Account Manager Guidelines
-
Roles
and Responsibilities
Transfer of College Funds
Account Statements
Hospitality Expenses
Purchasing
Other Common Account Charges
New Accounts
Along with research funding comes responsibility for using those funds in compliance with University policies. This document is designed as a quick-reference guide and not a comprehensive statement of policy. For the full text of university financial policies, please see the following website: http://www.indiana.edu/~policies/financial.html.
Roles and Responsibilities
To provide a context for your role as account manager, the roles of fiscal officer and account supervisor are described as well.
According to IU financial policy I-1: Each account will have a Fiscal Officer, an Account Manager and an Account Supervisor. Roles and responsibilities of these individuals are as follows:- Fiscal Officer has an oversight role. (Isabel Piedmont)
- Account Manager has an operational role. (Faculty Member)
- Account Supervisor has a leadership role. (Sonya Stephens)
Fiscal Officer
Definition: The Fiscal Officer is a person who is trained and hired for the purpose of providing fiscal, policy, and internal control management of all funds in a unit. They are responsible for ensuring that processes and related controls have been established to achieve the mission and objectives of their organization(s).
Duties and responsibilities: The Fiscal Officer provides daily oversight on how the funds are spent and managed. This oversight includes ensuring funds are budgeted, where appropriate, that they are spent according to fiscal policy, that funds are spent in alignment with the account purpose, that processes and controls are in place, that the account is reconciled on a monthly basis, and that either the expenditures are in conformity with the budget, or appropriate budget changes have been made to reflect a change in the original budget. Signature authority on all financial transactions rests with the Fiscal Officer, and the Fiscal Officer is the only person who can delegate signature authority on an account. Because of signature authority, Fiscal Officers are required to utilize IU’s Financial Information System (FIS).
Account Manager
Definition: The Account Manager is the person who through their actions, their position, or the budgeting process of the Dean or Vice President has direct responsibility for how funds are spent and managed. Examples would be a principal investigator who received a grant or contract, an academic person who received internal research funds from the Dean, or a Director of a non-academic department.
Duties and responsibilities: The Account Manager has the responsibility to ensure that the funds are being spent according to a budgeted plan and that the allocation of expenditures is appropriate to the function identified for the account.
Note: A budget is only required for accounts which have a fiscal year beginning balance of $10,000 or more AND for accounts which will be used to pay any sort of employee compensation (wages, supplemental pay, benefits, etc.).
Account Supervisor
Definition: It is assumed that the Account Supervisor will be the “leader” of the organization in which the account resides. In an academic unit this would probably be the Dean, in an administrative unit it would be the Vice President. Note: In departments within the College of Arts & Sciences, it is the department chair.
Duties and responsibilities: The Account Supervisor is ultimately responsible for the fiscal integrity of the organization. This role will provide leadership, oversight and management philosophy to ensure that all funds are spent and managed according to the goals, objectives and mission of the organization. The Account Supervisor will also ensure that the fiscal officer has the education and training required to perform their assigned functions.
Transfer of College Funds
If you have a funding commitment from the College of Arts & Sciences for a given fiscal year, please note that these funds will only be transferred upon request by the departmental fiscal officer. Please inform the fiscal officer when you are in need of the funds, and she will request that these be transferred into your account. Occasionally, it is necessary to submit documentation of the funding commitment in the form of a letter or e-mail message, in those cases when the College budget office has not kept such records on file.
Account Statements
Account statements are posted on a secure website within the first five days of the month for the previous month’s transactions. If there have been any transactions affecting your account, the FRIT office staff will print your account statement. The fiscal officer or faculty secretary will check the transactions for accuracy, and will e-mail you if there are any transactions she cannot verify. You are welcome to check your account statements any time by requesting your account file from the fiscal officer or faculty secretary. The fiscal officer can also create a more user-friendly, clear report of income and expenses periodically upon request.
Hospitality EXPENSES
Hospitality expenses are defined as expenses incurred to purchase or provide meals, refreshments or entertainment, or expenses incurred for promotional purposes. The university has strict guidelines as to what type of hospitality payments are allowed from IU accounts. Please see financial policy I-50 on the web at http://www.indiana.edu/~vpcfo/policies/accounting/i-50.html.
When an allowable hospitality expense has been identified, a special web form must be completed by the fiscal officer before the expense is incurred. The account manager should provide the following information so that the form can be completed:
- Date and location of function
- Purpose of function
- Number of people attending, divided into three categories: faculty, staff, students, and those not affiliated with IU
- For those attendees not affiliated with IU (usually the guest speaker, job candidate, etc), the affiliation must be indicated (university, business, etc).
Purchasing
Account managers may make appropriate purchases from their research accounts in several ways. Regardless of the option you choose, it is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account prior to making the purchase. You may ask the fiscal officer at any time for an up-to-date account balance.
Using IU Purchasing contracts through FRIT staff
Office supplies: Faculty may request that the faculty secretary order office supplies through the Concerto or Canon IV catalogs via the on-line purchasing system (EPIC), which provides low prices negotiated between IU purchasing agents and the vendor companies. The account manager should provide the faculty secretary with a detailed description of what he/she would like to order and with the research account number. Such office supplies are generally delivered for free within 1-2 days. Note that standard office supplies used for teaching are provided by the Department and do not have to be paid from faculty research funds.
