Charging Administration and Clerical Salaries, Federal Grants and Contracts

Changes to Federal regulations governing charges to grants and contracts, which became effective on July 1, 1994, curtailed the reimbursement of administrative and clerical salaries as direct charges on grants and contracts. The regulations provide that such salaries are generally indirect costs, and therefore should not generally be charged to individual grants and contracts. Since earlier changes to the Federal regulations already limited the University's recovery of administrative costs through the indirect cost rate, the effect of this change will be a loss of reimbursement, to the extent that salaries of such individuals previously funded by Federal grants and contracts may no longer be funded from those sources.

In the past, the determination of whether to charge administrative or clerical staff to a given federal grant or contract was solely the jurisdiction of the Principal Investigator. In accordance with the regulatory changes, for all Federal projects with budget periods commencing on or after July 1, 1994, such salaries may only be charged when:

  • they have been explicitly budgeted on the Federal project, and
  • the individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity

Accordingly, it is vital that the Principal Investigator fully justify in grant and contract applications those situations where administrative and clerical support is necessary to the project, whether because of the nature of the work performed under a particular project requires an extensive amount of administrative or clerical support, or the tasks to be performed under a particular project relate specifically to the technical substance of the project. The accompanying policy sets forth the requirements, as well as examples of situations where it remains appropriate to directly charge these salaries.

1. Purpose of Policy

On July 26, 1993 the (Federal) Office of Management and Budget issued regulations which limit those instances where the salaries of administrative and clerical staff may be charged as a direct cost to grants and contacts awarded by Federal agencies. This policy is issued to implement the Federal rules, which take effect on July 1, 1994, and to set forth guidance on when such salaries may, any may not be directly charged to Federal awards.

2. Background

As a recipient of Federal awards, the University is obliged to comply with numerous rules and regulations promulgated by Federal agencies. Those agencies includes the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which sets forth broad policies governing grant and contract financial administration, as well as numerous individual agencies which award grant and contracts, such as the Public Heath Service (PHS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which have their own agency-specific regulations for administering grants and contracts. Periodically, OMB revises its Uniform Guidance Part 200, which sets forth principles for indirect cost applicable to federally sponsored grants and contract. The Circular prescribes the types of costs which should be treated as indirect cost, and therefore not customarily directly charged to Federal awards. The Circular specifically includes the salaries of administrative and clerical staff in this latter category.

3. Objective of the Policy

In promulgating this policy, the University aims to insure that it complies with the provisions of the Uniform Guidance 200.413 governing the allowability of administrative and clerical salaries as direct charges:

  • by communicating Federal rules
  • by providing guidance to faculty and staff in the application of these rules
  • by setting forth levels of responsibility for ensuring compliance with these rules

4. Effective Date

This policy will be effective for all grant or contract awards (including continuation awards) made to the University by Federal agencies commencing on or after July 1, 1994.

5. Applicability

This policy governs every instance where any portion of the salary of an administrative or clerical employee is to be charged to a Federal grant or contract, whether awarded directly to Columbia as a prime recipient, or indirectly through a sub-agreement from another institution. It does not limit the support of such salaries from non-Federal awards or other funding sources consult the policies of those agencies for guidance.

6. Federal Requirements

Uniform Guidance 200.413 indicates that the salaries of administrative and clerical staff should normally be treated as an indirect (F&A) cost. The direct charging of these costs may be appropriate only if all of the following conditions are met.

  • Administrative or clerical services are integral to the project or activity
  • Individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity
  • Such costs are explicitly included in the budget or have prior written approval from the federal awarding agency
  • The costs are not also recovered as indirect costs

7. Policy

Through issuance of this policy, the University advises all faculty and staff involved in the application for, or administration of Federal grants and contacts that the above principles must be adhered to. Further, following the guidance presented below, where any portion of an administrative or clerical salary is directly charged to a Federal project, the responsibility for documenting the appropriateness of that judgement and for compliance with the Federal requirements, whether at the time of the transaction or subsequently upon audit or other request, rest with both the Principal Investigator and the academic department.

8. Administrative and Clerical Clerical Salaries Which May Not Be Charged Directly To Federal Grants and Contracts

In conducting academic activities, whether they are related to research teaching or other institutional objectives, academic units clearly require administrative support to complement the technical and professional personnel who carry out those activities. Although there are differences among the various academic units, there exists within each department a core of administrative personnel who support the various departmental academic missions by providing a broad range of general support services, including secreterial and clerical support, procurement of materials and services and accounting and bookkeeping. This core of general support services at the academic department level which supports a broad range of ac sponsored research, comprises what the Federal Circular defines as "departmental administration", and is recovered in part by the institution through the reimbursement of indirect cost. Accordingly academic units may not directly charge federal contracts for any portion of the salary of individuals who are engaged in providing this type of baseline departmental service. Similarly, academic unit may not assess a "tax" or other similar means of assessing charges to Federal grants and contracts as a means of recovering the cost of administrative effort.

