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Business and Financial Policies and Procedures

Charge Self-Supporting Goods and Services to Sponsored Project Funds

Policy Statement

Federal sponsored project guidelines limit the timeframe in which charges to a sponsored award must be posted following the close of the funded activity's performance period (2 CFR 200.343 Closeout). Some sponsors also limit the billing timeframe for each budget year within a multi-year project. Timely billing of University of Illinois System internal charges to sponsored project funds is necessary to assure that the sponsor will reimburse all charges.

To comply with this requirement, any self-supporting activity that provides goods or services to a sponsored project must bill the related project fund monthly. Units with sponsored awards that require billing all project costs within thirty days of closing the project must notify related self-supporting activities of the billing deadline, and the self-supporting activity must then bill the project for all related goods and services before that deadline. In extenuating circumstances, self-supporting activities may petition their university post-award office for approval of alternative billing arrangements that assure project final billing deadlines will be met.

Unreimbursed charges must be paid by:

  • The unit that operates the self-supporting activity, when that unit failed to bill within the required timeframe.
  • The unit that requested the service, when that unit failed to notify the self-supporting activity of more stringent billing deadlines, or provide other needed billing information, such as the C-FOAPAL.

Units may negotiate who pays unreimbursed charges when responsibility is shared.

The unit responsible for charges not reimbursed due to expiration of the award must bill one of their state, institutional, or gift funds and assign a Banner program code designated for exclusion from university indirect cost studies. The self-supporting activity cannot recover the unreimbursed charge from future charges for goods or services or otherwise absorb the charge, such as by only reversing the billing and related revenue. If the responsible unit does not have any state, institutional, or gift funds, contact OBFS University Accounting and Financial Reporting to discuss options.

Procedure

To charge self-supporting goods and services to sponsored project funds:

  • Determine whether the activity's customer base includes charges to sponsored project funds.
  • If the activity will charge a sponsored project fund currently or in the future, implement billing procedures to assure charges are billed monthly.

Additional Resources

2 CFR 200.343 Closeout

Last Updated: January 7, 2019 | Approved: Senior Associate Vice President for Business and Finance | Effective: June 2015

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