Payroll on Grants
Payroll on Grants | Summer Salary | Time and Effort Reporting
Payroll on Grants
Payments for monthly grant staff are processed according to the payroll allocation for the staff that is confirmed at the time of hire. PIs must approve costing allocations in Workday Finance in advance of monthly payroll charges to the grant. If payroll exceeding available grant funding is charged to a grant, it must be removed and covered by an alternate source.
For hourly student workers, the PI hires and approves hourly time in Workday that is processed through payroll. Student pay rates are set by skill level as a part of the Student Compensation Plan. Please note that academic year student work is not benefits eligible and will not be charged fringe benefits, however student work during the summer must be charged a 7.65% FICA payroll tax.
For the hiring of non-student staff to be supported by a grant, please reach out to Mike Ranen. Depending on benefits eligibility, a 33.6% benefit rate may apply to salaries and wages charged to a grant. If the position is not benefits eligible, a 7.65% FICA tax will be charged to the grant. If the position is hourly, the PI is responsible for certifying hours worked on the grant in Workday for payroll processing.
Benefits eligible staff with wages fully supported by grant work accrue vacation that should be taken within the period of their grant work. If a vacation balance remains when a grant funded worker leaves the college, the vacation balance will be charged to the grant unless it is specified to be covered by an alternate source.
Please note that the College standard DHHS negotiated F&A rate of 53.9% is charged on all grant payroll, or as allowable by the sponsor. The F&A rate charges compensate the College for hard to define operational costs (facilities, infrastructure) that the College provides in support of grant research.
Summer Salary
Each May, the Controller’s Office reaches out to all PIs who have summer salary budgeted in their grant to confirm requests for summer salary for the coming summer. The Summer Salary Request Form is sent electronically via DocuSign for the PI to confirm the amount they would like to receive of available funding and for the PI to provide a brief explanation of work performed over the summer for each month by week to justify requested compensation. The Summer Salary Request Form is reviewed and approved by the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs.
Please note, the college maximum summer salary for faculty is 2.5 months and some sponsors, including NSF, have lower maximum durations. Please reach out to Laura Pilgrim l.pilgrim@bowdoin.edu and Mike Ranen mranen@bowdoin.edu for exceptional staff requests for summer salary.
Time and Effort Reporting
Twice per year effort certifications are issued to any College employee who received federal grant-funded wages as salary. Bowdoin uses the payroll certification method to confirm that the amount the federal government has been billed for grant work is reasonable in relation to the work that the employee actually performed. Hourly paid employees have certified hourly work on timecards and are exempt from submitting effort certifications.
Time and Effort certifications are issued for two periods, the academic year (September to May) and the summer (June to August). The certification is based on 100% of the individual’s effort spent on College activities for which they are compensated. It is not based on a 40-hour work week. The total effort must equal 100%. The federal government recognizes that measuring effort is not an exact science. The College’s threshold for variances is 5%.
9-month academic year salaries paid over 12 months reflect effort for the academic year of September to May and is not included in summer time and effort reporting. College employees who received grant-funded wages will only receive requests for time and effort certifications for a period in which they received grant funding.
Faculty PIs are responsible for retaining detailed records (meeting notes etc.) that can justify the effort for monthly employees on their grants.