9. Administrative and Clerical Salaries Which May Be Charged Directly to Federal Grants and Contracts

Although the salaries of administrative and clerical staff should be treated as indirect costs, direct charging of these costs would be appropriate where either:

  • The nature of the work performed under a particular project requires an extensive amount of administrative or clerical support, or
  • The tasks to be performed under a particular project relate specifically to the technical substance of the project

Appendix I provides examples of situations where direct charging the salaries of administrative and clerical staff may be appropriate. Note that Appendix A is illustrative, and is not intended to be an exhaustive list. The judgment as to whether a direct charge for administrative or clerical salaries is appropriate for a particular award must be based on a facts and circumstances test, which considers the needs of the science; accordingly, such judgment can only be made by the Principal Investigator. If the determination is made that it is appropriate to direct charge the salary of an administrative or clerical staff member, additional requirements, as set forth in Section 10 below, must be satisfied.

10. Additional Requirements for Charging Administrative and Clerical Salaries Directly to Federal Grants and Contracts

Although the Principal Investigator may conclude that a particular project satisfies the criteria for direct charging clerical and administrative salaries, the Federal requirement that such costs must be explicitly budgeted and the individuals involved is specifically identified with the project or activity, must nevertheless be satisfied. Accordingly, when the requirements of Section 9 have been satisfied, the effort of such individuals may be charged to the grant or contract only when:

  • Such effort is explicitly budgeted in the grant, and is approve by the funding agency. Agency approval will be assumed if the salary of administrative or clerical staff is budgeted and not specifically denied in the notice of grant award or in related correspondence from the agency to the University. Approval by the funding agency will be deemed to satisfy the Federal criteria for directly charging administrative and clerical salaries to grants or contacts
  • The salary of the specific individual devoting effort to the project is charged to the project. Departments may not "share" or "rotate" support of a pool of administrative support personnel, but must discreetly charge the individual engaged in supporting a particular grant or contract
  • The signature of both the Principal Investigator and Department Chair, or their delegates, appear on the Salary Accounting Form

11. Exception to the Policy

This policy does not apply to Institutional National Research Service or any similar awards which provide a fixed allotment of funds for institutional discretionary spending to support research training and which do not require discrete budgeting of the institutional support expenses.

12. Charging Administrative and Clerical Salaries to Activities Other than Federal Grants and Contracts

In addition to their work on federally sponsored projects, administrative and clerical personnel may be assigned duties related to (I) non-federally sponsored projects and (ii) other university functions that go beyond normal levels of clerical and administrative support. Uniform Guidance requires that the University treat such atypical activities in a manner that is consistent with the accounting for charges to sponsored projects. Consequently, departments should segregate salary charges for effort devoted to such major non-federal activities and account for expense functions that are not accumulated as indirect costs. In contrast, effort devoted to non-sponsored activities that are not "major" should be considered as indirect cost (see Section 8, above) charged.

13. Example of How to Distribute the Salary of Administrative or Clerical Staff in Accordance with the Policy

Appendix II presents an example of how to account for the effort of an administrative assistant with varied activities.

Examples of Situations Where Direct Charges May be Appropriate

The following examples are illustrative of circumstances where direct charging the salaries of administrative or clerical staff may be appropriate:

  • Large, complex programs, including Program Projects, General Clinical Research Centers, Primate Centers, environmental research centers and other grants and contracts that entail assembling the managing teams of investigators from a number of institutions
  • Projects which involve extensive data accumulation, analysis and entry, surveying, tabulation, cataloging, searching literature, and reporting, such as epidemiological studies, clinical trials and retrospective clinical records studies
  • Projects that require making travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of participants, such as conferences and seminars
  • Projects whose principal focus is the preparation and production of manuals and large reports, books and monographs (excluding routine progress and technical reports)
  • Projects that are geographically inaccessible to normal departmental administrative services, such as Lamont’s research vessel, radio astronomy projects and other research field sites that are remote from the campus 

The foregoing examples are not exhaustive, nor are they intended to imply that direct charging of administrative or clerical salaries would always be appropriate for the situations illustrates in the examples. Refer to Section 9 of this policy for further guidance.

Example of How to Account for and Administrative Assistant with Varied Duties

The following example demonstrates how to account for the effort of an administrative assistant with varied activities:

In the above example, 25% of the individual’s time is charged to Federal project A, and 75% charged to departmental funds. 50% of the 75% charged to departmental funds would be included in the University’s indirect cost calculation, with the remaining 25% specifically identified as instruction, and therefore excluded from indirect costs.