Managing Internally Funded Grants

The Internal Funding Team will notify you via email when you are awarded internal funding. The email will set out the available budget, project dates, and any terms and conditions around spend. Please inform the Management Accountant (environment-finance@york.ac.uk) that the funding has been awarded

You will need a workorder from the Internal Funding Team to be able to spend the funding. Workorders are 8 characters long and all income and expenditure related to your project will go onto this code. This includes salaries, travel, and consumables.

Your Responsibilities:

It is your responsibility as PI (Principal Investigator) to:

• Spend the funding in line with University Financial Regulations
  
• Stay within the budget you have been assigned
• Spend only within the project dates and make sure all spend is recorded before the project end date
  
• Check your workorder regularly to ensure that transactions are correctly recorded, liaising with finance support (environment-finance@york.ac.uk) as needed
• Liaise with finance support to organise any accruals that are needed before the end of the project
• Claim expenses within good time (within 3 months of the expenditure or before the project end date, whichever is shorter)
• Get approval from the Internal Funding Team for any project changes using the change request form.

If you overspend, spend funding outside of the project dates, or put ineligible costs onto the workorder, the Department has to cover these costs from its operating budget. This means there is less money for everything else!

As PI, you are expected to arrange with the Department to cover these costs, if it occurs.

Spending the Funding:

Make sure your spend is within the funding rules and you are undertaking the work that was set out in your application.

• Buying goods, services and equipment
• Business travel
• Expenses claims
• Casual workers
• Recruitment.

Bear in mind VAT rules and that purchases outside of the UK may be liable for Customs Duty.

Checking your Workorder:

Spend reports are sent out monthly by email. You should check these reports to make sure the transactions are as expected and contact finance support with any queries.

How to read budget reports

If goods and services received before the end of your project haven't been invoiced for then an accrual will be needed. Goods and services include travel and accommodation, consumables and equipment. Liaise with finance support around accruals.

Reverse charge VAT - levied on goods and services purchased from suppliers outside the UK - is invoiced quarterly and often after internally funded grants have passed their end date, so this will need to be accrued for.

Final Reporting:

The Internal Funding Team sometimes require final reports about the outcomes and impact from internally funded projects. It’s really important to provide good quality reports because these are used report back to external funders and justify receiving further funding (e.g. Impact Acceleration Accounts).