July 7, 2006 In this Issue: The use of loans and its impact on eTRAC Research FUNDamentals RSO's Research Administration eNewsletter Volume 2 issue 6 Editor Nikki Van Dusen Contributors RSO Management Team
|
The use of loans and its impact on eTRAC As part of the PeopleSoft Grants Management initiative, the University had planned to move from a system of advances ("loans") when setting-up research trust projects, to a system using budgets. eTRAC is designed to use budgets instead of loans. One of the tasks associated with implementing eTRAC is to change how revenue is recognized in the University of Alberta financial statements. Regrettably, that new revenue-recognition process has yet to be finalized and Financial Services has requested that, in the interim, RSO reintroduce loans for research projects. Reinstating loans will have no impact on how eTRAC calculates balances available for researchers. Reinstating loans will also have no impact on the calculation of over expenditure reporting. However, one of the improvements promised by eTRAC was the ability to compare actual revenue from agencies to budgeted revenue. As long as loans continue to be processed, the ability to compare revenue budgets to actual revenue in eTRAC reporting will be obscured. Steps will be taken to move to the budget-driven process as soon as possible and eTRAC users will be informed when the use of loans in the revenue recognition process is to be discontinued. The above was abridged from correspondence to departments and faculties last week. Click to read the whole text. An overview of the new NASA agreement and Trust-Funded Employees The University and the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) have agreed to significant changes to the terms and conditions of employment for non-academic staff. Major changes to employee types and benefits will take effect July 1, 2006. Implementation dates to be aware of are August 1, 2006, February 28, 2007 and April 1, 2008 and should be considered in salary and benefits budgeting. The full story and a table outlining changes are available on the RSO website. Education for Research Administrator Workshop handouts now online On June 1, RSO offered a series of workshops for research administrators. Feedback was overwhelmingly successful. We have created pages on our website for each workshop, and you can download or link to the material covered in each. Visit the E.R.A. section of the RSO website,
|
||||