Printers, scanners, and other equipment: IU Purchasing has negotiated contracts for office machines as well. In fact, such major purchases MUST be made through the IU Purchasing Department, via the administrative assistant (same as fiscal officer in FRIT). The account manager should tell the administrative assistant exactly what equipment is needed, and she will proceed with an automatic purchase order through the EPIC on-line purchasing system. Recommendations for printers and computing equipment can be obtained from the College Information Technology office by submitting a CITO help request via the Web. Such equipment is generally delivered in 7-10 days.
Books: IU has negotiated a great purchasing agreement with Barnes & Noble for books. IU customers receive 5% off the Internet price of any books, plus free shipping and a dedicated customer service phone line. You can check out the Barnes & Noble catalog at http://www.bn.com/iu. To charge book purchases directly to your IU account, e-mail the faculty secretary (fritdept@indiana.edu) exactly which books you would like, and she will order them for you. Most books are shipped within 24 hours.
Using an IU Purchasing Card
Account managers can apply to receive an Indiana University Mastercard credit card, which can be used to make certain types of purchases. This is effectively used by certain faculty who make frequent purchases of foreign books, videos, DVDs, and office supplies, and who would like the freedom to order directly from their preferred vendors on the Web or directly from local retail stores. Note that for English language book purchases, the preferred method is a direct order from Barnes & Noble (see above).
Before applying for
a purchasing card, an
account manager should
carefully read the
guidelines. To
apply
for the card,
you must take a mandatory
quiz about relevant policies
and procedures.
Once an account manager
begins using the Purchasing
Card, the following procedure
ensues:
- Every time the credit card is used, an electronic document is created in the Financial Information System for the fiscal officer to approve.
- The account manager must give the fiscal officer the original receipt from the transaction within one week so that the fiscal officer can approve the electronic document.
- Once a month, the account manager will receive a statement of account from the credit card company listing all transactions. This should be checked and then given to the fiscal officer, who must submit the statement, along with all original receipts, to the Accounts Payable office.
- The fiscal officer makes copies of all original receipts and retains them in the account file.
The IU Purchasing credit card cannot be used like a personal credit card. It may be used only for purchases that are allowed under the appropriate policy (see the p-card website), and continued use will only be allowed if the account manager and fiscal officer follow the procedures outlined above in a timely fashion.
Direct charges via IU service providers
An account manager may charge appropriate purchases made through offices and auxiliary units of the university directly to their research accounts. These include purchases at:
- Duplicating Services, including Copies & More in the main library
- Printing Services (business cards, digital printing)
- Surplus Stores (used furniture and computers)
- Office of Creative Services (website and brochure design)
Simply tell the cashier or service provider that you would like to charge to an IU account before the charge is processed. The account manager should then submit the receipt to the fiscal officer so that she can check it against the monthly account statement.
Reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses
Appropriate purchases of up to $500 made by the account manager from his/her own funds may be reimbursed from a faculty research account. Reimbursement cannot be made for computing equipment. Such equipment must be purchased through the IU Purchasing Department with the help of the FRIT administrative assistant, even if the equipment costs less than $500.
Reimbursement requests should be directed to the fiscal officer or, in her absence, to the faculty secretary. Original receipts must be submitted, and an explanation of what was purchased must be made. Please note that state and federal taxes cannot be reimbursed.
Other Common Account Charges
Photocopies
The Department of French & Italian provides a certain amount of copy funds on faculty ID cards each summer. If faculty need additional funds placed on their cards, they can either use one of the “add value” ID card machines on campus, or they can request that the fiscal officer process the transfer of funds from the faculty research account to the ID card. In the latter case, an e-mail message should be sent by the faculty member to the fiscal officer, and the request is usually processed within 2 days. (The fiscal officer forwards the request with all necessary information to the Copy Machines office.)
If faculty charge copies directly to their research accounts, which is possible in some campus locations such as the main library, the receipt must be given to the fiscal officer so that she can check the monthly account statement.
Postage
Mailings that are direclty related to research should be paid for with funds from faculty research accounts. Mailings related to conference organization should be paid from the conference account or other account through which conference expenses are paid. To charge a mailing to a certain account, simply write the account number in the upper right corner of the envelope and place it in the outoing US mail box in the main office. For mailings not described above, simply place your mail in the outgoing mail box and the “default” general funds account of FRIT will be used.
There is no way to accurately track postage charges on account statements. The fiscal officer will ask the account manager about any postal charges over $5, but will assume lesser charges are correct.
If an account manager would like to send a mailing via FedEx, s/he may request that the fiscal officer or faculty secretary prepare the mailing request on the FedEx website. FRIT has an account with FedEx, but the sender’s specific IU account will be charged. For all FedEx requests, the phone number as well as the address of the recipient must be given. The mailing label is printed in the FRIT office, and the piece of mail may then be dropped off in the FedEx drop box in the ground floor stairwell of Ballantine Hall.
Hourly employees
An account manager who wishes to hire an hourly employee to assist with research must complete a “Request to Appoint Hourly Employee” form in the FRIT office. The fiscal officer has these forms on hand. The prospective employee must then complete an “IU Hourly Employment Application Form,” and when both forms are completed, the fiscal officer will enter the appointment into the university’s human resources system. The fiscal officer will also inform the employee about the procedure for completing biweekly time sheets. These time sheets must be signed by both the employee and the supervisor (account manager).
Please be sure the hourly appointment is processed before the hourly work begins.
Other - For other types of expenditures, please consult the fiscal officer.
New Accounts
If you are organizing a conference, you should establish a separate conference account, whether or not you will charge registration fees. Please consult with the fiscal officer as you begin planning for any conference or colloquium which will have support from various sources as well as significant expenditures.
