Cost Share Award Process Reminder and Update

Cost share awards start with a 3 and represent the portion of costs not paid for by the sponsor on a grant.  There are two types of cost share that must be tracked and require an account.

• Mandatory Cost Share: required per grant award and reported to sponsor.  This cost share uses a source of 113000.
• Voluntary Committed: not required by sponsor but is in proposal/budget therefore it must be tracked.  If we commit to this type of cost share it will use a source of 113100.

Cost share awards (project-task-award) must be set up at the same time as the sponsored award (project-task-award) when cost share is required.  If you need to begin spending before the agreement paperwork is received from the sponsor, you will need to submit a Departmental Guarantee Memo for both the sponsored and cost share awards. 

Departments must ensure that expenses are charged timely to the cost share PTA as well as the sponsored PTA. This includes any corrections (payroll or other) being made within 60 days.

Update to Process

A General Ledger (GL) default account number, to fund the cost share award, is now required at the time of budget submission through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.  The GL default account number is provided by the department or planning unit on the budget template which is uploaded into LEO with the transmittal form.  The Grants Accounting office will then receive the set up for cost share account (PTA) from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs which includes the GL default account number.

Once Grants Accounting sets up the award, the GL default cost center is used to fund the cost share PTA.  Grants Accounting notifies the Principal Investigator and department contact (if known) and provides the GL default account number that will be processed to fund the cost share award and the amount funded. 

Department completes a JET entry to transfer funding to the GL default account number using object code 630300 FUNDING TRANSFER COST SHARE for the amount funded.  The following entry is completed:

• Debits (charges) the PTA or GL accounts (cannot be a sponsored PTA)
• Credits the default cost center

Departments must fund the award for at least the first year, if the budget is a multi-year budget.  If the award is not multi-year, the cost share award must be funded up front for the full amount.  As stated above, the principal investigator must ensure that cost share expenditures are being charged to the cost share PTA in a timely manner (within 60 days).

The following is an example of the how the entry that Grants Accounting completes is reflected in the Grants Module and the General Ledger utilizing the GL default cost center.  The revenue in the Grants Accounting Revenue shows the funding has been processed from the GL default cost center to fund the cost share award in the Grants Module.  The GL Revenue shows how the funding from this process posts to the General Ledger.  

For questions please contact Michelle Allison (shockey@ohio.edu or 3-1870) or Cindy Perry (perryc@ohio.edu or 3-1871).