(a) PRELOADED ACCOUNTS Your grant is awarded with different amounts of monies in different categories that must be kept separate, e.g., travel, salaries, etc. Since Quicken is set up with the paradigm of a checking account, we have set up separate Bank Accounts for the different funding categories that are found in a typical grant (see below). Although these Accounts were set up for the typical grant from the National Institutes of Health, (NIH), if you don't need any of these accounts for your grant, you can delete them, of if you need other categories you can add them (see below). The "Bank" accounts that have been set up for you are listed below:
Capital Equipment Award Expendable Material and Services Award Indirect Costs Award Other Expenses Award Salary Award Staff Benefits Award Travel Award To jump to an Account Register so that you can enter your "Deposits" and expenses (Payments), just double click on the name of the account in the "Account List" to display its Register. You can also display a Register by single clicking on the Account name on the "MY Finances - View 1" page (the first page that comes up when you load Quicken), or if a Register is currently open, you can jump to another Register by clicking on the down arrow in the green bar above the open Register. Now enter the Date as the FIRST day fo your grant, and enter the grant award amounts as a Deposit in each Account Register in the different accounts listed above (if relevant to your grant), listing the Payee as "Opening Balance" (without the quotes). You may want to enter the Grant Name, Number, or Account Number in the Memo line so that your printouts for different grants can be easily identified. When you click on "Enter" after making a Deposit, you will see a dialog box that says: "You are recording a transfer back into the same account. Save it anyway?" Click: YES Now you are ready to enter expenses in this account.
Additional Expenses.
If you have a grant that does not require that you keep track of the overhead, you can leave the "Indirect Costs Award" blank, or you can delete it. Indirect Costs are generally calculated one of four ways: % Modified Total Direct Costs (see below),
ADD, EDIT, or DELETE ACCOUNTS. Under "Finance" on the Menu Bar, select "Account List" (or use the Ctrl and A keys), then click on the [New] button to open a new Bank Account, or click on an existing account to highlight it, and then click on the [Edit] or [Delete] button.
Salary Expense. Enter the absolute dollar amount of each salary, e.g., if a person is working 50% time, then enter the dollar amount for 50% time. Make a note on the Memo line that they work 50% time.
Determining Monthly Salaries.
(2) at the anniversary date for an employee (e.g., merit increase), and (3) at the beginning of the fiscal year (e.g., cost of living raise). Assume, e.g., that an employee did not start work on the first day of a month, and the anniversary date for that employee is 2.47 months after the start of the grant year. Therefore, the salary at the start of the grant year will run for 2.47 months, and a promotion salary will run for 9.53 months. You would enter the first month at [(Salary #1) x (0.47)], and the second month at Salary #1. For the third month, the salary would be [(Salary #1) x (0.47)] plus [(Salary #2) x (0.53)]. For months 4-12 you would use Salary #2. To obtain the fractional part of a month to use, divide the number of days worked at Salary #1 by the number of work days in that month (see below). If there is a cost of living increase at the start of the fiscal year for your institution, then a new salary must be entered for the appropriate months.
February - 20 (add 1 for Leap Year) March - 21 April - 22 May - 22 June - 21 July - 23 August - 21 September - 22 October - 22 November - 20 December - 23 Such salary changes should be anticipated, calculated very carefully, and entered into Grant Tracker at the beginning of the grant year so that these monies will be committed. These values can be changed, of course, if necessary.
The simple way of obtaining the total salaries for each month is to prepare a Cash Flow Report (see Chapter 7). If you just want "Last Month" then select this under "Report Dates". For other months, enter the inclusive dates, e.g., 2/1/97 and 2/28/97. Then click on [Create]. You will see the salaries for each employee, and the total for that month. Now there are two options. (1.) You can multiply the salary for that month for each employee by the Staff Benefit percentage, and enter these values as Payments for that month under Staff Benefits for EACH employee (create subcategories under Staff Benefit Expense for each employee as you did under Salary Expense). OR (2.) You can multiply the TOTAL all of the salaries for that month by your staff benefit percentage, and then enter ONE staff benefit expense for that month, using the preprogrammed subcategory, "Total for Month".
Although students don't generally receive Staff Benefits, some institutions still take Staff Benefits from the grant. If this is the case for your institution, then be sure to enter the appropriate Staff Benefit amount for each student, even though you know that the student won't receive it.
ENTERING DATA on EACH EMPLOYEE. Date: Enter the date for the first month the employee works on the grant (see below).
NOTE: Don't use the first day of the grant year as the date for entering the first month's salaries (e.g., use the second day), or the "Net Worth by Year Report" will not be accurate.
