Effective Date: Updated September 2023
Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) is responsible for the account set-up process for sponsored projects in Workday (WD). The Guidelines below have been developed to facilitate interdisciplinary research throughout Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) and to provide a structured, consistent, and transparent approach to several issues.
Sponsored Fund Allocations and Worktags
Research projects will often involve multiple WashU faculty members that perform their scope of work for a project in various laboratories and locations throughout campus. In general, faculty members that serve as Co-Principal Investigators and/or Key Personnel on a sponsored project are assigned an individual allocation within their respective department. Where there are Co-Principal Investigators and/or Key Personnel from different schools, they will be assigned individual allocations (GR#). For Co-Principal Investigators and/or Key Personnel from different department within the School of Medicine, they will be assigned individual allocations as a default method. School of Medicine exceptions can be made only if both departments agree to alternate arrangements. In the event there is disagreement between School of Medicine departments, the exception request should be escalated to the Dean’s Offices and to SPA. The separate allocations provide multiple financial management/reporting benefits such as:
- Budget dollars (direct and indirect) are allocated based on the scope of work
- Accumulate the related direct expenses for the activities performed by the faculty member and his/her staff.
- Indirect cost recovery for the allocation is retained within the faculty member’s respective department/school.
- Functional space in which the activity is performed is assigned to his/her home department (e.g., space and base match)
- The revenue and expenses for the allocation are properly attributed to the faculty member within WashU’s financial management systems
SPA will continue to assign individual Worktags for faculty members within Workday based upon this logic. Exception requests to this process will be considered by SPA on a case by case basis.
Extended Sourcing
WashU’s payroll system (WD-HCM) maintains functionality that allows an individual from one academic unit (home department) to be directly sourced to a fund in a different academic unit. For sponsored projects , this extended sourcing functionality allows the Home department to allocate salary to a sponsored project in a different department in lieu of establishing a separate allocation. The decision to utilize extended source should follow these principles:
- Extended sourcing should be utilized for faculty/staff that provides service to another department (outside of their home department) within the same school
- The staff member performs this activity in space outside of his/her home department
- The faculty member perform majority of work in his/her office (not lab)
- The Department Chair or Division Chief, not by individual PI’s, should decide when extended sourcing is appropriate
- School Administration and SPA can be contacted if there is an unresolved dispute
Noted below is an example:
Dr. Bill Jones – PI in Surgery (Prime PI on NIH Grant)
Dr. Jane Smith – Faculty in Pathology (non-key personnel on Jones’ Grant)
Dr. Smith from Pathology will work one afternoon a week on Dr. Jones’s grant. This activity will be performed in her office space (not lab) within Pathology. Surgery has decided that it will not establish an individual allocation for Pathology to manage Smith’s activities. The have chosen to provide extended sourcing to Pathology so that Smith can be charged directly to Dr. Jones’s grant (in Surgery). Both Pathology and Surgery agree to use extended sourcing instead of an allocation.
Note: Reports that summarize the revenue and expenses for Dr. Smith and/or Pathology would not include the portion of her salary that was extended sourced to Surgery. The related indirect costs recovered for Smith’s salary will be attributed to Surgery.
Extended sourcing can continue to be utilized, based upon the principles above and in accordance with the exceptions process discussed above.
If you have any questions about these guidelines, please contact me at 314-935-7089 / jgindhart@wustl.edu.