Accounting & Oversight

Billing Procedures

All charges must be supported by a document/invoice, which details the nature and components of the charge. The support for charges should fully substantiate the cost in the event of an audit. The invoice should specifically document:

• Purpose of the charge (e.g., equip use, testing svc, photocopying)
• How may units were consumed (e.g., hours, number of items)
• Rate charged per unit (e.g., $2/hour, $.05/photocopy)

Sales tax, when applicable, must be charged to all external users who do not provide a tax-exempt certificate.

Monthly billings are recommended to avoid late billings on expired grant funds.

Accounting & Record Keeping

Accounting

Service Center operating and depreciation recovery funds are classified as current unrestricted funds. They are assigned the function related to the activity of the service center. For example, a service center to charge out aircraft supplies is recorded in the instruction function because the supplies support an instructional program. A RCHG attribute identifies funds designated as service centers, allowing for easy extraction from the general ledger.

Revenue from internal customers should be tracked using Interdepartmental Revenue account codes and external customers should be tracked using Charges for Services/Sales account codes. Depreciation charged by the depreciation recovery fund to the service center should be accomplished with Transfer account codes.

Transfers are only permitted for items related to the core activity of the service center funds, including: (1) mandatory transfers for servicing related debt; (2) routine operating expenditures associated with the funds; and (3) depreciation recovery charges.

Record Retention

Service centers charging Federal awards are subject to the record retention policies under §200.333. Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other non-Federal entity records pertinent to a Federal award must be retained for a period of three years from the date of submission of the final expenditure report.

The applicability of the retention policy is not based on the date of the transaction with the service center, but the life of the Federal award. Records to include:

• Billing rate calculations
• Signed copies of required billing rate approvals
• Invoices which show the units of service provided to each user and the billing rate charged