Payee: Enter "Salary Award" without the quotes. Subsequently you can double click on an empty Payee line, and the QuickFill Transactions box will pop up. Select "Salary Award", and then make any necessary changes in the Category, Memo, and Payment lines.
Category: Under "Finance" on the Menu Bar, select "Category & Transfer List" (or use the Ctrl and C keys). Then click on the "New" button, and enter the Name of the employee (e.g., K.C. Brown). Then click on "Subcategory of:", then on the Down Arrow to show the list of Categories, and select "Salary", and then "OK". For subsequent entries for this employee, you can just select the subcategory (employee name) that you have just created by using the Down Arrow in the Category line.
Memo: The Memo data field under Salary Award can be used for entering the Percent Time an employee spends on the Grant (e.g., if less than 100%), his/her Social Security Number, Birthday, Visa Number, etc.
Payment: Enter the monthly salary (see above for calculating the correct amount). REPEAT this process for EVERY MONTH that a given employee is on this grant.
Expendable Materials And Services (ExpMatServ). Subcategories Provided for ExpMatServ
Art Work Books Consultants Engineering ID Requisitions Miscellaneous Petty Cash Photocopies Photography Postage Purchasing Repairs Reprints Service Contracts Stores Telephone
Date: Enter the date of the requisition or purchase order.
Number: This column is normally used to enter the numbers of the checks that you write, but this has no relevance to tracking grants. We suggest that you enter O for Open (i.e., not paid for), or leave this space blank for Closed (i.e., paid for and appears on your institution's monthly expenditure statement). You will use this feature while Reconciling your accounts each month. For example, you can search (Find) for O ("Oh") in the check Num column, and obtain a list of the requisitions that have not been paid for, and click on them when you find one listed on the expenditure statement from your institute, correct the expense if necessary (e.g., shipping charges that you didn't know about), and then delete the O (i.e., this item is now paid for, i.e., "Closed", and appears on your institution's monthly expenditure statement) (see Chapter 4 for more details).
Payee: Enter "ExpMatServ Awd" without the quotes. Subsequently you can double click on an empty Payee line, and the QuickFill Transactions menu will pop up. Select "ExpMatServ Awd", and then make any necessary changes in the Memo, and Payment lines.
Category: You can pop up the Category & Transfer List by clicking on an empty Category line. You can also show the list of categories and subcategories by selecting the Down Arrow on the Category line. Then click on the category of choice, and it will be entered in your Category line (see below for how to enter new categories).
Memo: Enter the requisition number or purchase order number, a few words to describe this order, the name of the vendor, etc. If your institution uses Number Codes to separate expenses into categories, you can enter these number codes on the Memo line. Every part of a word or phrase on the Memo line can be searched for.
You need to use the arrow keys to visualize all 54 characters. Payment: Enter your BEST ESTIMATE of the dollar amount for the order. This value may have to be changed when you reconcile your Grant Tracker records with the expenditure statement from your institution. Perhaps the greatest uncertainty is the shipping charge. On the other hand, if the amount paid differs greatly from what you expected, then call your purchasing agent for clarification or correction.
If you DO need to keep track of Indirect Costs, then we suggest one of the following procedures. To be totally correct, you should calculate the Indirect Costs for EACH month for the whole year after you have entered the Salaries and Staff Benefits for the whole year, and then correct these each month to include the other types of expenses for that month. Alternatively, you can calculate the Indirect Costs just at the end of each month when your actual expenses are available for all categories of expense. In either case, the simple way of obtaining the totals of the expenditures for each month that require Indirect Costs is to prepare a Category Summary Report. If you just want "Last Month" then select this under "Date". For other months, enter the inclusive dates, e.g., 2/1/97 and 2/28/97. Then click on [Create].
You will then see the totals for the different expense categories for just that month. (1.) You can multiply the total expenses for that month for each expense category by the indirect cost percentage, and enter these values as Payments for that month under Indirect Costs for EACH expense category (these subcategories have been set up for you). OR (2.) You can multiply the TOTAL all of the expenses for that month that require indirect costs by your overhead percentage, and then enter ONE indirect cost expense for that month, using the preprogrammed subcategory, "Total for Month".
ADD, EDIT, or DELETE EXPENSE CATEGORIES and SUBCATEGORIES. If you want to delete any of these expense categories (or subcategories), or add new expense categories (or subcategories), then under "Finance" on the Menu Bar, select "Category & Transfer List" (or use the Ctrl and C keys). Highlight (single click) the category that you want to delete, and then click on the [Delete] button or the [Edit] button if you want to edit. Click on the [New] button to add a new expense category. To add a new Subcategory, also click the [New] button, and enter the Name of the subcategory, then click on "Subcategory of:", then click on the Down Arrow to show the list of Categories, and select the appropriate expense category, and then select "OK".
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