Sponsored Financial Services

Many sponsors require that grantees make efforts to utilize small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses whenever possible. In addition, recipients of sponsored awards must comply with applicable state, federal, sponsor, and university requirements for procuring goods and services when funds from these sources are used.

These requirements may include the need for sponsor approval prior to acquisition of goods or services.

Sponsors require a financial report for the vast majority of sponsored projects. Many sponsors have specific requirements for reporting, while other sponsors accept a standard university format.

With the exception of automatic and/or scheduled payments, Sponsored Financial Services (SFS) is responsible for billing all sponsors. Billings are done through letter-of-credit drawdowns, installments, and cost reimbursable agreements on a monthly basis unless otherwise stated in the award document.

Every sponsored project needs to have language in the agreement that explains the following:

Once an award has been made to the university, the principal investigator (PI) and unit administrator need to monitor expenses to see that all incurred costs being charged to the sponsored project are allowable, allocable, and reasonable.

In addition to actual costs, here are some of the key elements of monitoring sponsored projects:

Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR 200) is the regulation that replaces OMB Circulars A-21, A-110, and A-133, and it starts to become effective on December 26, 2014.

The Uniform Guidance contains the following sections:

The following are links that may be useful when dealing with rates as they apply to sponsored projects:

• Facilities and administrative (F&A) cost rates
• Employee benefit rates
• Mileage and Per Diem Rates

This section of the Sponsored Financial Services website focuses on managing the financial and reporting aspects of sponsored projects.  It is imperative to stay in complete compliance with sponsor terms, university policy, and state and federal regulations.

If you have questions about any of this information, please contact us.

Sponsored Financial Services
Office of the University Controller
377 Pine Tree Road, East Hill Plaza
Ithaca, NY 14850

Jeffrey A. Silber, Senior Director, (607) 255-2016
Janet Strait, Associate Director, (607) 255-1482
Megan Benson, Manager, Benefit Pools and Sponsored Financial Services Operations, (607) 255-9748