COST ACCOUNTING

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COST ACCOUNTING STANDARDS CAS 101 Neta
Fernandez Director, Grants and Contracts OFFICE
OF VICE PROVOST FOR RESEARCH
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TIPS ON WRITING JUSTIFICATIONS

• Tie justification to scope of work
• Explain the purpose
• Discuss objective of contract - how
• this purchase is necessary unlike
• Write so auditor will understand -
• stay away from technical jargon

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TIPS ON WRITING JUSTIFICATIONS

• If workshops or training involved,
• list in justifications
• If workshops or training involved,
• tell who will be attending
• If foreign countries involved,
• list in justification

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TIPS ON WRITING JUSTIFICATIONS

• If buying or repairing equipment,
• should be dedicated to this project
• If work takes place in remote location,
• list in justification
• If it is a deliverable, state this in
• justification

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HASNT WORKED YET

• Defensive driving course
• Secretarial training (WordPerfect,
• Excel)
• Journal subscriptions

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SUPPLEMENTAL COMP

• For exempt staff and faculty to be paid
• supplemental comp, the work must
• cross departmental lines or be a remote site
• AND
• be performed in addition to regular workload

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SUPPLEMENTAL COMP

• Supplemental compensation must comply
• with NMSU Policy and Procedure
• Must have written Agency approval
• Must have an approved justification
• showing an unlike circumstance

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SUPPLEMENTAL COMP EXAMPLES
Physics department has a grant that
requires an English professor to teach
technical writing workshops on the
writing/editing of scientific research. The
English professor has a full time job and
will put in extra hours to do workshop.
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13xx CLERICAL

• May be appropriate if
• large complex program
• making travel/meeting arrangements
• for large numbers or participants
• principal focus is preparation and
• production of manuals large reports
• geographically inaccessible (vessels),
• remote research field sites

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13xx CLERICAL

• requires project-specific manuals,
• workbooks, etc. preparation
• multiple project-related
• investigator coordination
• communications across a number
• of sites
• involves extensive data accumulation,
• analysis and entry, surveying, etc.

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31XX - OFFICE SUPPLIES

• Remote sites
• Scope requires excessive
• amount of office supplies for
• tasks unique to the project
• Projects with extensive work-
• shops, seminars, training and
• packets that go with them

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EXAMPLE

Needed to cover salary for a person to
maintain records of students, coordinate
schedules related to training seminars,
making travel arrangements for internships and
meetings.
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EXAMPLE
This program is set up for the development
of a teacher preparation program throughout
the state. It is a stand-alone office and
requires excessive supplies for mailings,
brochures, reports, etc. All supplies are
used for this project exclusively.
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EXAMPLE
Excessive office supplies are needed due to
agency requirement of daily, quarterly,
semi-annual and annual reports. Upon request,
the agency may request a copy of the Standard
Operating Procedure Manual be sent to other
agencies to demonstrate the sampling
techniques and methods which are being
utilized in sampling water samples.
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PRINT/PHOTO SUPPLIES
Can be approved when scope of work requires
excessive print or photo supplies or unlike
circumstance exists, based on scope of work.

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EXAMPLE
Printing and photo supplies are necessary in the
transmission and dissemination of flight
progress and results. This is a collaborative
effort and infor- mation is shared with members
from other countries.
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Food Products Business Meals

• May be approved if
• Required for all-day training
• workshops
• Must be included in award and
• budget

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EXAMPLE
As part of the Health Career Awareness
program, we plan and sponsor several all-day
events for middle school and high school
students.We house and feed the students,
sponsors and presenters.
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502x - POSTAGE
Must show an unusual unlike circumstance Is it
excessive? Does it involve requirement to mail
to foreign countries?

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EXAMPLE
Excessive postage is required due to project
requirement that classified packages be mailed
monthly to collaborators located in several
states. Documents may contain 100 or more pages.

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507x - ADVERTISING
Can be used to advertise the project,when
it is included in the scope of work (such as
public service announcements -
decreasing drunk driving on campus)
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ADVERTISING
Advertising for employee recruitment is
not normally an allowable direct charge, but
there are instances where it can be
approved.
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EXAMPLE
Advertising costs are required for
audience research and to gain new TV station
supporters

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EXAMPLE

Advertising for publication of test
dates, program outreach and operations,
scheduling of courses, public notification.
(Adult Basic Education)
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EXAMPLE
This project involves an intensive
survey, requiring a high number of
interviewers. The advertising will be to
recruit the interviewers.
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6000 - Dues, Fees and Taxes

• If you can show it is an unlike
• circumstance and specifically
• required for the project.
• Subscriptions to scientific journals
• are not an unlike circumstance.

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EXAMPLE
To cover costs for Public Television
Programmers Association dues, and for
station interconnection to PBS via satellite.
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EXAMPLE
Dues and fees necessary to do business in
another country - exclusive to the use of the
project. These are custom fees for import/
export of materials.
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QUESTIONS