Cost Transfers

    Cost Transfers are the reassignment of an expense to or from a Sponsored Projects Financial Administration (“SPFA”)-Managed Sponsored Award after the initial charging of the expense in the University’s accounting system. Cost Transfers include reassignments of salary, wages, and other direct costs. Cost Transfers do not include reclassification transactions within the same Workday sponsored award so long as no funding or other restrictions exist that would disallow the reclassified transfer. In addition, because salary allocations are initially made based on estimated effort over an extended period, Cost Transfers do not include modifications to the original effort from costing allocations when actual effort is determined to be different prior to, or due to, effort certification by the Principal Investigator (“PI”). Reassignment of salary charges made in error or from a suspense account are considered Cost Transfers.

    Frequency and large number of cost transfers may be an indicator of poor award management. This page provides a single location for all information related to cost transfers including links to policy and procedure documents, as well as checklists and training material. The following list will assist preparers and approvers with the tools necessary to identify the elements critically important for their cost transfers submission and how to properly document and justify the transfer of an expense to a sponsored award.

    Cost Transfer Policy/Procedure

    Step-by-step instructional guidance for Cost Transfers

    Cost Transfer Frequently Asked Questions

    As a PI, what if I need to start my research and incur costs prior to receiving the actual award document or fully executed contract? What can I do?

    In situations in which an award is delayed, contact the appropriate OSP GCAT team to determine if an At-Risk Account can be created. At-Risk Accounts are subject to compliance requirements. Read more on the Pre-award Costs and At-Risk Account Requests webpage.

    Why can’t I create or approve a cost transfer in the system?
    • In order to create or approve a cost transfer that affects a sponsored award, the user needs to have access to specific roles.
      • In PAAs, the correct roles include:
        • “Cost Center Payroll Accounting Adjustment Specialist” for the Initiator
        • “Grant Manager” for the Department Approver
      • In Manual Journals, the correct roles include:
        • “Cost Center Finance and Accounting Specialist” for the Initiator
        • “Grant Manager” for the Department Approver
    • SPFA Approval Required: If the cost transfer requires secondary approval, (see Secondary Approvals in Procedure 1305 PR.02) posting will not occur until SPFA approval is received.  Cost Transfers that meet certain pre-defined conditions will automatically route the transfer to the Central Grant Cost Transfer Approver (SPFA) for final review and approval.
    Will a PAA and/or a manual journal entry be deleted if it remains unposted at the end of the month?
    • For PAAs, departments need not take any actions, as PAAs will automatically be moved to the next open fiscal period or month.
    • For Journals, the answer is Yes, the journal will be canceled in the system if it remains unposted by the end of the fiscal month.  However, Departments can make a copy of the canceled journal by using the “Copy” function that exists in Journals.  The Initiator will need to attach supporting documentation and the justification form again.  See the training guide on Manual Journals on how to copy a journal entry.
    How can I check the status of of cost transfers that I submitted?

    Initiator(s) and Approver(s) can view the status of their manual journal entries and PAAs by accessing their Workday Inbox and clicking on the Archive tab.  For Manual Journal Entries, run the “Find Posted Journals by Cost Center-Yale” report.  The status of the cost transfer is located in the Process tab section of the cost transfer.

    • If the last status is “Awaiting Action”, the transfer is still under review.
    • If the last status is “Denied”, the cost transfer was NOT approved (posted) and the business process was terminated.
    • If the last status is “Approved”, the PAA or manual journal entry was posted.