General Procedure

Whenever a Wayne State University researcher must subcontract services to another institution in order to satisfy the aims of an awarded research project, Post-Award Sponsored Program Administration (SPA) works with that PI and his/her departmental administrator to establish a subcontract purchase order (PO) based on the subcontract agreement.

1. Once the PO is in place, the subcontract PI may begin services and invoice WSU through his/her institution’s administrative offices.

2. On arrival at Post-Award SPA, the invoice is reviewed for appropriateness of charges.

3. Following SPA review, the invoice is scanned and sent as an email attachment to the departmental administrator for review and verification with PI that the billed subcontract services were actually performed.

4. PI approval is returned to SPA, where a “receiver” – release of PO funds for payment - is done, and the invoice is sent to Disbursements for payment.

This procedure seems clear, and ought to be straightforward, however that is not always the case. As experience has shown, throughout subcontract PO establishment and invoice payment process, choices made by the parties involved impact the relative ease and speed from initial invoice arrival at SPA to issuance of payment by Disbursements. Below are numerous considerations including initial subcontract writing, PO and invoicing information, and timeliness of departmental approval, which all influence how quickly your invoice will be paid.

Subcontract PO Establishment

During negotiation and writing of the subcontract terms, the PI and his/her administrators (both at departmental and SPA level) have the opportunity to make choices about a number of considerations and should be aware of these:

· Currency: When a subcontract is established between WSU and a foreign institution, parties need to specify whether invoicing and payment will be in US dollars or currency of the foreign country. Bear in mind that currency exchange rates fluctuate daily. Regardless of amount of charges on date the invoice is issued, the amount paid will be based on the actual conversion amount listed by the currency exchange rate on date the check is cut. If the exchange rate is not favorable to the US dollar on payment dates, total payments to the subcontract institution could eventually exceed the PO budget. In addition, the University sometimes incurs service fees for conversion to foreign currency for payment of invoices.

· Means: Disbursements is capable of making payment by several means such as check, bank draft, and wire transfer. Consider the fact that, for example, while wire transfer may be the quickest means of payment, a fee is charged for this service and results in additional costs to the PO.

Supply Pertinent Information for Invoicing

Request that subcontractors include sufficient detail on the costs of services provided. “Services for the month of March 2006” is not an adequate statement of charges on an invoice. Costs must be broken down into separate categories as had been specified in the subcontract budget.

Furthermore each invoice should be dated and have a unique institutional sequence number to differentiate one invoice from another, particularly when charges are an identical amount month after month. It is also helpful for the invoice to list the WSU PO number, WSU subcontract number - or preferably both identifiers.

To ensure that subcontract PO invoices reach SPA in a timely manner, these invoices should be sent to the following address:

ATTN: Post-Award Services
Sponsored Program Administration
Wayne State University
5057 Woodward Ave.
13th Floor – Suite #13202
Detroit, MI 48202

Respond Promptly to Approval Requests

SPA scans and sends subcontract PO invoices as email attachments to administrators for review with their PI’s and to secure approval to pay, requesting a one-week turn-around. Please do not let these requests collect and get stale. If an administrator is unable to obtain approval within the week, please notify SPA as to cause of delay, for instance: “department disagrees with the charges and must contact subcontractor,” or “PI is on vacation and cannot be reached.” SPA will make very effort to follow-up in such situations and ensure payment is made ASAP when approval is eventually given.

In cases where an administrator will be on vacation or leave, you may wish to notify SPA of the name of an alternate contact person or specify that requests for approval be made directly to the PI with ‘cc’ to administrator as an FYI upon return to work.

Please inform SPA whenever any type of special treatment is required with an invoice such as: RUSH Payment, pay by wire transfer, pay in foreign currency, or request to call the department to pick-up check when ready, etc.

As outlined above, there are many factors influencing the timeliness of subcontract PO invoice payments. If everyone – including WSU departmental PI and administrator, SPA personnel, and the subcontractor – cooperate and work as a team from the outset, we should be able to expedite payment and “show them the money” much more quickly.

–Kay Caroll, SPA