Payroll Accrual Guidance for Final Financial and Invoice Reporting

Departments should strive to ensure that all payroll expenses are properly allocated to the correct award prior to the end of the trail out period. If situations arise when the timely processing of a salary cost transfer is not possible, a payroll expense accrual is required to draw down funds via Letter of Credit processing as well as to issue the final financial report and/or invoice to the sponsor.

With the transition to UCPath, payroll expense accruals required for final financial reporting and invoicing are no longer processed by Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA). Previously, accruals and their reversals were processed by CGA in conjunction with the submission of Payroll Expense Transfer Uploader (PETU) forms.

Departments are now able to complete an accrual journal using Source Code 549 to ensure all direct expenses pending processing via salary cost transfer are recorded to the General Ledger (GL) at award close This should only be used for salary cost transfer adjustments submitted using a UCPath Direct Retro in the following situations:

• The transaction was submitted and approved in UCPath and has not yet posted to the General Ledger.
• A late cost transfer submitted via UCPath is under review by CGA Compliance.
  • Transactions requiring late cost transfer approval must be approved to be included in the final reporting/invoicing.
  • Approval status of the late cost transfer should be indicated in the Final Reporting Certification (FRC) form.
• A known defect in UCPath prevents the submission or processing of a salary cost transfer.

Upon posting of the actual salary cost transfer to the General Ledger, departments must reverse any accrual journal. A reversal of the accrual for any late cost transfer must also be processed if the transfer is not approved.

Use the Account Codes below to record the accrual to the applicable category. A lump sum by Account Code may be used.

For more information on handling both payroll and non-payroll accruals, review the recently updated how-to guide, Accruals for Financial Reporting, Invoicing and Closeout of Sponsored Awards.