Monitoring Salary Charges on Sponsored Awards v.1

Monitor salary and benefit charges to ensure they are accurate, allowable, benefit the award, and are aligned with the sponsor-approved budget and committed effort — and to correct issues quickly.

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Compliance essentials

Be sure to understand the UW compliance requirements for monitoring and correcting salary charges

  1. GIM 23-Sponsored Program Costing Policy addresses cost principles of being allowable, reasonable, allocable, and consistently treated. 
  2. GIM 15-Accounting Adjustments on Sponsored Awards addresses timely correction of errors with appropriate justifications for corrections. 
    • Adjustments must be made within 90 days of discovering an error.
    • If an adjustment is >120 days after the original transaction, include a late explanation.

Review cadence (minimum vs. recommended)  

  • Minimum: quarterly review
  • Recommended: monthly (simpler corrections, fewer downstream issues)

Changes after certification deadline

Payroll updates flowing into ECC can trigger recertification if effort was already certified. Re-certifications increase audit risk and can indicate weak internal controls.  Minimizing Recertifications

Standard process (five steps) 

Confirm requirements (award + sponsor)

Review award documents to set expectations for who should be paid, how much, and under what constraints.

Look for:

  • Proposal: level of effort committed for all personnel. 
  • Notice of Award (NoA): level of funding – who is funded and at what level; budget/justification; effort commitments. 
  • Sponsor requirements and policies: salary caps (example: NIH salary cap). 
  • Payroll Costing Allocations in Workday – review worktags and program tags set up for salary, and at what percentages. Consider if a new worktag is required for each budget period. 

Output of this step: a clear “expected payroll picture” for the period you’re reviewing.

Pull payroll and budget data in Workday

Run reports to compare expected vs. actual and to inspect payroll detail:

  • Grant Budget vs. Actuals (R1234): shows budgeted vs. spent amounts to spot over/under-spending trends.
  • Find Salary Journal Lines… (R1269.1): shows salary journals by worker to validate who was charged and when.

Check allowability + allocability + effort (what to verify)

  • Do workers who are supposed to be paid on the project show up with the correct salary charges?
  • Are there unexpected workers charged to the award who should be moved off?
  • Does paid effort align with what was committed to the sponsor?
  • Do costing allocations need updates so future payroll matches actual effort? Best practice: Use forecasting to anticipate spending and payroll changes.
  • Are individuals on track to meet committed effort?

Address changes & errors

  • Transfer salary charges: submit a PAA (see PAA Process Guide). 
  • Update future distribution: update Costing Allocations (see Costing Allocations Process Guide)
  • Retro-pay: follow the Retro-pay Process Guide

Communicate with the PI (keep decisions aligned)

  • Update PI on staffing projections. 
  • Remind PI to certify effort and project statements 
  • Review commitment across grants to ensure it is under 100%.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Submitting a PAA without a clear “benefit to the receiving award” justification (violates GIM 15)
  • Charging Salary Over the Cap to an incorrect worktag
  • Not changing payroll costing allocations in time to avoid incorrect salary charges

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