Closeouts

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Closing Out Awards (issued May 14, 2001 by Ronald Thompson)

Expense Reporting Deadlines for Letter of Credit Awards

Currently many federal awards received by Rutgers University are issued under a "Letter of Credit" (LOC). This allows us to draw down funds from the federal bank as they are spent. Rather than submitting an invoice to the agency and awaiting payment, we are able to request and receive funds based upon our expenditures and an estimate for the next day's expenses. This process is normally accomplished via an on-line computer system. Some of these systems allow us to draw down funds for only 90 days past the end date of the award. If the funds are not drawn down within 90 days of the end date, the funds are deobligated and are no longer available to us. This will result in any further expenses charged to the account being disallowed.

Per the Controller's memo dated October 4, 1996 (http://postaward.rutgers.edu/clsout.html), all expenses must be reflected on the general ledger 30 days prior to the due date for the final fiscal report. Generally, final reports for federal awards are due within 90 days after the end date of the award. As a result, all expenses must be reflected on the general ledger within 60 days after the end date of the award. This will allow us to close out the awards and draw down all funds spent on the project thus avoiding the unnecessary loss of any federal funds. All federal agencies are moving towards systems that will allow them to cut off funds at the end of the closeout period. The agencies which are currently deobligating funds once a closeout period has passed are NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Department of Education. We have been informed that more federal agencies will be implementing similar guidelines in the near future.