.

NIH prorates by whole months, then days within the month. The UW payroll calculates differently: number of working days in a half-month payroll cycle. When entering the trainee's total stipends use the UW amount.  A Termination Notice Proration Calculator has been developed to assist. Once the prorated amount has been verified, the actual stipend payments in MyFD, and the stipend amount listed on the termination notice must match the calculated proration.

E.g.  trainee was appointed a yearly amount of $22,032 but only trainees from 7/01/13-2/13/14

• xTrain calculates (22032/12*7)+(22032/12/28*13) on the term notice

• UW payroll would reflect the final month of payment as 9 of 10 working days multiplied by the half month: (22032/12*7)+(22032/12/2*9/10)

NIH accepts these differences that are within a reasonable amount.

01-50, 01-90, and 08-02 are the only allowable objects codes that denote stipends. Using another salary object code can denote an employee/employer relationship, which is counter to the NIH Grants Policy Statement "stipends for trainees are not “salary” and not provided as a condition of employment..."  Other salary object codes also cause unallowable benefits to be charged to the grant AND can cause tax implications for trainees.